Category: design

Three HMFH School Buildings Earn LEED Gold Certification

Posted on by Caroline Dolan

Three HMFH School Buildings Earn LEED Gold Certification

Three HMFH school buildings achieved LEED Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) for the successful implementation of numerous sustainable design strategies! All three received a perfect score in the LEED Innovation category, meaning the designs exhibited exceptional performance beyond the requirements set by LEED.

Chapman Middle School
Weymouth, MA

The new Chapman Middle School serves 1,470 students in grades six through eight with state-of-the-art learning and gathering spaces. As the largest middle school in Massachusetts, student well-being was a focal point of the design and drove many of the project’s sustainability goals, from fostering a sense of belonging for all students to encouraging a healthy lifestyle.

Key Sustainability Elements
  • A variety of sunscreen strategies respond to each of the building’s solar orientations, reducing glare and improving occupant comfort
  • High-performance building envelope, ventilation, and air distribution systems maintain a comfortable and healthy interior environment
  • An accessible ½ mile walking loop connects two playgrounds and three fitness stations, promoting an active lifestyle and community use
  • Reuse and renovation of the gymnasium save on embodied carbon
Center for Science and the Environment
Bristol Aggie | Dighton, MA

With Bristol Aggie’s unique curriculum rooted in science, environmental, and agriculture-based education, the new Center for Science and the Environment (CSE) is a living-learning lab that promotes hands-on research and experiential learning. Close ties between the school and the landscape led to sustainability goals focused on water conservation, which now reduce indoor water use in the CSE by 68%.

Key Sustainability Elements
  • The CSE is the first school building in MA to utilize composting toilets
  • Two vegetative green roofs reduce stormwater runoff and offset heat island effect
  • Roof water is captured and reused for irrigation
  • Environmental graphics explain these sustainable systems for educational purposes
Gilbert Hall
Bristol Aggie | Dighton, MA

The renovation and addition to Bristol Aggie’s primary academic building, Gilbert Hall, showcases the environmental benefits of reusing existing buildings. The 1935 structure was redesigned to accommodate modern learning environments, maintain the building’s original character, and save on embodied carbon compared to new construction.

Key Sustainability Elements
  • By reusing 69% of the original building’s structure and envelope, the design saves 744 metric tons of carbon
  • The team conducted a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to understand the environmental impact associated with raw materials, manufacturing, and transportation of concrete, metals, and masonry to inform design decisions

New Josiah Quincy Upper School Tops Off!

Posted on by Caroline Dolan

New Josiah Quincy Upper School Tops Off!

City officials, students, faculty, community, and project team members all gathered at the site of the new Josiah Quincy Upper School in Chinatown to mark the completion of this monumental steel structure and celebrate what the new school will mean for the future of education in Boston.

“As we raise the final beam today, we look back in gratitude to everyone who has worked for the last 10 years to bring this project to life, and we look forward to the promise of inspiring young minds in the years to come.”

Kerrie Griffin | Director of Public Facilities, City of Boston

Designed to promote equity, wellness and academic growth, the new middle high school represents the City’s unwavering commitment to education and to sustainable, low energy, carbon-free buildings. Sitting on the edge of the Mass Pike, the impressive high-rise school includes state-of-the-art dining, theater, athletic, and media facilities, STEM classrooms and academic project areas to support different learning styles, all stacked under a multipurpose rooftop space to create a safe, secure environment for students to flourish. Students are only one of many beneficiaries: the school will be an accessible, community-wide resource upon its completion in the fall of 2024.

“This will be one of the greenest buildings in Boston, and we are so proud that it will be a showcase of the future that we build with every steel beam.”

Michelle Wu | Mayor, City of Boston

Renovate or Build New: A Life Cycle Comparison of Two Academic Buildings

Posted on by Caroline Dolan

Renovate or Build New:
A Life Cycle Comparison of Two Academic Buildings

What does a direct comparison between renovation and new construction reveal about a building’s environmental impact and how can this data inform future design decisions?

