Linking Architecture and Education: Sustainable Design of Learning Environments

Chapter Eight: Connecting Manifestations to Learning through Curriculum and Post-occupancy Evaluation

| 225 Chapter Eight Connecting Manifestations to Learning through Curriculum and Post-occupancy Evaluation| 225 Architects become educators when they design potent learning environments. They expand their role when they compile and write guidelines for occupants of buildings, just as manufacturers produce manuals and DVDs explaining how to use the products and appliances we buy. This can be done in many ways. David Macaulay’s The Way Things Work (1988) is an excellent example of an illustrated user guide that reveals the function of common objects in our environment. Macaulay uses diagrams, illustrations, and narrative to demonstrate how machines work and to detail the scientific principles behind the devices we use every day. Similarly, an architect can provide design drawings accompanied by text about the location, usage, and interdisciplinary learning activities suggested by the manifestations built into the school. Over time, teachers and students can learn from and expand the guide with their own ideas. Thus, the user’s manual becomes an evolving, dynamic, and ever-growing curriculum attesting to the value of the learning environment as a teaching tool. It explains how the school functions as a three-dimensional textbook for interdisciplinary learning. Mazria Inc. Odems Dzurec Architecture/Planning of Santa Fe, New Mexico, designed the Edward Gonzales Elementary School as a prototype solar school for Albuquerque Public Schools. To educate the building’s users about daylighting and passive solar design features, Mazria’s firm wrote a brief user’s manual that begins with facts about energy usage, includes a school floor plan diagram and list of design features, and provides an illustrated section on “how your classroom works.” Full benefits of environmentally sound design cannot be realized without a clear understanding on the part of the building’s users. (Please see appendix C for a copy of the user’s manual.) Reading the Three-Dimensional Textbook 226 | Organization of a User’s Guide A guide to the school’s manifestations can be organized in any number of ways. The guide might be ▶  A manual or digital program for scheduled maintenance of district HVAC systems and other infrastructure, similar to the recommendations provided by car dealers for ensuring proper car care ▶  A system of informative and interactive signage similar to that found in museums or along nature or fitness trails, integrated into the environment ▶  An audio recording used with headphones for guided architectural tours of campus manifestations ▶  A digital slide presentation or video, and/or a Web site with links to community resources. Nome Elementary School, Alaska. Concept drawings from architectural planning stages can be saved and later used as visual guides to the school. Illustration by George Vlastos, architect. ▶  An alphabetical list of spaces and their learning implications ▶  An educational inventory of objects and spaces illustrated with photographs or drawings (could be digital) ▶  A visual dictionary of manifestations similar to a picture dictionary ▶  A self-published illustrated book about the school, written by students ▶  A map or master plan of the school campus with informative entries numbered and keyed to the location of manifestations on the map ▶  A pocket field guide to the school site ▶  A list of district standards tied to key locations on the school site Curriculum and Post-occupancy Evaluation | 227 The guides may be arranged thematically or by subject matter discipline, or on a computer database retrievable through several keywords, places, interdisciplinary themes, or learning concepts. Another approach is to design a simple format or checklist for observing and evaluating manifestations. The data collected using the formats is assembled into a loose-leaf notebook or Web links that can be updated as students and teachers uncover new possibilities for learning. The concept of a user guide can be extended to form an environmental curriculum for learning from the total school surroundings. This happens when architectsandeducatorscollaboratetodevelopspecificactivitiesorlearningexperiences based on the manifestations built into the school. The ATA Taxonomy and similar educational models introduced in chapter 5 can provide strategies for teaching and learning from the environment. Lincoln High School West, Stockton, California. User’s guide. The document opens with an aerial map of the campus. Letters are then placed at key locations. Each location is represented by a full page listing the manifestations at that location and how the manifestations can be used for environmental teaching and learning. An entire curriculum could be developed from the hundreds of manifestations ranging from aquaculture ponds to ductwork transitions, school bus routes, windmills, and more. Taylor, A., Sherk...