BOOK REVIEW GREEN SCHOOL PRIMER LESSONS IN SUSTAINABILITY
TITLE-GREEN SCHOOL PRIMER AUTHOR-LPA ARCHITECTS PUBLICATIONS-IMAGES PUBLICATIONS PRICEPAGES-143
-ADI LUNAWAT (1014)
TABLE OF CONTENTS 1) Summary 2) Introduction 3) Literature review 4) Recommendation 5) Bibliography
BOOK SUMMARY The U.S. was enjoying school construction boom at that time. So there was an opportunity of not only building new school but enhancing the existing class rooms with modernized technology and amenities along with keeping care of mother Earth. Making environmental issues-a daily, compelling part of student’s lives and enhancing their lifestyle along with better teaching experience to the faculty and other staff. And so the construction of green schools and adding green modernization started.
INTRODUCTION The fact that we spend on an average 15 salient years of our life in school itself invokes the need for a primer coat of greener schools over conventional schools for healthier and environment friendly lives with the pursuit of global environment sustainability. The book “GREEN SCHOOL PRIMER '' is all about designing new greener schools and retrofitting the older schools. The book covers a number of case studies along with design principles, strategies, rating programs and processes of building or adding to make a greener school.
LITERATURE REVIEW The book ‘GREEN SCHOOL PRIMER’ is about modernization and gives the reader an understanding for building an eco-friendly school, its importance and benefits, while making the classroom more conducive to learning. What can be a better way to teach about eco-friendly, sustainability and negative impacts of greenhouse gas and global warming? It is itself building the school taking these concerns into design and construction and adding green modernization for the already existing schools. The book can be broadly divided into 3 parts- in the first part the book starts with the basics of sustainability. The book explains the benefit and importance of green schools to the targeted audience i.e. the students, teachers, administrators and environment. The book also states the ways to achieve the goal of making greener schools and clears the misconception of having high costs of green schools over conventional schools and shows how much funds can be saved on a long term basis which could be allocated for various other needs/demands of education. It shows the assessment method of rating programs such as LEED and CHPS. Moving ahead, the second part covers in-depth details of 5 case studies and every case study encompasses the architectural design, materials, goals and outcomes. In addition to these green features have been given which makes the reader excited and also grabs attention of sustainable enthusiasts. The third part covers the green modernization, expansion and the green school trends. It is more sustainable to make the existing school greener than to construct a new green school. Using the simple principle 3R i.e. – Reduce, Re-use, recycle the book explains how it can be applied directly to the green modernization and expansion of an existing school. It covers
the process, design, budget and development of construction along with green post-occupancy strategies and changing green school standards. The book shows that green schools not only help in saving the environment but also help in keeping students and teachers healthy and increase their productivity, concentration and satisfaction.
RECOMMENDATION The book has very simple language and to the point content. The content is balanced with text and pictorial representation. The book gives an insight of the green school and how to achieve the goal of sustainable architecture. I highly recommend this book to the students, teachers, professionals and my colleagues as it will help to create a greener and better environment to live in. Bibliography LPA. Green School Primer. Ed. Robyn Beaver. Australia: The Images Publishing Group , 2009. Architercts, LPA. n.d.