Integrated briefing for better design is underpinned by a new social consciousness, combined with sustained efforts to stop thinking and acting in silos. If cultural, built, and natural environments must be considered together, then an integrated approach to design must connect the spatial, virtual, and organisational elements to create better urban experiences and places. The rapid emergence of vertical schools – perhaps the most critical contemporary form of Australian urban infrastructure – provides an excellent opportunity to leverage the potential of integrated approaches to design. In this guest blog, Tony Matthews discusses the need for the design of vertical schools to be considered across scale, from urban to building to interior, across domains, from education to policy, and inclusive of the range of stakeholders from school to local community.
South Melbourne Primary School. Image courtesy of Hayball.
The vertical school typology is a transformative departure from traditional school design, where buildings follow a horizontal, low-rise profile and school campuses are often on large land parcels with plentiful green space. Vertical schools are usually between four and seventeen storeys. They are designed to accommodate the full range of teaching, administration, and recreational activities within one or two buildings.
Vertical schools are a consequence of urban consolidation policies, which continue to be the preferred planning agenda in many large Australia cities. The intent is to densify and enliven urban areas while reducing suburban sprawl. This has fuelled an increase in inner-urban residents, including families with children. The trend of families living in dense inner-urban areas is slowly reversing a long-standing suburban preference among Australian households with young children. State governments in Australia are now struggling to provide school placements for children in dense urban environments. The limited availability of inner-urban land means many schools designs now must be vertical, otherwise sufficient floor-areas cannot be delivered.
School campuses and buildings are traditionally seen as central features of neighbourhoods. They are embedded in locality and community and have potential to become iconic placeholders of civic values and traditions over time. This means that schools are not just learning environments; they are important forms of social infrastructure that are connected in complex ways to their proximate built, natural, and material environments. The architecture and spatial arrangements of schools intersect with education ideas and practices, as well as local communities, user-groups, and stakeholders. Innovations in school design therefore reflect changing forms of social engagement with communities, as well as shifting approaches to education and learning.
Building on this, vertical school design and planning processes should be deeply informed by dialogue between educators, policymakers, design professionals, parents, students, and local community members. There is a need for ongoing dialogue between educators and design professionals, with input from other stakeholders, to create schools that function well as learning environments and as social infrastructure. Creating positive connections between space and pedagogy will not happen of its own accord. Failure to address this reality could significantly undermine the potential of new vertical schools to be enjoyed by diffuse groups and perform well as learning environments and neighbourhood social infrastructure.
More research is needed to better evaluate what constitutes high-quality vertical school design, as well as coherent and positive integration of schools and campuses with surrounding neighbourhoods. The first Australian vertical school designs are relatively new. Most have not been formally evaluated post-occupancy. Whilst these early designs are innovative, there is no empirical certainty that they will perform well over time as educational or community spaces.
Current stakeholder discussions about vertical school design are discordant. Nonetheless, a shared aim for many are the design of functional and pleasant schools and campuses that will benefit students and communities for many decades. Bringing different groups together early on to identify and connect various spatial, virtual, and organisational elements can deliver great returns. It is important to remember that vertical schools are relatively new in Australia, so there is not a lot of direct experience of them, but there are plenty of opinions and preconceptions.
Breakthroughs and innovations are needed quickly, as hundreds of new vertical school buildings are to be built nationally over the coming years to meet imminent student enrolments. Generating knowledge and stakeholder capacity, along with innovative approaches to the planning, design, development, and function of vertical schools in Australia is therefore critical. In this regard, integrated briefing for better design has real potential heading into a future of vertical schooling.
Conceptual framework of vertical schools, Tony Matthews.
Matthews, T., Newton, C., Guaralda, M., Mayere, S. (2023). Vertical Schools as Community Hubs. In: Cleveland, B., Backhouse, S., Chandler, P., McShane, I., Clinton, J.M., Newton, C. (eds) Schools as Community Hubs. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-9972-7_15
Dr Tony Matthews is an urban planner, scholar and international advocate for good cities. His award-winning work addresses current and emerging urban challenges through research, engagement and practice. Dr Matthews has a passion for translating insights into understandable and actionable terms, with benefits for policymakers, professionals and communities. His publications have been translated into French, Italian and Spanish. A faculty member at Griffith University, Dr Matthews is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Engineering and Built Environment and the Cities Research Institute.
Integrative Briefing for Better Design 