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Authors: Alan Ford, Kate Mraw, Betsy del Monte
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Contents
Foreword by Rick Fedrizzi & Rachel Hodgdon
Transformative Design by Lindsay Baker
Introduction by Alan Ford, Kate Mraw, Betsy del Monte
Case Studies: Environmental Centers, Retreats, and Learning Centers Appendix
About the Authors.....................................................................
Foreword
Rick Fedrizzi
Executive Chairman,
International WELL Building Institute
Founding Chairman,
U.S. Green Building Council
Rachel Hodgdon
President and CEO,
International WELL Building Institute
Founding Director,
Center for Green Schools at USGBC
Where we learn matters.
If you want to ignite a movement, you need three things: a compelling vision, a pathway to achieve it, and a way to inspire a passionate group of advocates to make it come to life.
As members of the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) leadership team in 2007, we were confident that the idea of green buildings was powerfully compelling. Buildings that were energy efficient, water conserving, and filled with light and cleaner, fresher air had struck a chord within the design and real estate communities, even at a time when the real estate market was in free fall. The evidence was overwhelming that
innovations and improvements in building practice could lessen the impact we have on the planet, save money in the process, and provide significant market differentiation. The LEED Green Building Rating System provided a proven pathway and was well on the way to becoming the de facto roadmap for how to achieve those results across the largest asset class on the planet.
But it had also become clear that some sectors had unique technical and policy challenges that needed to be addressed. And while we had the active engagement of professionals from across the building continuum, we needed to capture the imagination of the mainstream if we were to expand the significant positive impacts of green buildings on those who could benefit most. What better way to do that than focus on our children?
That’s why the launch of the LEED for Schools Rating System that year had us so excited. It was the culmination of a three-year development process focused on adapting LEED for use in K-12 school facilities globally.
To make sure this transformational concept got the visibility it deserved, we premiered the National Green Schools Campaign at the 2007 Clinton Global Initiative, where, for the first time, we announced our commitment to achieve green schools for everyone in this generation. The campaign grew fast. Later that year, leading education organizations like the American Federation of Teachers, the National Education Association, the National School Boards Association, the National Parent Teacher Association, and dozens of other key groups signed onto that campaign. By the end of the first year, the coalition represented more than 10 million education stakeholders across the country.
At the same time, noted architect Alan Ford released his first book, Designing the Sustainable School, arming us with an amazing compendium of schools that were already combining the best in aesthetics, sustainability, and highperformance design in K-12 construction.
Clearly a movement was underway, and to harness its power, we spent the next three years listening and learning from school leaders around the country – facilities managers, district superintendents, parents, teachers. With their input and support, we stood up the Center for Green Schools at USGBC
in 2010 to put green school adoption and achievement on rocket fuel.
This multi-dimensional initiative has become the heartbeat of a vast ecosystem of action built on the idea that where we learn matters. We developed tools and platforms and provided training for every stakeholder group, from practitioners to principals to facility managers and school administrators. To spark policy engagement and action, we stood up the 50 for 50 Green Schools Caucus to educate state legislators, the Mayor’s Alliance for Green Schools to engage mayors, and the Congressional Green Schools Caucus to raise national awareness of the myriad benefits of green schools.
To gain recognition for the schools who were undertaking this important work, we and several of our partner organizations pitched the U.S. Secretary of Education on the idea of creating a Green Ribbon Schools program modeled after its successful National Blue Ribbon Schools program, which recognizes schools for academic excellence. Launched in 2012, Green Ribbon Schools promote environmental and health-focused curricula to improve ecological and human health. That same year, we held the first-ever Green Apple Day of Service, bringing together nearly 170,000 volunteers in 1,300 communities across all 50 states and 49 countries on all seven continents to learn about and implement strategies for improved air quality, composting, recycling, resource conservation, and more.
As green schools proliferated and the data on their sustainability impacts accumulated, it became clear that doing less harm was only half of the story. Their ability to be regenerative – to restore, renew, and replenish the environment and the communities they serve came into focus, and with it came a cascade of evidence that there was also significant positive impact on the health and well-being of the 1 in 8 people across the world – students, teachers, and administrators – who walk through the doors of schools every day.
In 2016, when we both joined the International WELL Building Institute, we brought with us our passion for fortifying our schools to make them healthier places in which to learn. We doubled down on how our school
facilities, and those that design and operate them, could benefit from adding the WELL Standard to their toolkits for healthy, regenerative schools, because human health and environmental health are inextricably linked, and climate change is less about the health of the planet and more about our ability to continue to safely reside on it.
Our nation’s students, by the time they graduate high school, will have spent about 15,000 hours inside school buildings, underscoring the monumental impact these spaces have on their health, their ability to learn, and their world view. Numerous studies attest to the positive influence high-performing school buildings can have on student behavior, attendance, cognitive function, and academic achievement. Moreover, by envisioning grander ambitions and deploying strategies such as harnessing natural light, improving indoor air and water quality, and applying biomimicry to emulate nature, regenerative schools can elevate our commitment to enhancing building and human performance.
Regenerative schools represent a shift from doing less harm to doing more good. They present an opportunity for schools to generate more energy than they expend, heal the very land they rest upon, and restore and revive the communities in which they exist. Anchored by our collective moral duty, we believe this transition lays the foundation for truly sustainable, resilient, and equitable educational environments.