HMFH sustainability leaders Suni Dillard and Alexandra Christiana addressed these questions with Carrie Havey of The Green Engineer at USGBC Live’s Boston Forum, using a case study of two buildings at Bristol County Agricultural High School to compare the environmental impact of the products associated with renovation vs. new construction.

In recent years, there has been a push in the design industry to reuse existing buildings as a strategy to limit the greenhouse gas emissions that arise from the manufacturing, transporting, installing, maintaining, and disposing of building materials ₁. The idea seems simple: reuse buildings and reduce carbon emissions. However, the answer isn’t always so straightforward. How a building is reused or built new significantly affects its carbon footprint, so it is important to understand the impact of all design decisions in order to create environmentally responsible buildings.

While renewing and expanding the Bristol County Agricultural High School campus, HMFH had the unique opportunity to design two buildings with comparable program and scale. Using Tally, a Revit plugin that quantifies the environmental impact of building materials ₂, we conducted a life cycle assessment analyzing the products specified in both the renovation of Gilbert Hall, a 72,000 SF academic building from 1935, and the new Center for Science and the Environment (CSE), a 73,500 SF academic building, to weigh the benefits of renovations vs. new construction.

A life cycle assessment (LCA) is an analysis of a project’s impact throughout its lifespan, from the gathering and transportation of raw materials, to reuse after a building’s end of life. A completed LCA evaluates factors including global warming potential, acidification, eutrophication, smog formation, ozone depletion, and depletion of nonrenewable energy sources. In North America, there is currently not enough data to include site or mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) systems in a LCA despite their significant impact on a building’s sustainability. Therefore, our analysis of Gilbert Hall and the CSE focuses on the environmental impact of building materials.

By comparing data from the LCA cradle to gate stages for Gilbert Hall and the CSE, we were able to review the impacts of raw material extraction, manufacturing, and transportation for each project and learn which building elements and product categories are most beneficial in the design of a renovation vs. new construction project. This comparison looks specifically at global warming potential—a relative measure of greenhouse gas contribution over a 60 year-time horizon. For example, the LCA shows the renovation of Gilbert Hall has a 28% reduction in overall global warming potential (calculated in kg C02e) in the cradle to gate stage compared to the newly built CSE.

Building Elements

CSE: 353.3 kg CO2eq/m²
GH: 259.41 kg CO2eq/m²

The newly constructed CSE features a highly efficient exterior wall design, while Gilbert Hall excels in its minimal impact by reusing the existing structural elements.

Metals

CSE: 173.31 kgCO2eq/m²
GH: 230.64 kgCO2eq/m²

The lack of concrete used in GH’s renovation resulted in the majority of its material impact being attributed to metals within the enclosure.

While renovation is often the most sustainable option, a comprehensive understanding of each design element’s impact at all phases of a project promotes the most environmentally responsible choices. Life cycle assessments provide concrete data that can guide clients through a sustainable building process by weighing the impact and effectiveness of each decision over the course of the project. Where do we go from here?

Suggested Workflow
  • Pre-Design: Set benchmarks and targets, and demand low carbon materials/transparency
  • Schematic Design: Analyze, track and compare embodied carbon against benchmarks and achievable low carbon goals
  • Design Development: Prioritize healthy materials, create low carbon specifications, and conduct a carbon estimate
  • Construction Documents: Continue to  refine low carbon specifications, and require the general contractor to prepare a carbon estimate for construction
Suggested Carbon Reduction Strategies
  • Reduce the use of concrete, or substitute fly ash and/or slag for cement in the concrete mix*
  • Substitute precast hollow concrete floors for composite metal deck floors
  • Substitute cross-laminated timber for metal deck floors
  • Utilize glulam columns and beams in lieu of steel columns and beams

*Use of this as a replacement needs more study due to concern over material health issues

 

  1. Carbon Leadership Forum https://carbonleadershipforum.org/embodied-carbon-101/
  2. Autodesk https://apps.autodesk.com/RVT/en/Detail/Index?id=3841858388457011756&utm_medium=website&utm_source=archdaily.com.br

HMFH Implements Healthy Material Initiative at Bristol-Plymouth

Posted on by Caroline Dolan

HMFH Implements
Healthy Material Initiative at Bristol-Plymouth

In collaboration with the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA), HMFH is developing a new standard for healthy materials in K-12 public schools. Currently in design, the new Bristol-Plymouth Regional Technical School will serve as the pilot project for this program.

