Designing schools for the future

The government’s Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme presented a unique opportunity to design not only learning environments of the future, but also ways of learning. As part of the Dott 07 Festival, funded by OneNorthEast and the Design Council, Engine was asked to demonstrate how the design process could help the 65bn programme creating schools that are fit for purpose.

Engine’s approach dealt with the complexity of interactions, events, facilities, activities and the needs and desires of people in and around a school. We set up OurNewSchool - a design tool that approached schools as a ‘social system first, and a building second’.

An essential part of the process was co-creation - facilitating design workshops with students and developing tools to structure and inspire design sessions with the school’s senior leadership team. We worked closely with our prototype school - Walker Technology College - interviewing and designing with staff, students, local businesses and the community to understand how the bricks and mortar of the new school could facilitate new activities, new ways of learning and future ambitions. There were many exciting design challenges, but we focused on Walker’s drive to develop its personalised learning and vocational learning provision.

A key touchpoint to keep a wider audience of people informed of developments of the process, and for people to get involved in events and workshops and voice their opinions, was the OurNewSchool website.

One of our key designs was a diagram showing a student’s entire journey from Year 7 to Year 14, including the decisions, interactions and support they will encounter on the way. With the complete experience mapped out, we could look at the services the school provided to students with fresh eyes. We designed new activities, events, interactions and support networks, as well as conceptualising a virtual learning environment. We combined these with the new vocational learning provision in a booklet - a brief to the architect - which demonstrated how these activities and interactions inform the spaces and buildings that would facilitate them.

The school had a clear idea of what it wanted and didn’t want from a building and was clear about the experiences it wanted its students to have and articulated them effectively to the architects. The project developed within the school the tools, workshop activities and knowledge to continue to identify and respond to design challenges.

OurNewSchool was highly awarded at the Dott07 Festival. We also explored opportunities to scale up the project through national institutions. OurNewSchool The Game - a design-led planning tool for schools - was prototyped effectively. Find out more about the game here, and read the Design Council’s brief project report here.