With Alan’s latest book, Creating the Regenerative School, we are offered a glimpse into what the future of educational spaces could be. In the following pages, you’ll find a dazzling collection of stories that demonstrate how far we’ve come since 2007, in our understanding of what it means to nurture and support students and their communities at large. It shows how architects and designers are partnering with school administrators and facility managers to transform our schools so that they mirror our values and educate a generation of sustainability natives, students who instinctively choose to use only what they need as opposed to what they can, and who are equipped to solve the challenges – and seize the opportunities – that are before us.
Transformative Design
Lindsay Baker CEO, International Living Future Institute
Buildings teach us.
Do you remember the first time you entered a building and it changed you? I have come to understand that buildings change us in a million little and big ways, every day of our lives. Another word for that change we experience is learning. Buildings teach us things – tacitly and actively. Perhaps more than any other type of building, these buildings we create for our learning institutions ought to be clear, thoughtful manifestations of our intentions for the future and our best work as communities. This book has been written to spotlight how some of the finest examples of school building exhibit these intentions.
As a young student at Oberlin College in Ohio, I had the opportunity to experience a building like this. The Adam Joseph Lewis Center was an unprecedented experiment. It was built to harvest more clean energy than it needed, to clean all of its own wastewater through an elaborate constructed wetland called a Living Machine, and to touch the earth lightly in a million other ways. It was the brainchild of my mentor and advisor, Dr. David Orr, an environmental educator and writer who was determined to prove that the act of design and construction could serve as its own pedagogy.
In his 1993 essay, “Architecture as Pedagogy,” he lamented how many buildings at that time were designed and built with little attention to the question of what they were tacitly teaching the students and faculty who would inhabit the buildings. They were built without much input from the campus community; they were built without a clear set of values; they were built without sensitivity to the ecosystem around them. Therefore, they taught us that we didn’t matter, that the ecosystems around us didn’t matter, that our values didn’t matter; they didn’t have bearing on the decisions we made to construct the world around us. Orr saw the opportunity to instead create our buildings in a way that would teach students different lessons.
Dr. Orr wrote:
The process of design and construction is an opportunity for a community to deliberate over the ideas and ideals it wishes to express and how these are rendered into architectural form. What do we want our buildings to say about us? What will they say about our ecological prospects? To what large issues and causes do they direct our attention? What problems do they resolve? What kind of human relationships do they encourage?
These questions were raised at Oberlin for the Lewis Center. Orr collaborated with architect William McDonough and his colleagues to realize the project. It now provides a profound learning experience for thousands of people – generations of students who learn and engage with the building. It’s a lesson in how we can live in balance with our communities and our ecological resourc-
es and how that relates to our health, learning, and relationships with each other. Walking into the building and learning how it works shows the visitor that a regenerative future is possible. The building is a teacher that will never retire.
Today, the Lewis Center is a grandmother in a family tree of buildings that have emerged all over the world teaching similar lessons. Some of the more important of these are the buildings where children spend their days in school, daycare, or extracurricular learning. This book is a treasure trove of projects that have stretched beyond sustainability and efficiency. They are reaching for regenerative design.
The task of regeneration is one in which our planet calls upon us to do more urgently today than ever before. At the International Living Future Institute, we are cultivating a regenerative future through the Living Building Challenge. We describe the Challenge as a three-fold tool: it is a philosophy that offers owners and teams a structure for decision making; it is an advocacy tool, turning the team into advocates for the building that the owner and community truly want and need. And finally, it is a certification with all the requirements and documentation that such designations require. Throughout the pages that follow, you will find a number of projects that have used the Living Building Challenge as a philosophical framework, which we hope continues to serve as an inspiration for project teams in the decades to come. Ultimately, our goal as an organization and as a movement is to shift our entire building industry towards these practices.
One of my favorite examples of the impact regenerative buildings can have on students is the Frick Environmental Center, featured in one of the case studies here. I have had the good fortune to experience this regenerative building, which is also a fully certified Living Building. The building is host to hundreds of school children every year, teaching them not just about how buildings work and how we create space for ourselves, but also about biology, geology, ecology, and many more subjects. The building is so clearly a part of the faculty. It is a place that, like Oberlin, will touch thousands of young people and change them, too.
These excellent buildings can teach us so many things. They teach us how to use less energy to heat and cool our buildings, how to use non-toxic materials to build, and how to landscape without potable water. But they can also teach us how to live in balance with the world around us, about native plants and animals, and about ecosystems. They can teach us that our opinions matter, that our values matter, and that we have a hand—and a responsibility—in the infrastructure around us.
These are the lessons that the buildings in this book are teaching young people every day. I hope that these examples will inspire the architects, school administrators, and community leaders who create schools to openly embrace these concepts and open a regenerative world to their students.
Introduction
Alan Ford, FAIA, A4LE
Kate Mraw, CID/RID, ALEP
Betsy del Monte, FAIA, LEED BD+C
In 2007, Alan Ford wrote the book Designing the Sustainable School. It captured a vision for sustainable school design, imagining an educational environment that was welcoming and supportive of students and staff, environmentally responsive, and held an important place in the community.