A healthy interior environment is foundational to a child’s education—by the time a student graduates high school, they will have spent more than 15,000 hours in a school, which is the second longest indoor exposure time after their home.¹ Therefore, it is essential that educational facilities provide the healthiest possible environments to support student wellness, growth, and development. A key piece of this is understanding the impact of building materials on health and well-being.

Research by Harvard University shows that chemicals often found in building materials have been linked to health conditions including cancer, immune suppression, diabetes, high cholesterol, obesity, and thyroid diseases.² Currently, product manufacturers are not required to disclose the chemical makeup of their products, making it incredibly difficult to make informed design decisions regarding the safety of building materials. In the same way that nutrition labels for food enable us to make healthy choices about our diet, complete material transparency allows designers and owners to understand the implications of different building materials and select accordingly.

Standards for material transparency do exist, and a primary goal of HMFH’s research for Bristol-Plymouth is to identify and specify materials that are proven to be safe by fully disclosing ingredient and manufacturing information through Declare. Declare is a platform for manufacturers to provide essential information on the material makeup of their products and compliance with standards such as the Living Building Challenge (LBC) Red List and LBC Watch List, which outline materials, chemicals, and elements harmful to human health and the environment.³

A product’s compliance with the LBC Red List is represented on the Declare label by the product’s Declaration Status, of which there are three:

  • LBC RED LIST FREE products disclose 100% of ingredients present at or above 100 ppm (0.01%) in the final product and do not contain any Red List chemicals.
  • LBC RED LIST APPROVED products disclose a minimum of 99% of ingredients present in the final product and may contain one or more Red List chemicals, but only if covered by an established exception.
  • DECLARED products disclose 100% of ingredients present in the final product but contain one or more Red List chemicals that are not covered by an approved exception.⁴

Drawing from over 50 years of experience designing K-12 public schools, HMFH is researching and vetting hundreds of materials to develop a baseline list of products that contribute to a healthy learning environment and are optimized for K-12 architecture. The intent of this research is twofold: first, to provide a list of healthy building materials to serve as a reference point for future projects, and second, to push manufacturers to disclose the chemical makeup of their materials and ultimately eliminate chemicals of concern present in these products.

Focusing on touch surfaces in schools, which encompass materials from furniture to door hardware, the Bristol-Plymouth team began with products commonly used in K-12 architecture to confirm they are not harmful. The research has shown many of these commonly specified products to be healthy, but for those that are not, HMFH’s designers investigated non-toxic equivalent products that meet the same standards for function, durability, and accessibility, which is crucial in public school designs. The materials and manufacturers vetted through this research will be used to develop a comprehensive list of touch surface materials that targets LBC Red List Free products and Declared products where Red List Free is not feasible.

The project’s state-funded budget and public construction laws pose additional challenges to this process. Under these laws, the team is required to provide three equal products for every product specified, which increases the amount of healthy material options that must be provided while budget constraints limit the field of not-toxic products available. Despite these challenges, HMFH’s research will provide a list of healthy products that can easily be implemented in K-12 school designs where the budget allows and can also be used to initiate change among material manufacturers and increase awareness surrounding harmful chemicals in building materials. Some examples of safer substitutes for typical products found in public schools include:

Lockers: High-density plastic lockers can replace painted metal lockers to eliminate their toxic coating

Whiteboards: Glass whiteboards provide a non-toxic alternative to typical painted steel whiteboards, which have a toxic coating

Shades: Fabric window shades are a healthier alternative polyvinyl chloride (PVC)

As the pilot project for healthy material research, Bristol-Plymouth will be a model for healthy schools in Massachusetts. The purpose of this research is to establish initial product standards for MSBA-funded schools, with an ultimate goal of eliminating chemicals of concern from school building materials to ensure that all students across the State have access to healthy interior environments.

Read more about this exciting initiative in a feature from the Boston Globe.

