Designing the Sustainable School
This compilation of more than 40 international case studies commemorates sustainable design that considers not only eco-friendly features, but also the quality of a child's academic experience. Ford has collected an intriguing array of green school designs that range from a three-room schoolhouse in Gando, Bouglou, Burkina Faso, to a 2,500-student high school in California. Each selected design embodies Ford's vision for the future of sustainable academic design: "Imagine a school where the indoor air quality reduced the risk of exposure to disease, where the acoustics were such that learning was enhanced, where the quality of the finishes and architecture made you feel welcomed, where test scores improved," he writes.The selected case studies demonstrate how acoustics, visual comfort, light, and color perception have been incorporated into environmentally mindful designs for schools. Images, floor renderings, and elevations give the reader a spatial sense of each project.In the foreword, Richard S. Fedrizzi, president, CEO & founding chairman of the U.S. Green Building Council states, "Every morning we send our children to school to learn, to explore, and to imagine -- but we send them to buildings that are more like prisons than schools." This book is a celebration of the imaginative architects and educators across the globe who are breaking through the limitations of traditional school design to incorporate green innovation that harmonizes with principles of creative design for places of learning. --Rebecca Ward,Architectural Record: Schools of the 21st Century(The McGraw-Hill Companies), January 2008