Now, 17 years later, the world has undergone significant transformations. The impacts of global warming have become more pronounced with climate change influencing every facet of our lives, including the structures in which we learn. The global pandemic of 2020-2021 highlighted the critical connection between buildings and occupant health, emphasizing the need for resilient, adaptive spaces that prioritize the well-being of those within. Schools today are facing ever-increasing demands. Issues of security and protections for students and staff must be balanced with the need for openness, transparency, and connections to the community. Those community connections lead to schools as a center for resiliency, respite, and protection in times of crisis.
Creating the Regenerative School is the next iteration for school design. Through captivating case studies and interviews with subject matter experts, visionary architects, and facility leaders, we will document how creatives from around the world are already redefining the boundaries of educational architecture and learning. This book illustrates that the regenerative learning environment is not an abstract concept but a tangible reality taking root in diverse settings across the world.
With this book, we seek to illuminate approaches to educational facility design that shift the focus towards cultivating resilient, creative, and empathetic educational environments. It argues the case for schools that go beyond sustainability to ones that actively restore and revitalize their settings. This includes making a deep connection to the natural world and to the broader community context.
Regenerative design uses Whole Systems Thinking to create resilient and equitable solutions that integrate the needs of society with the integrity of nature. This kind of design works within natural systems to show that buildings can be a source of health and regeneration without damage. We focus on these buildings because this is the scale at which this crucial intersection between human and natural systems occurs. As we explore the potential of regenerative schools, we will enumerate not only how we can create them but why.
Our vision for this book is simple: to inspire, inform, and ignite further action. We want to catalyze a movement that propels regenerative strategies from the fringes to the core of learning environment design. We hope that educators, planners, designers, architects, policymakers, and communities will find in these pages not only inspirational but also practical guidance to create sustainable, nurturing, and transformative learning environments.
One of the most significant distinctions between Designing the Sustainable School and this book is the abundance of data. We’ve gone beyond anecdotes and now seek to provide empirical evidence of the impact of regenerative design strategies. It’s not enough to tell compelling stories; we must verify the outcomes, substantiate the value, and redirect the focus towards the tangible benefits of these initiatives. As you delve into the case studies within these pages, you’ll notice cultural, pedagogical, and scale diversity with examples from the East Coast to the West Coast, from China to Africa. These schools span the globe, demonstrating that the quest of regenerative design in education is broad. Their stories, experiences, and knowledge illustrate the path we have traveled so far.
The challenges we face in the realm of education and sustainability are ever-evolving, requiring us to be agile, adaptive, and relentless. There is a need to think of the broader community, the site, and buildings as part of a larger and delicate ecosystem where all the parts work in concert with one another to create a circular regenerative system.
Our journey is far from over. It is our hope that this book serves as both a reflection on the progress we’ve made and a roadmap for the future. By sharing our collective experiences, we hope to accelerate the transition towards a world where every child has the opportunity to learn in a healthy, safe, connected environment—one that not only enriches minds but also regenerates our planet.
Insights and Ideas
Thought Leader Voices
Bill Reed, AIA, LEED
Charles Tilley, AIA, REFP
Christine Harms, M.S.
Deke Arndt, M.S.
Ellen Mitchell, LEED AP BD+C, SEED
Eric Corey Freed, RA, LEED Fellow
Heather Holdridge, EIT, LEED Fellow
Julia Hawkinson, FAIA, ALEP
Dr. Julie Zoellin Cramer, PhD
Kjell Anderson, FAIA, LEED Fellow
Liz York, FAIA
Michelle Amt, AIA, LEED AP BD+C
Ryan Gann, AIA, NOMA
Susan Mims, MD, MPH
Taryn Kinney, AIA, LEED AP
Z. Smith, PhD, FAIA, LEED Fellow
Design is a powerful force that shapes human behavior and experience. In the realm of education, it has significance far beyond the physical environment. No building can exist in isolation, each one must be considered as an integral part of a larger system.
Through a deep exploration of regenerative design, our team engaged thought leaders from across the industry to offer additional ideas and insights. Each of the individuals noted here participated in discussions with us around ideas exploring how schools can actively enhance and improve the many systems in which they participate: ecological, social, and economic.
In our research, we discerned emerging themes that prompted us to craft topic-specific essays. The following pages contain articles that emphasize the importance of designs that:
•Inspire Future Leaders Through Research
•Improve Human-Health
•Generate Renewable Energy
•Repair Ecosystems and Habitat
•Build Connected Communities
•Promote Belonging and Well-being
•Share Knowledge on Resilient Impacts
These essays, while addressing distinct aspects of sustainability, are not intended to be considered in isolation. Instead, we encourage readers to explore them as interconnected components of a holistic system that fosters connected communities, belonging, wellbeing, and the celebration of diversity in all its forms.
The path to regenerative school design is both challenging and immensely rewarding. It necessitates a shift from isolated, compartmentalized thinking to a more interconnected, holistic approach. By viewing a school as a living, breathing entity, we begin to design environments that nurture and uplift every student.