Sources:

  1. Schools for Health
  2. Harvard University | School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS)
  3. International Living Future Institute
  4. International Living Future Institute

Saugus Middle High School Achieves LEED Platinum Certification

Posted on by Caroline Dolan

Saugus Middle High School Achieves LEED Platinum Certification

Saugus Middle High School is the first project publicly funded through the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) to reach the highest level of LEED certification. This significant milestone is a product of a holistic approach to sustainability that considers how each design decision will culminate in a facility that truly serves its environment and occupants.

Water Conservation

Three 30,000-gallon underground cisterns collect water for reuse while rain gardens throughout the school’s parking lots filter stormwater runoff from the site and mitigate heat island effects. Together with the use of low-flow fixtures, these measures reduce the building’s annual water consumption by 45 percent.

Air Quality and Ventilation

Located less than 300 feet from a busy six-lane highway, the new facility responds to the challenge of providing optimal air quality with rooftop mechanical air handling units positioned with their intakes facing away from the highway and prevailing winds. This enables displacement ventilation systems to distribute clean air throughout the interior, bringing 20 percent more fresh air into the spaces at low velocity without the typical costs and acoustical distractions associated with conventional mechanical systems.

Equity

The new school represents a transformation of Saugus Public Schools to reflect the town’s vision for innovative, equitable facilities. Creating a welcoming, accessible and inclusive environment for all was critical to the success of the design. All-gender toilet facilities are conveniently located and used by faculty and students alike. Special education spaces feature tunable LED fixtures, giving teachers flexibility to adjust light intensity and color temperature to help modulate behavior and respond to light sensitivity. A special classroom on the third floor provides a designated space for medically fragile community members with exceptional views and access to a rooftop classroom.

Energy Efficiency

Saugus Middle High School uses a combined heating and power system known as tri-generation. Generating electricity on-site significantly reduces operational carbon emissions and eliminates emissions associated with regional source generation, while utilizing waste heat for space heating, domestic hot water heating and space cooling. Continuously running generators improve resiliency by ensuring emergency systems will be operational when they are needed most.

Bristol Aggie Natural History Museum: Progressing Through Local Ecology

Posted on by Caroline Dolan

Bristol Aggie Natural History Museum: Progressing Through Local Ecology

Housed in the new Center for Science and the Environment, Bristol Aggie’s Natural History Museum showcases student-curated exhibits and an extensive collection of native New England flora and fauna.

Designed with highly visible building systems and exposed structural elements, Bristol Aggie’s new Center for Science and the Environment functions as a teaching tool and fosters hands-on, experiential learning. Within the CSE is a state-of-the-art museum space, which fully embraces Bristol Aggie’s hands-on learning approach by allowing students to curate the exhibits on display.

For the past 25 years, Bristol Aggie’s Natural History Museum has been an important piece of the campus and curriculum. However, previously siloed in an 18th century barn, the museum was cut off from the heart of campus and separate from the greenhouse where Natural Resource Management students worked intensively with the collections. This left NRM students without essential resources needed to perform their lab work. It was important that the design of the new museum not only address these concerns but create an exciting environment on par with the caliber of the collections it showcases.

The design of the new museum addresses aspects such as ease of use, visibility on campus, and user experience. Located on the first floor of the CSE’s southern wing, the museum occupies a corridor; the linear architecture of the space guides students through the collection in a natural progression, making the museum easily accessible and understandable. Treating the space as a hallway gallery also encourages students who are not involved in the NRM program to regularly engage with the exhibits as they travel through the CSE. A neutral color palette and warm wood tones reflect the identity of a school rooted in nature and agriculture and allow the exhibits to be the focal point of the space.

“Having our new museum right here, with all of our facilities in one location will allow for easier logistics, for maintaining all of this, and for having the museum available to all of the students every day, because this is also a hallway… Whatever our students do in a particular day is visible to the entire school community.”

