Following the severe impact of capitalist industrialization on the environment, the EU has funded several projects in the context of the European Green Deal to pursue climate neutrality by 2050. Some of these projects attempt to achieve zero emissions through political participation, while others by committing EU citizens to adopt sustainable…

The idea that the New Zealand education system will cater to all students, regardless of ability, and support them in developing their full potential to the best of their abilities, is enshrined in the famous 1939 Beeby/Fraser statement. Equality of access policy discourse has shifted to emphasise equitable outcomes, focussed increasingly on…

This study highlights how 20 Swedish principals, school managers and architects involved in planning, construction and reconstruction of primary and secondary school buildings at regional, municipal and local levels represent good learning environments. Drawing on semi-structured interviews, the analysis focuses on how the stakeholders understand…

Research in the field of Education has produced a corpus of studies dealing with the specific relationship between school building condition and student achievement reporting positive results. Yet, studies have been completed reporting no significant difference in achievement scores from students in buildings in poor and good condition. The…

During the Portuguese dictatorship (1926-1974), the former president Oliveira Salazar started to slowly open the regime to European policies after World War II. In 1960, the Minister of Education, Leite Pinto, integrated Portugal in the OECD Mediterranean Regional Project, which was created to improve the educational system in developing…

School leaders across the United States face the challenge of creating safe and secure environments across their campuses in a way that helps promote the achievement of schools' educational objectives. To help them meet this challenge, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency asked the Homeland…

Improving the school building may well be the most overlooked means of improving student health, safety, and academic performance. Yet in conversations about factors that lead students to academic success, only rarely does the role of the physical environment come to the fore. By downplaying the importance of the building, policymakers and parents…

Food and conservation science curriculum, net-zero design and student-based building performance monitoring have come together in the unique and innovative new Music and Science Building for Oregon's Hood River Middle School. The school's Permaculture-based curriculum both informed the building design and was also transformed through the…

Art and art education are open to broader definitions in the twenty-first century. It is time that teachers seriously think about including built environment design in K-12 art education. The term "built environment" includes interior design, architecture, landscape architecture, and urban planning. Due to increased exposure to built environment…

A lot of misunderstandings exist regarding sustainable, or green, construction. It is important that educators understand the benefits so they can communicate them to stakeholders. According to the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), a $4 investment (per square foot) in building green nets a $58 benefit (per square foot) over 20 years. Savings…

In this article, the author talks about legibility as an essential component of education facility design. Legibility is concerned not only with stylistic consistency, but also with other design factors that help make a building understandable. Reconfigured interiors and multiple additions can create confusing paths. Illogical assortments of…

Frank Lloyd Wright was born and raised on the farmlands of Wisconsin. His mother had a vision that her son would become a great architect. Wright was raised with strong guiding principles, a love of nature, a belief in the unity of all things, and a respect for discipline and hard work. He created the philosophy of "organic architecture," which…

Provides guidelines to follow in drawing up a contract with a school architect. Once the architect has been selected, a clear definition of mutual expectations and schedules must be outlined and documented in the contract. (TE)

Special learning environments for severely handicapped students can seldom be justified. Specially designed and often extravagantly costly physical space, which does not provide adequate opportunity for the generalization of functional skills to unmodified settings, should be viewed skeptically. The use of natural environments, without expensive…

Presents a selection of winners of the Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA) and Texas Association of School Boards (TASB) school architecture competition. Includes a brief description, floor plan, and photographs for each winner. (EV)