Alan Ford – Kate Mraw – Betsy del Monte
“When we learn about how to make schools more sustainable, we learn about the environment and how to take better care of it for our future. When we create sustainable schools, there will be more nature, which will make us all happier and healthier.”
promote biodiversity | energy reduction | indoor air quality | mental and social well-being | evidence-based design | social justice | communitycentered | building reuse | passive solar design strategies | nutrition and healthy food options | hydration | student engagement | sense of delight | sustainable curriculum engagement | equity, diversity, inclusion | safety and security | rainwater harvesting | renewable energy | active design strategies | user engagement in design | designing for change | professional development | universal design | social and cultural influence | permeable surfaces | energy benchmarking | natural lighting | pre-occupancy design observations | impacting through co-design with a community | cross-generational learning spaces | community meaning and history | ecological integration | energy storage | acoustical comfort | thermal comfort | post-occupancy engagement | neuroscience and architecture | resiliency | carbon reduction | healthy materials selection | zero-carbon | empower agency in students and educators | global connectedness | inspire curiosity | conservation | sustainable consumption | environmental stewardship | water conservation | local sourcing | learning gardens | energy reporting | fair trade | daylight harvesting | carbon offset | thermal insulation | life cycle assessment | smart-grid integration | community representation | addressing climate change | energy modeling | carbon filtering | airflow | views to the outdoors | human-centered design | restorative environments | biomimicry
Felix Erickson, Age 9 Sustainable Native
Adlai Stevenson High School | Image Courtesy of Wight & Company
Evidence Based Design
Inspire Future Leaders through Research
Research is no longer a differentiator in educational design, it is the difference in designing for the future.
The emergence of regenerative design has gone hand-in-hand with the development of research demonstrating the connections between space, experience, and outcomes. According to a summary report by the University of Salford Manchester, design differences account for 16% of the variation in learning progress over a year.1 Traditionally, learning space design was informed by past experiences and standard practices. Increasingly, though, designers are using data-driven insights to create spaces that enhance teaching and learning outcomes, occupant health, the learning experience, and student behavior.
The Science of Young Humans
Educational spaces must cater to their primary occupants, the students. Evidence-based design incorporates advances in child development and neuroscience to shape learning environments that meet their needs. A solid and continually evolving understanding of the nature of brain development and the psychological needs of children and adolescents allows educators and designers to create spaces that nurture cognitive, emotional, and social growth.²
Synergy Between Learning Modality and Learning Spaces
Evidence-based design enables designers to better align the physical space with its educational use. When we use research that provides empirical data on the impact of design on human experience, we can better align educational design to the desired educational experiences. This synergy between research and educational alignment creates a cohesive learning environment, integrating pedagogy with design and embedding educational philosophies in the space.
Learning from Nature
Increasingly, designers are taking cues from the study of nature. Evidencebased design emphasizes the integration of biophilic design principles and patterns from nature. For example, trees and views of nature are linked to enhanced academic performance.³ Drawing from anthropology, thinkers like David Thornburg suggest that certain types of space have deep roots in our evolutionary past. Data shows that these intrinsic connections to nature deeply resonate with and inspire learners and educators.
Image Courtesy of OPENair Academy
Student Agency
New data links the design of flexible and adaptable spaces to improved outcomes. Designs that provide choice can actively boost engagement and student growth.4 Spaces that can change over time inspire and sustain forward-thinking learning experiences, while spaces that are flexible in the moment are associated with positive teacher mind frames and deeper student learning.5
Impact of Co-Design
When using evidence-based design, co-design—the approach of actively involving stakeholders in the design process—is key. Research shows that collaborating with end-users—educators, designers, and decisionmakers— throughout the entire design process has a positive impact on the future use of space. Sharing data with stakeholders and co-authoring design together increases the end user’s absorptive capacity—or, their ability to recognize the value of new information, assimilate it, and apply it in novel ways.6 This mindset facilitates the alignment of design with pedagogy, transforming the design process into a purpose-driven process with the potential to transform learning outcomes.
1.Barrett, Peter, Yufan Zhang, Fay Davies, and Lucinda Barrett. Clever Classrooms: Summary Report of the HEAD Project (Holistic Evidence and Design) (Italicize). Manchester: University of Salford, 2015.
2.Whitman, Glenn and Ian Kelleher. Neuroteach: Brain Science and the Future of Education (italicize). Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield Publishing, 2016.
3.Browning, Matthew and Alessandro Rigolon. “School Green Space and its Impact on Academic Performance: A Systematic Literature Review.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (Italicized), Vol. 16, No. 3 (February 2019): page #. 10.3390/ijerph16030429
4.Kariippanon, Katharina, et al. “Perceived Interplay Between Flexible Learning Spaces and Teaching, Learning and Student Wellbeing.” Learning Environments Research (italicize), Vol. 21 (November 2017): 301-320. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10984-017-9254-9
5.Bradbeer, Chris, et al. “The ‘State of Play’ Concerning New Zealand’s Transition to Innovative Learning Environments: Preliminary Results from Phase One of the ILETC Project.” New Zealand Educational Administration & Leadership Society (italicize), Vol. 32, Issue 1 (January 2017): 22-38. https://doi.org/10.21307/jelpp-2017-003
6.Woolner, Pamela, et al. “Changed Learning Through Changed Space: When Can a Participatory Approach to the Learning Environment Challenge Preconceptions and Alter Practice?” Improving Schools (italicized), Vol. 15, Issue 1 (March 2012): page #s. https://doi. org/10.1177/1365480211434796
“The goal is to support improved learning experiences through learning space designs that empower all students to find their place of impact in the world. The research is there, we just have to look for it.”
