Design issues
The design of modern educational buildings and the need for inclusion of the local community often conflict with the need for security. For example areas of educational buildings are being increasingly used for community meeting and sports.
Prescriptive fire safety guidance is often out of step with modern design of educational buildings. Modern educational buildings need to provide unhindered circulation for the occupants and often require the provision of large flexible internal areas.
A brief that seeks to enhance the community use of college facilities is to be encouraged.
Sustainable acoustics design of FE spaces, especially in urban areas, presents a number of acoustic challenges not least of which being the provision of suitably quiet teaching rooms in close proximity to noisy transport corridors.
Designing the building’s orientation, massing and geometry is the most cost effective way of reducing a building’s carbon footprint and should be considered at the earliest opportunity in the design process.
ICT teaching room
