Design for Health & Wellness
HMFH ARCHITECTS
CONTENTS Design for health and wellness
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Independent school experience
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Selected clients
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In response to the COVID-19 pandemic it is more important than ever to consider the link between the design of a built environment and the wellbeing of its occupants. Healthy, high-performance learning environments have been shown to both mitigate the effects of climate change and improve health and student outcomes. Educational facilities that are suffused with natural light, connect student learning to environmental stewardship, and integrate effective acoustics and indoor air quality, lead to reduced absenteeism and greater engagement— helping students thrive.
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Reference: Schools for Health: Foundations for Student Success, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
10 Factors for Healthy Schools
1. Natural Light and Views The natural environment and daylight play critical roles in our health and happiness, while providing educational opportunities. Outdoor terraces for large-scale projects, outdoor classrooms, green roofs, student gardens, rain gardens, and views that bring the outdoors in all nourish a connection to nature and inspire environmental stewardship.
2. Acoustic Control Acoustics impact learning outcomes; students who can’t properly hear their teachers due to excessive background noise or reverberation within a space will miss information, while teachers straining to overcome poor acoustics experience fatigue and vocal strain. Material selections can change acoustic properties within a space. Ceiling tiles and wall-mounted panels add absorption and reduce the “echo” effect often felt in large spaces. Auditoriums need both reflective and absorptive material to direct sound. 3.
3. Thermal Comfort Thermal comfort in a space can impact academic performance and test scores among occupants, while heat and cold stress have been shown to negatively impact cognitive function. Temperature, humidity and air velocity all contribute towards thermal comfort. Air is conditioned to find the ideal combination of these factors with regard to comfort and efficiency.
4. Fosters Community The learning community is critical to student success and a thriving community is characteristic of a successful school. Providing a variety of strategically located areas for informal, formal and group learning fosters a sense of belonging among students.
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5. Healthy Materials When it comes to the identity of a building, materials can define a space and set the tone for an entire project. Specifying natural and healthy materials such as wood is crucial to improving the overall health and wellbeing of occupants and reducing embodied carbon within the space.
6. Supports Physical Movement Promoting regular physical activity from a young age leads to lifelong healthy habits. The organization of a school should encourage movement throughout the building. Including elements such as a beautifully designed central staircase encourages activity. Accessible light filled spaces for structured exercise enable healthy lifestyle choices.
7. Provides Health Resources Seamlessly integrating support services and resources help support the development of the whole child. Increasing access encourages participation in health & nutrition programs that support long term wellness. Onsite gardens are a great way to engage students in the process of growing and cultivating healthy food.
8. Safe from Outside Dangers A sense of security can impact student engagement, performance and mental health. Schools must feel safe and secure while still creating a welcoming environment for students, educators and the broader community.
9. Indoor Environmental Quality Indoor air pollution is often 2-5 times greater than outdoor levels. Improved air quality within a building has consistently been found to reduce symptoms such as headaches, colds, asthma, allergies and improve cognitive function in a building’s occupants.
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10. Flexible and Adaptable Flexible and easily adaptable educational spaces allow students and teachers to arrange and re-arrange the learning experience to support their current needs. Flexible learning environments promote collaboration and adapt to changing pedagogies.
Independent Schools: selected projects HMFH has a wide range of experience designing for independent schools that includes creating specialized facilities, classroom buildings, self-contained academic buildings and campus planning. The success of our past work demonstrates HMFH’s thorough understanding of the specific needs unique to independent schools, such as working within facility standards, conforming to campus master plans, and tactfully navigating the hierarchies of both governance and staff. Many of HMFH’s independent school projects have included crafting an educational program to fit the mission of the school and the space it will occupy. We have helped numerous clients articulate specific objectives of an educational program, evaluate the suitability of properties for housing the program, and take the first steps toward developing design concepts to implement their vision. HMFH’s expertise in designing educational facilities allows us to guide clients through the process of restructuring an educational program, and together, create innovate spaces for learning to enhance the wellbeing of students and the community. HMFH also recognizes the importance of creating a vision for the future project to generate buy-in and enthusiasm from the school community. We have provided valuable support to our clients’ development efforts with various forms of documentation and presentation materials for capital fundraising and community outreach.