Julie A. Zoellin Cramer, PhD Executive Director, Wayfind Education
“There’s a greater awareness of the importance of nature and outdoor spaces in the learning environment. More schools are incorporating outdoor classrooms, green spaces, gardens, and even using natural materials in their design to create a more biophilic environment, which has been shown to have positive impacts on learning and well-being.”
Kjell Anderson, FAIA, CSBA LEED Fellow Director of Sustainable Design, LMN
Case Studies
Project Data
Project Type: Early Childhood Education
Completion: In Progress
Size: 14,000 Sq. Ft.
Number of Students: 94
Image Credit:
All renderings by Ford Architects
Regenerative Summary:
RDesigned to net-zero energy and carbon RDaylight harvesting throughout RAll-natural no red-list materials RSuper insulated envelope ROnsite solar capture REV charging onsite RNative plant landscaping RNature based play areas incorporating multi-sensory learning RStructure embedded in hillside RPervious paving RMass timber structural system RRadiant flooring for thermal comfort RDisplacement ventilation for improved occupant health RAll-electric RResilient in adapting to changing needs RBiophilic design through visual and physical access to the exterior from every classroom
Aspen Burlingame ECE Ford Architects
American International School of Zagreb
Zagreb, Croatia
FLANSBURGH & SANGRAD + AVP
A new school turns inward to connect to the outdoors. While the American International School of Zagreb (AISZ) is set within a bucolic site, adjacent to Bundek City Park along the Sava River, security concerns necessitated it have a hard-edge perimeter. So Flansburgh Architects and Sangrad + AVP cut courtyards into the 65,000-square-foot building to bring light and activity to the indoors. “We really liked this idea of a building in a park and a park in a building,” says David Croteau, president of Flansburgh. “The multiple courtyards make it feel like you’re in a school, but you’re also in a garden.”
AISZ is part of the 140,000-square-foot Središće Educational Complex, a commission that Boston-based Flansburgh and Zagreb firm Sangrad + AVP won through a competition. Flansburgh designed AISZ (at right in plan), while Sangrad + AVP designed an adjacent kindergarten and elementary school (left and center) and were associate architects for the complex. The trio of schools form a line of boxes whose modernist aesthetic reflects neighboring residential towers. Planted interstitial spaces form an organic complement to the orthogonal plan. In weaving outdoor and indoor spaces, AISZ engages students with nature, promotes wellness, and fosters an atmosphere of interdependence.
Indoor/Outdoor Learning Environment
ASFG High School includes classrooms for grades 9 through 12, a library for middle and high school students, common spaces on every floor, a kitchen and cafeteria, and administrative offices. The building is in a neighborhood with many new developments and high-rise buildings near the center of Guadalajara. To meet the large program within the limited space, Flansburgh designed a seven-story building.
It was important for the architects to maintain a connection to nature within this tall building. Each floor has open-air corridors, and the roof is an accessible garden space. The design uses its verticality to extend its biophilic design. “Often vertical schools become sterile towers,” says David Croteau, president of Flansburgh. “This is one where gardens are stacked on top of each other.” Numerous outdoor spaces extend from the bulk of the building—65% of each floor level is outdoors. The grounds incorporate additional green space and its gardens deploy native plants to limit water use.
This emphasis on communing with nature does not mean the school denies its urban condition. The roof garden—a space frequented by students and used for ASFG events—offers people new perspectives of the neighborhood around them. “They’re seeing the hills in the distance, and they’re seeing the relationship of buildings to one another,” says Croteau. “They’re beginning to understand their place within the city.”
Passive cooling and natural ventilation are part of the high school’s sustainability plan. Flansburgh designed energy performance to the specific nature of Guadalajara. In August, the first month of ASFG’s school year, average temperatures range from 82°F during the day to 61°F at night, and the building’s circulation takes advantage of the city’s large diurnal swing. Students move from class to class via outdoor walkways rather than double-loaded corridors. The thermal mass of the concrete open-air passageways retains the coolness of the evening and releases it during the day, negating the necessity of air conditioning. 75% of the building’s concrete is made from local sand and crushed stone, which minimizes energy the costs of its production and transportation.
Additional design features add to these walkways’ effectiveness. Broad overhangs prevent harsh light during the day. Operable windows opening onto these corridors allow breezes into the classrooms, which are staggered in the plan to prevent wind tunnels. “I was struck by how pleasant it was to walk around inside this building,” Croteau says, “even on the hottest day.
Project Data
Project Type: Private High School
Completion: 2021
Size: 188,400 Sq. Ft.