Brian Bastarache | NRM Program Director, Bristol Aggie

Adjacent to the exhibits are adaptable labs for students to engage in project work and curate exhibits. The proximity and flexibility of the lab spaces are a much-needed upgrade from the singular isolated lab students were previously working in. The design of the museum puts academics on display, using glass walls to create uninterrupted views into the lab spaces and showcase the exciting, hands-on project work happening inside.

Architectural Graphics: Enhancing the Educational Experience

Posted on by Caroline Dolan

Architectural Graphics:
Enhancing the Educational Experience

Whether spanning from floor to ceiling in multi-story public atriums or situated along a central corridor, bold and dynamic custom-made graphics have become a signature of HMFH schools, helping to connect students to their academics, the natural environment, and their surrounding community.

Designing facilities that inspire a passion for learning is the core of our practice and, understanding that learning styles are not one-size-fits-all, the learning environments we create cultivate an immersive experience for students where all architectural elements culminate in a space that engages intellectual curiosity and prioritizes student wellbeing. Our in-house, custom-made graphics play a central role in what sets an HMFH school apart from others. Tailored to reflect the unique identity, culture and educational values of each client, these graphics support the student experience by transforming the space with bold colors and dynamic compositions that engage young minds.

Fales Elementary School

In this elementary school setting, our graphics take on a new life as whimsical, storybook-style art pieces designed to create a warm and playful environment for young K-3 students. Inspired by the school’s surrounding landscape, academic spaces at Fales are organized into four different zones, each represented by a different ecosystem–forest, meadow, marshland, and pond–and a corresponding color palette.

Depicted in these large-scale wall graphics, the four ecosystems each feature the beloved Fales mascot, Annie the Hedgehog. Students can follow her adventures through the various landscapes as she interacts with different native creatures along the way. Situated in the project area of each academic zone, as well as along the main cafeteria wall, these graphics work to captivate the student’s imaginations while familiarizing them with their own natural environment. They strengthen students’ connection with nature and in doing so, promote environmental stewardship.

Bristol County Agricultural High School

At Bristol Aggie–a unique agricultural high school that promotes a hands-on, exploratory approach to learning–the entire campus is designed to function as a teaching tool for its students. Custom-made graphics support this vision by illustrating scientific concepts from Bristol Aggie’s curriculum and breaking them down in a way that is easily understandable and visually compelling.

Mounted on walls, windows and stairwells, the graphics are present all throughout the Bristol Aggie campus, putting science and sustainability on display while strengthening the school culture. Whether illustrating the complex process of the fast and slow carbon cycles, breaking down the different components of a vegetative roof garden, or comparing the makeup of plant and animal cells, academics are informally reinforced enabling students to gain a deeper understanding on their own terms.

Saugus Middle High School

The new combined Middle High School celebrates Saugus’ history and culture with original wall graphics honoring some of the town’s iconic landmarks, industries, and people. Vibrant colors are interwoven with historic imagery and illustrated elements to create compelling compositions that visually communicate the story of Saugus and help students appreciate the richness of their community.

As students move through three academic pods with distinct identities, they encounter some of these dynamic, multi-story supergraphics along monumental lightwells, depicting Saugus’ pioneering industries in ice, iron and lobstering. The graphics establish a unique identity for each pod that fosters a sense of belonging among students and assists in wayfinding throughout the large complex.

Exploratory Labs: Paving the Way for Experiential Learning

Posted on by Caroline Dolan

Exploratory Labs: Paving the Way for Experiential Learning

In support of Weymouth’s mission to engage and empower students through interdisciplinary, project-based learning, the educational program for the new Chapman Middle School is centered around unique “exploratories”—introductory classes to elective tracks that focus on modern, STEAM-driven paths in career technical education.

Located at the threshold between the school’s academic wings and central hub for student activity, the exploratory labs bridge the transition from shared public space to academic zones. The labs are housed within three distinct tower-like, top-lit structures, or pods, that utilize their unique and expressive architectural forms to represent the flexible and collaborative nature of the interior program spaces. Each positioned at the entrance to one of the three academic wings extending off the cafeteria, the exploratory labs shape the organic layout of this central space. Distinct cladding materials define a unique identity for each space: a metal pod, a wood pod, and a glass pod.

