Optimising the design and operation of vertical schools
At a glance
Vertical schools are gaining ground in Australia, as they are perfect for dense urban environments with burgeoning populations and less land for conventional school buildings. However, their growing popularity has been met with criticisms such as lack of space, costliness, and energy inefficiency. These issues can be directly addressed by optimising vertical schools for efficient movement and energy usage, as well as integrating learning into their design, leading to positive student outcomes and reduced operational costs.Vertical schools are common in densely populated areas in Europe, Asia, and America where space is limited. As Australia's population increases and land becomes more expensive and less available, the need for vertical schools to provide education for inner-urban residential communities is more apparent.
While vertical schools are becoming more common in Australia, there has been some opposition to their growing popularity. Vertical schools have been criticised for being rigid, costly, and inefficient.
A chief complaint is that students don't have enough play spaces that are crucial in their holistic educational development, leading to a more sedentary lifestyle. Another is that their operation and maintenance leads to more expenses with the need to move students and staff up and down the building. Construction is locked into place, with less outward mobility for expansion.
Valid as these criticisms may be, the optimisation of vertical school design can address all these challenges to deliver positive student outcomes and contribute to thriving communities.
In our experience working on some of Australia's most innovative vertical schools, we've found three key factors to consider for optimising vertical schools: designing for efficient movement, designing for energy efficiency, and integrating design into learning.
Designing for efficient movement
Relative to the wide, open spaces of conventional school designs, vertical schools are more limited as to how students can move through the building. Hallways, stairs and lifts can easily become crowded when multiple groups are simultaneously moving from one classroom to another. In such situations, students and teachers spend more time and energy trying to make it to their next class on schedule.
To facilitate efficiency in movement, vertical schools should be designed with the locations of classrooms and who uses them in mind. For example, rooms that are used by senior students for hands-on skills development such as kitchens or workshops should be located on levels where those students are most frequently. Spatially optimising where classrooms are situated reduces travel distances, time and energy spent.
To address the challenge of having everyone in the building moving at the same time and clogging up spaces, vertical schools can consider staggered timetabling. Students in different year levels can start and end classes on different schedules, so that they can move more freely through shared and outdoor spaces.
Technology can also contribute to optimising movement in vertical schools via digital wayfinding. A virtual map of the school that students can access through an app with their smart devices can provide optimal routes to take.
Designing for energy efficiency
Operational costs can be a major concern for vertical schools. Lifts are essential in five-storey or more buildings, but they are energy-intensive and high maintenance. Having electricity, cooling, and heating running at all times across multiple floors also raises the energy costs of vertical schools. Reducing energy usage must be a top priority when operating vertical schools.
Staggered timetabling not only optimises for efficient movement in vertical schools, but it can also help with more efficient use of energy. As certain rooms, sections, and floors are not always occupied with staggered timetables, they can be switched off during these downtimes. Routing power throughout a multi-storey building on this kind of schedule leads to more energy savings.
Having staggered timetables also reduces the number of lifts necessary to move people up and down vertical schools on time. Large groups of teachers and students won't have to compete and wait long for lifts when they have to travel across several floors, as long as their schedules are designed to accommodate each other.
To help keep track of energy usage in vertical schools, digital dashboards can be placed strategically throughout the building, providing easy-to-understand energy profiles. These dashboards serve a reminder to staff and students how much electricity is being spent and saved depending on their usage.
Integrating design into learning
Achieving operational efficiency is key when designing vertical schools, but pioneering work in the field also aims to integrate architecture into the learning experience. The structural and aesthetic design of vertical schools can play an active role in students' education.
Innovative energy-generating technologies can be implemented into shared spaces where plenty of physical activity takes place. Stairs, sports courts, and playrooms can capture kinetic energy to help power the building. Not only do students develop key social skills through directed interaction, collaboration and play in such spaces, but they also learn about fundamental scientific concepts and their direct application through architecture. Importantly, students can feel a sense of ownership and responsibility to help keep energy costs down where possible.
The visual design of vertical schools can also aid in teaching students about their local communities and history. GHD Design and Grimshaw kept this top of mind when designing Wurun Senior Campus. In collaboration with the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation, the campus features interpretive installations, signage, planting, colour palettes, a mural, story panels about Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Elders and artworks that proudly display First Nations heritage.
Students can be inspired to pursue careers in STEM and get involved with their communities simply through their day-to-day interactions with their vertical school.
Key takeaways
Vertical schools can meet the growing demand for education in Australia's urban areas where space is limited. However, optimisation must be at the forefront of their design to address unique challenges such as building rigidity and operational costliness.
Optimising for efficient movement and energy usage can be achieved through spatially situating classrooms depending on usage, staggered timetabling, digital wayfinding, and energy profiling. Innovative technologies and local culture embedded in the architectural design can also help foster a holistic learning experience. All these strategies put into action can reduce operational costs and deliver positive outcomes for students.
At the end of the day, the most important factor to consider is the students who will use the space – how can the design of a vertical school accommodate their wants and needs?