Cost: $18 million USD
Number of Students: 1,500
Certifications & Awards:
• Certified LEED Gold
• +3 Design Awards
Image Credit:
• Rober t Benson (Images 2, 3, 5-9)
• Flansburgh (Images 1 & 4)
Regenerative Summary:
R65% of each floor level is outdoor space RIndoor areas are passively cooled and ventilated RHEPA filters installed RSunshades and passive cooling of concrete floors ROver 90% of the school is naturally lit RThe project’s bright colors, sculptural form, natural materials, and crisp design are inspired by Guadalajara’s cultural heritage RMaterials were selected to be durable and sourced locally RThe thermal lag of the concrete structure reduced cooling loads RThe cast-in-place system maximized investment in local, equitable labor practices RIts exposed surfaces celebrate local craft RThe precast concrete, geometrically expressive brise soleil is a locally manufactured product that celebrates Mexican motifs
Project Data
Project Type: Secondary School
Completion: 2021
Size: 144,00 Sq. Ft.
Cost: $41.5 million USD
Number of Students: 800
Certifications & Awards:
• 2 Design Awards
Image Credit:
• David Matthiessen (Images 2, 4-9)
• Behnisch Architekten (Images 1 & 3)
Regenerative Summary:
RLow temperature in-floor heating and cooling systems powered by geothermal wells RHighly efficient building envelope RHybrid ventilation system RDaylight use was maximized REnergy positive PV panels that allow for a minimum electricity autonomy factor of 75% RLow emission healthy building components RAddresses CO2 reduction through material selection RCombines the basic mechanical air supply with additional bump ventilation through windows during breaks reducing mechanical ventilation by 40% RGround sourced geothermal system Anna-Pröll Secondary
Local Materials
Traditional Grain Storage Structure
Woven Wicker Screen Being Assembled
Wicker Screen Detail
Wicker Screen at Teacher Housing Classroom
Breezeway at Four-Classroom Building
Interior Light at Teacher Common Space Campus with Surrounding Landscape
BNIM designed the school buildings based on traditional forms and local construction materials. The architects took note of neighborhood granaries, especially their novel screens. Local people told them they used wicker weaving for the screens because it allows ventilation to keep the grain dry while preventing animals from getting in. De Jong recalls asking if they could reproduce these screens for the school. “I got a lot of pushback from some of the men in the community who said, ‘Ah, this will never work,’” he recalls. “And then I showed the design to the women who actually built the granaries, and they said, ‘Oh, yeah, this is our work.’ And so they fabricated it.” BNIM liked the screens’ decoration, where bark is stripped away to produce a lighter color. The women offered input on where and how large these accents would appear on the school’s screens.
The architects and structural engineers suggested modifications to traditional construction methods to make the buildings safer and more climate resilient. Traditional local bricks are low quality, and importing bricks would be prohibitively expensive. A brick-making machine was purchased, and local laborers learned to use it to provide higher-quality bricks for the school. According to local construction practices, they would first pour concrete and then infill with the brick. Instead, confined masonry construction was adopted, building first with brick and then pouring concrete around that to create more stable structures.
Sustainable Design
Asilong Christian High School is designed to be of and for the community. The school provides teacher housing to attract the best teachers in the region. To date, 50 students in years one and two live and study on campus; 40 more are expected to start in year three. Being a boarding school not only helps to establish community among students but also reduces reliance on carbonbased fuels, as transportation to and from the school happens primarily at trimester breaks.
The school admits both boys and girls, with an emphasis on accommodating girls. While a dormitory for the girls is completed, the boys have been sleeping in classrooms until they have their own dorm. It has been critical in the early years of establishing the school to construct adaptable buildings that allow for such flexibility.
The role of women and girls is prominent at the high school. Women are faculty and staff members, they are involved in the construction process, and their work is reflected in the design. The school has committed to maintaining a girl-to-boy student ratio of 2:1, which acknowledges a history of boys having greater access than girls to education.
Biomass Heating Facility, Hotchkiss
School
Lakeville, Connecticut, United States
CENTERBROOK
A power plant might not always be the most exciting commission, but for Centerbook Architects and Planners it offered a unique opportunity. The client for the project was Hotchkiss School, a private boarding high school founded by educator and heiress Maria Bissell Hotchkiss and located in northwestern Connecticut. The school had grown from fifty students at its founding in 1891 to 600, and its campus was made up of 85 buildings—which meant 1.2 million square feet to heat during Connecticut’s cold winters. Hotchkiss’s priorities had also developed since 1891, and it made a pledge to be a carbon-neutral campus.
The Biomass Heating Facility would help fulfill that pledge. Centerbook designed the 16,500-square-foot building to replace an aging fuel oil plant with a modern, efficient, and cleaner-burning one. The facility was meant not only to have an environmental impact, but also to be a living classroom for students. And Hotchkiss wanted its design to be an asset to its idyllic campus.
“I really do think that what sets the project apart was our client’s vision,” says Alan Paradis, senior associate at Centerbrook. “It was a big vision—and this building was a piece of it—and we were afforded the opportunity to do something different. Sometimes we forget that to achieve really good architecture requires a really good client.”
King Open and Cambridge Street Upper Schools and Community Complex
Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
WILLIAM RAWN ASSOCIATES AND ARROWSTREET
Many school complexes are in part community centers used for amateur theater, local elections, and other neighborhood functions. King Open and Cambridge Street Upper Schools and Community Complex goes beyond these occasional uses to make the community a key part of its design. The 273,000-square-foot project in Cambridge, Massachusetts, designed by William Rawn Associates (WRA) and Arrowstreet, includes pre-kindergarten, elementary, upper schools, a cafeteria, auditorium, two gymnasiums, administrative offices, community swimming pools, and the Valenti Branch of the Cambridge Public Library. “The building is used from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.,” says Sindu Meier, associate principal at WRA. “Some students are served by the dedicated afterschool program, some go to the branch library, and others attend swimming lessons.”