Culinary Lab

Chapman Middle School’s culinary lab occupies the first floor of the metal pod and provides a unique opportunity for students to incorporate cooking, cultural awareness, and nutrition in their curriculum at the middle school level. The spacious layout of the lab positions a teaching room for lecture-based learning adjacent to cooking stations for hands-on lessons.

Notable features:

  • Flexible classroom furniture for lecture-based lessons on culinary practices, world food cultures and healthy nutrition
  • Universally designed cooking stations used for hands-on lessons include 4-burner stoves, convection ovens, char broilers and microwaves
  • Mobile teaching demonstration station with cooktop induction units
  • Large openings to convenient transportation of materials
  • Solid surface counters and washable walls and ceilings for simplified maintenance
Expeditionary Learning Lab

Located directly above the culinary lab, the expeditionary learning lab provides a flexible learning space geared towards self-directed, collaborative and project-based activities. Varied seating and table types can be re-arranged to outfit the space for a wide range of lessons from presentations, to class discussions, to small group projects.

Notable features:

  • Designated presentation space and teaching wall with large LCD monitor
  • Small group collaboration spaces with individual touch screen monitors
  • Flexible and varied furniture for a variety of hands-on activities including research, writing, reading, math and science
Theater Arts Classroom

To accommodate Weymouth’s robust theater programs, the first floor of the wood pod provides teaching space outside of the auditorium and a black box theater for students to study, rehearse and put on small-scale performances. This flexible space is not only a valuable resource for the emerging middle school theater program, but also for the high school theater program and local drama groups. Co-locating theater arts and the broadcasting lab within the same pod enables the programs to share a control center.

Notable features:

  • An overhead tension wire grid – a fall-safe technical level space where students learn the behind-the-scenes ins and outs of theatrical lighting and rigging
  • Motorized blackout shades block any light penetrating the space for Blackbox performances and let light in during lessons and rehearsals
  • Moveable furniture in the performance room can be used for audiences, lectures or removed entirely
Broadcast Lab

The broadcast lab overlooks the theater arts space below and offers students state-of-the-art equipment and spaces to explore the technical aspects of video and audio production. The lab will also be utilized for student organizations and a large after-school program.

Notable features:

  • State-of-the-art broadcasting equipment including a soundproof control center, recording studio with green screen and mounted LED studio light fixtures
  • Windows from the control center to both the adjacent recording studio and to the theater arts space below to allow both programs to utilize the high-tech control and recording equipment
  • Ability to broadcast throughout the school or town-wide
Media Center

Chapman Middle School’s new media center, which resides on the first level of the glass pod, introduces contemporary design elements typically seen in higher education spaces without compromising the function of a traditional school library. A double-height open plan layout combined with tall openings in the frosted resin cladding establish a visual connection between the media center and the Town Square, while a variety of seating types and breakout spaces make the space fully accessible.

Notable features:

  • Flexible and varied seating conducive to a wide variety of learning styles
  • Designated spaces for casual study, small group learning, and large group meetings
  • Operable glass wall enables the meeting room to open up into the flexible learning space for larger assemblies
  • Circulation desk centrally located to monitor media center activity
  • Located near the main entrance for after-hours community use
  • Skylights and tall openings introduce daylight into this space at the heart of the school
Makerspace

Overlooking the media center below, the makerspace lab encourages collaborative, hands-on learning as students begin to explore the engineering, design and fabrication process. Centered around student discovery, the flexible makerspace accommodates a wide range of large-scale projects and fosters teamwork among students.

Notable features:

  • Robotics focused equipment
  • Flexible work benches with durable tabletops for a wide variety of projects
  • Spray paint booth, vent booth for soldering, 3D printers, a plotter and laser cutter
  • A built-in storage wall for student projects, raw materials, parts, and kits

Stories of Sustainability

Posted on by Caroline Dolan

Stories of Sustainability

For over 50 years, responsible energy use and conservation has been guiding the design process at HMFH. Today, our commitment to climate action is stronger than ever. From LEED, to CHPS (Collaborative for High Performance Schools), to net-zero energy, we help our clients make smart decisions about how to build an energy-efficient, healthy building that contributes to the wellness of its occupants.

