Outside the Classroom: Spatial Considerations to Facilitate Community Relationships with Schools 1.3
Channel: LEaRNetwork University of Melbourne
Date: 2020-12-14

This presentation is part of the Schools as Community Hubs International Conference 2020, a multidisciplinary event held online on 3 and 4 December 2020. It explored the development of schools as community hubs with an emphasis on the role of the built environment (social infrastructure) in supporting such activity. The event was facilitated by the Building Connections: Schools as Community Hubs research team based at The University of Melbourne, Australia.
More information on the Building Connections ARC Linkage Project http://go.unimelb.edu.au/4ckr / building-connections@unimelb.edu.au / Twitter @BC_ARCProject.

FULL CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS:
Minerva: http://hdl.handle.net/11343/251939
ISBN: 978 0 7340 5616 0
Date: November 2020

CITE THIS VIDEO AND READ RELATED PAPER: 
Coulston, Benjamin (2020): Outside the Classroom: Spatial Considerations to Facilitate Community Relationships with Schools. University of Melbourne. Presentation. https://doi.org/10.26188/13311476
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ABSTRACT:
Densification of urban environments has led to increased pressure on existing school infrastructure throughout Australia’s major cities and elsewhere. Schools have continued to evolve as part of this process and facilities are more frequently leveraged for both public use and enabled for a range of education-related activities that foster community building. Design and procurement of schools currently builds upon acceptable minimum standards that often lack generosity to establish social spaces and spatial facilities that can be ‘borrowed’ by external users and provide critical social benefits. Through a review of New South Wales’ planning policy this article aims to identify the benefits of providing school infrastructure facilities that compliment public assets. It also discusses the challenges faced with the delivery of these assets within an on-going trend of urbanisation. It is argued that on-going planning for school environments will need to consider a holistic, community-wide view through a considered approach to shared facilities.