The designers note the unusual problem that this activity presents: the more hours the building is open, the more energy it uses. So activating the complex competed with pursuing net-zero. But the success of the building depended on the intensity of its usage, its sustainability, and its civic presence. “Hunting for a balance among these things,” says Samuel Lasky, principal at WRA, “while committing to meeting a new standard that could become an example for the city as well as for the state, was the core challenge of this project.”
Nutrition and food availability were important issues for the community and the design. In the existing school, which occupied the same lot as the new project, the cafeteria was undersized, so students did not have sufficient time or space to eat. Some had lunch at 10:00 a.m. just to make the schedule work. The new cafeteria has ample room. “Making it a daylit space was a direct idea to make a nutritional lunch as important a part of the day as the time in the classroom,” says Laurence Spang, partner at Arrowstreet, “We know that improvements to student health and well-being improves their learning.” To further student empowerment, the school partnered with CitySprouts, a local organization whose mission is “to cultivate curiosity and wonder with hands-on science learning through urban gardens to grow food in the center courtyard.”
The complex has advanced systems for indoor air quality, including carbon dioxide monitoring, demand-control ventilation, high MERV filtration, and displacement ventilation. All these systems were installed before the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting the need for better ventilation. “This project really is ahead of the curve on improved HVAC systems,” says Kate Bubriski, principal at Arrowstreet. “The client was really paying attention.”
Sustainability
The project is a pilot for Cambridge’s Net-Zero Action Plan, which was adopted in 2015 as a response to the community’s desire to achieve a healthier and more resilient city. The complex has net-zero emissions, consumes no fossil fuels on site, and incorporates Cambridge’s largest solar array to produce more than 60% of its required energy. The balance of energy is purchased through green power contracts.
“Could we have gotten 8,000 more square feet of PV onto the project?” asks Lasky. “Maybe, but at what cost?” He relates a story of an early massing study that exemplifies the balancing act the designers performed in pursuing both net-zero energy and civic presence. “We initially had the shape of the roofs significantly larger
than the final design to create more area for on-site generation,” he recalls. “As a result, the rules of good architecture, neighborliness, and the usefulness of outdoor spaces were getting compromised in the pursuit of maximizing a different goal.”
While the architects chose neighborliness over PVs in this instance, they achieved the City’s regenerative goals; the building’s sustainability features are a teaching tool with graphic exhibits and interactive touchscreen dashboards that display real-time energy and water data.
Both community members and the architects were advocates for the regenerative aspects of the project. The school was the second of three projects in Cambridge’s reformation of education to the elementary and middle school systems. Following the successes of the first project, the city determined to do better at King Open School in terms of sustainability metrics. “The city got there because of the advocacy of grassroots activism that pushed net-zero. The idea was embraced by the city council and became the standard for the community,” says Lasky. “If there’s a lesson there, it’s the power of the people in the community to affect change by advocating for what’s important to them.”
The designers brought concerns for healthy materials to the schools. They excluded Red List Building Materials, vinyl, and flame retardants from the building. And they targeted perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl (PFAS) substances. “That was a piece that the design team said, ‘Well, we can do this, and it’s not going to cost you more to do this,’” says Bubriski. “We really tried to champion that piece of it.”
Post-Occupancy Satisfaction
A preoccupancy study was performed on the center documenting the lighting, air quality, temperature, humidity, and acoustic performance of the classrooms. A post-occupancy evaluation was planned after 12 months occupancy; however due to COVID-19, the evaluation will be performed after 24 months of full occupancy.
Anecdotal observations have been positive. Darrell Williams, principal of the King Open School, has mentioned how the design has assisted educators in meeting post-pandemic challenges. “He talked about ways that the building and the presence of the daylight,” says Lasky, “were helpful in the mission to re-establish norms of how to behave and come to school ready to learn.”
Manuel Fernandez, former principal of Cambridge Street Upper School, also responded favorably to the project. “It was important to us that the school be open, bright, and viewed as an accessible partner to the wider community,” he says. “The new complex will attract more people to the school and will also invigorate us to think more creatively and collaboratively with caregivers about how to make this school a home away from home—a community center where you will want to be.”
Nueva School, Science and Environmental Center
Hillsborough, California, United States
LEDDY MAYTUM STACY ARCHITECTS
The Science and Environmental Center at Nueva School is an immersive sustainable place. Sited on a 33 acre heavily wooded campus in Hillsborough, south of San Francisco, the center is home to the environmental citizenship program, which Nueva School describes as helping “students develop an empathetic bias toward action that is based on an understanding of the interconnected web of natural and human-made systems to which we all belong.” The center contains eight flexible science labs, outdoor classrooms, and associated support spaces for prekindergarten through eighth-grade classes.