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“The success that we had was because you got us. This was not simply adding square footage, but understanding the way we teach.” D AV I D F E L D M A N , H E A D O F T H E R O E P E R S C H O O L
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German International School Early Education Center B R I G H TO N , M A
The German International School of Boston engaged HMFH to transform a commercial office space into an early education center. Working with a limited budget, aggressive schedule, and an ambitious program, a key challenge of this project was to develop an efficient and creative design that would not only accommodate the program in just two-thirds of the requisite space, but do so in a manner that would transform the dark office building into a nurturing learning environment for the preschool and kindergarten students.
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In the new facility, a staggered corridor design emphasizes a series of cubby-lined, child-scaled nooks outside each classroom. New skylights and soffits in each classroom and multi-purpose space mirror the geometry of the corridor nooks while bringing diffused daylight deep into the heart of each space. The team’s creative planning and utilization of space throughout the project enabled them to inject life into what was previously a corporate space without personality, and create a cheerful space filled with light and color where young learners thrive.
The Rashi School DEDHAM, MA
After more than two decades occupying a makeshift space, the Rashi School turned to HMFH to create a permanent home that celebrates community, interconnectedness and sustainability. HMFH collaborated with school administrators to design a new facility that supports the school’s educational philosophies and programming needs and celebrates its extraordinary riverfront site.
Designed to meet LEED Silver criteria, the new facility responds to its extraordinary riverfront site by incorporating the site’s natural amphitheater and adding paths through the wetland to serve as an outdoor learning lab. Nature is welcomed into the school by incorporating internal transparency, clerestory windows, and daylighting to create a bright and engaging atmosphere for the building’s occupants.
The final design is a school anchored by flexible spaces that support a wide variety of scales, from the 415-seat auditorium, to small group breakout rooms. The range of spaces gives students the opportunity to experience different learning environments and determine which best suits their specific educational needs.
The intergenerational campus is shared with the Hebrew SeniorLife retirement community and the school is designed to host functions for adult community members as well as students.
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The Roeper School Learning Commons BIRMINGHAM, MI
HMFH was engaged to transform the existing central courtyard of the Roeper School in Birmingham, MI into a new commons with a student dining area and flexible workspaces that will adapt with changing technologies. The new design helps students transition from the smallscale learning pods of the lower school campus to the larger, more formal classroom organization of the upper school. Visual connections through the space enhances the strong sense of community present at the Roeper School, while skylights draw natural light in from above to create a bright, productive learning environment. 15.
The larger dining and collaboration spaces of the tri-level commons act as the heart of the upper school campus and are used throughout the day as a hub for academic and social activities. The third-floor mezzanine and repurposed second-floor library provide more contemplative and focused atmospheres, where students can work in small groups, meet one-to-one with teachers, or read in a quiet, sunny spot.
Beaver Country Day School New Visual and Performing Arts Center C H E ST N U T H I LL , M A
At Beaver Country Day School, HMFH created a new designated space for their arts department, a typically undervalued program, to ensure students feel valued and supported in pursuing their passions. The three-story facility features specialized spaces for theatre, arts and music programs such as a black box theater with flexible seating and theatrical lighting, music practice rooms and visual arts studios.
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Although the new Center is linked to the main academic building, it features a separate public entrance with a two-story, sky-lit lobby and gallery space, accessible by a bridge across the sloping site. The design showcases dynamic use of light and form, and in the space, students are surrounded by whimsical geometry and stateof-the-art equipment and makerspaces that will nurture their creativity.
Firm Background
Selected Independent School Clients Beaver Country Day School Chestnut Hill, MA Cambridge Friends School Cambridge, MA Chapel Hill-Chauncy Hall Waltham, MA Fayerweather Street School Cambridge, MA Gann Academy Waltham, MA German International School Boston, MA Glen Urquhart School Beverly Farms, MA Gordon School East Providence, RI The McCallie School Chattanooga, TN The Newman School Boston, MA Palm Beach Day Academy Palm Beach, FL Providence Country Day School Providence, RI The Rashi School Dedham, MA The Roeper School Birmingham, MI Wilbraham & Monson Academy Wilbraham, MA
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HMFH ARCHITECTS