Learn more about our ongoing efforts to design sustainable, resilient learning environments—including the new net-positive energy Fales Elementary School, the innovative Tri-Gen system at Saugus Middle High School, and the net-zero ready dairy barn and living learning lab used as teaching tools at Bristol County Agricultural High School.

Video created by Clyde Media and produced in collaboration with the Boston Society for Architecture.

Child-Centric Design

Posted on by Caroline Dolan

Child-Centric Design

“When I went to school, my classrooms were so boring. Because of that, in the back of my mind I’m always gathering information and thinking: how can I design this school to make it feel like a place I want to be, like a place a child would want to be?”

Melissa Greene | Senior Associate, HMFH Architects

We call that kind of thinking child-centric design because it focuses on the student’s needs and interests, and it’s critically important in the design of environments for children. As designers of schools, we’re always thinking about children and how they move, think and play. We want to make sure students’ physical environments are emotionally engaging, supportive of their learning and their creativity. That critical concept travels through all our design decisions. This means we spend time understanding the students’ daily activities within the school or classroom and anticipating how the spaces might support those activities and we talk with educators and  students to get their input and to make sure our choices support their goals.

For instance, we think a lot about designing to the scale of the child. Windows, cubbies, lockers and seating areas are carefully designed and scaled so that students know the spaces are specially created for them. Particularly for younger children, we build in whimsy and fun through playful use of color, form, and pattern; and the unusual juxtaposition of design elements sparks a student’s curiosity and inspires creativity.

At HMFH, designing child-centric spaces also means keeping up to date with neurological research on learning and understanding the implications of that research on the spaces we design. We are seeing clear themes in that research that reinforce our current design ideas but also point to new ways of thinking about the design of learning places.  For instance, research is telling us that students learn more readily when emotionally engaged in the subject matter. We know that stress reduces the ability to learn because the thinking lobes of the brain’s prefrontal cortex shut down when we are stressed. Conversely, creativity is fostered when students feel safe, supported and free to explore their interests. We know that neural connections are strengthened, reinforcing learning, when students are exposed to the same ideas through different types of learning activities. We also know that physical activity reduces stress and has a positive impact on a child’s cognitive performance. So what does this all mean for how we design schools?

At the Thompson Elementary School we designed the school to be a joyful and supportive learning environment. To minimize any stress associated with students’ first school experience, we made sure it was a welcoming place for their families. The design draws the families into a colorful and light-filled lobby space and then provides a clear path to special transition spaces outside of classrooms where students can spend time with their family members before or after school. This is a place where the students know their whole families are welcome and supported.

For older kids, we include break-out zones for  activities like individual study, collaborative projects, social conversations, or crafts, so that students have space to develop their own interests, and to feel creative within a larger school setting. Such project spaces are now a regular component of our school designs. We want to design to the scale of their ideas.

No one likes to sit still for long; physical activity is important and has a positive impact on learning. We are building in opportunities for movement at all scales, from wonderful new types of seating allowing students to wiggle and squirm without disturbing others, to spaces for project-based learning that allow for movement while building stuff, to creating connections from the out-of-doors to learning spaces so students can move in and out easily. Even providing different types learning spaces allows student to take a break and reengage by simply moving from one place to another.

All of these techniques are child-centric. Whether providing a small child with a small nook to curl up in to read a book, or carving out a small group area off of a corridor for teenagers to perform a skit they have written, every design decision should help support the student socially and emotionally as well as cognitively.

“At the Bristol County Agricultural High School, students asked for connections to outdoor areas, and a community space that really flows between the outdoors and indoors. That connection to nature was important, but they also valued the option for flexibility and to shape their space over time. Those elements were key to creating a comfortable and welcoming place for them.”

Bobby Williams | Associate Principal, HMFH Architects

At HMFH we design spaces that will resonate with the students and help them understand that they are important and that learning is important, and that their school has been designed for them. Spaces have the power to re-awaken thinking, provide comfort and support academic growth. That potential is at the core of why child-centric design is so powerful.