The building is Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects’ (LMSA) most recent design for Nueva School, with whom it began collaborating in 2004. William Leddy, founding principal of LMS, says that his firm’s work here is a record of Nueva School’s evolving attitudes toward sustainability. When the architects started designing for the school, the client expressed an interest in sustainability but needed to know what that might mean. As their work continued “ the school started to develop an environmental citizenship curriculum, and they became very excited about telling that story within their learning environments,” says Leddy, “so that each project that we’ve done for them has gone a step further.” At the Science and Environmental Center, a high-performing structure with a focus on natural connections, the building is an essential part of this new curriculum.
Project Data
Project Type: K-10 Girls School
Completion: 2021
Size: 9,000 Sq. Ft.
Cost: $310,000 USD
Number of Students: 400
Certifications & Awards:
• 2022, Aga Khan Awards for Architecture
• +9 Design Awards
Image Credit:
• Vinay Panjwani (Images 2-4, 6-10)
• Diana Kellogg Architects (Images 1 & 5)
Regenerative Summary:
R95% of materials locally sourced RCrafted by local workers RPassive cooling strategies ROptimal building orientation to maximize prevailing wind and manage sunlight RRooftop PV panels provide for all of the school’s electrical needs RUtilizes ancient rainwater harvesting techniques RSpecifically helps girls living below the poverty line, where female literacy is 36% RRecycled tile used as roof material
Rajkumari Ratnavati Girls School
Project Data
Project Type: K-12
Completion: 2020
Size: 710,400 Sq. Ft.
Cost: Withheld
Number of Students: 2,000
Certifications & Awards:
• 5 Design Awards
Image Credit:
• OPEN Architecture (Image 1)
• Wu Qingshan (Images 2-5)
• Chen Hao (Images 6 & 8)
• Jonathan Leijonhufvud (Images 7 & 9)
Regenerative Summar y:
RNatural ventilation ample natural daylight to indoor spaces RMinimized building’s footprint in order to maximize natural landscape on site RGreen roofs to reduce the urban heat island effect R95% of all regularly occupied spaces have direct views to the outdoors RVarious landscape features such as a bamboo garden, a lawn, a playground, and a pond with resident turtles, swans, and insects RBamboo exterior panels on the educational towers RLocally sourced steel
Te Mirumiru Early Childhood Education Center
Kawakawa, Northland Region New Zealand
SMITH ARCHITECTS
Phil Smith, founder and director of Smith Architects, says that Te Mirumiru Early Childhood Education Centre is a school with a dual focus on regeneration. “This project is probably slightly different to other projects in that it is for a Māori group within New Zealand,” he says. “For them, it was partly a teaching tool and partly a statement about who they are.” The client, the Ngāti Hine tribe in Kawakawa, sought a building that would not only have a minimal impact on the environment but also teach all young children about their culture.
According to Smith, in the Māori world view everything is connected, so the concept of sustainability is inherent. This means the architects’ sustainable efforts—from recycling construction waste to maximizing solar gain in winter to reducing flow to sewers—aligned with the client’s beliefs. What was trickier for the non-Indigenous designers was incorporating these efforts with Māori traditions. “I probably spent about six weeks just getting to understand the customs and traditions and stories,” says Smith, “to weave them into a narrative around this building.” That narrative of Ngāti Hine culture had both formal and environmental effects on the project.
Sustainability
Te Mirumiru relies on passive sustainable technologies—natural ventilation, thermal mass for cooling, solar access for heating, daylight for lighting—just as historic local buildings did. The school takes the form of a curve, with its southern wall covered in earth and its northern wall (the side in the southern hemisphere receiving the strongest light) fully glazed and opening onto a play area. The siting allows for both maximum solar gain and minimal heat loss, which is assisted by an unheated circulation space placed along the south. Exposed concrete construction and natural ventilation allow the building to be passively cooled in summer, and a minimal heating back-up provided by a solar hot water underfloor system is used in winter. Kawakawa has moderate temperatures, with monthly averages ranging 48-74°F, and so more significant heating and cooling systems were not needed.
The project budget was initially too small to enact all these measures. When the client decided to adopt the Green Star NZ environmental rating system, the New Zealand Ministry of Education—who provided most of the funding for the project—gave additional funds. The resulting building achieved a 6 Star Green Star rating, the highest possible. It was also the winner of the inaugural Asia Pacific Leadership in Green Building Award from the World Green Building Council.
Smith Architects decided to use heavyweight materials with high embodied energy to assist in passive heating and cooling. The designers believed that—given that the building’s life-span is projected to be hundreds of years—the embodied energy of these heavyweight materials will be offset by the energy reductions they give compared to those of lightweight construction materials with lower embodied energy.
The design minimizes the use of new materials. More than 80% of the steel in the building was recycled; 20% of the concrete aggregate was recycled, 20% of the cement was replaced by fly-ash waste product, and 70% of construction waste was recycled.
Locally sourced materials are used to reduce energy related to transportation. Concrete, steel reinforcement, timber, and finishing materials were sourced from within 15 miles of the site, while the solar panels traveled 130 miles from Auckland. The rammed-earth wall on the south corridor uses a mix of 10% cement plus clay dug from the site. Few surface finishes were used, and all finishing materials were responsibly sourced and feature eco-label certification or low or zero VOC/formaldehyde.
