Diversity in School Design ‐ Is there a better place to drive change than in school?
A review on the interviews in the Renew School project
Author: Sonja Geier
The renovation of school buildings is a major challenge for cities, municipalities and education offices. Ambitious energetic goals are essential in order to reach the climate protection targets and to raise the renovation rate. This also means a big financial challenge for those who are responsible for school buildings. The surveys in the frame of the Renew School Project showed that fund raising is the most time-consuming part. Many different sources of financing have to be found that are all linked with different conditions and obligations. Subsidies alone do not cover the realization of the increased demands. The project team gets even more under pressure and each additional measure is a challenge as far as finances and resources are concerned.
As a consequence, from the financial perspective, renovation measures are always subject to critical cost-benefit analysis. Structural defects and energy-oriented goals are always top priority.
This is at the expense of the potential of the multiplication effect. School is the central space to trigger and diffuse a new consciousness among the people. In an interview Karin Doberer, ex holistic objective under consideration of the usage quality in school buildings:
«If an energy-oriented renovation in a public building proves to be successful, these concepts transfer to private house owners. The key point, however, is user satisfaction without which a transfer would not work. The aim is to prevent that the users feel uncomfortable and regard the renovation as unsuccessful – a frequent reaction in case of energy-oriented renovations, primarily in passive house or plus energy house renovations that mean a big challenge for the users.»
With all the energy-oriented and technical goals the integration of modified pedagogic concepts and the user satisfaction is often neglected. Many people are not aware of the fact that even negative effects might be generated. Many users feel helpless if confronted with new technical building systems. The frustration that the `do not work properly` might lead to a general rejection of the energy-oriented renovation of the building.
Within the frame of the IEE-Project Renew School current practices in school renovation were to be analysed. The aim was to identify actors in the participating countries who see beyond their own noses. Their activities in school renovation and sustainable building were analyzed and the exemplary ones published. The following interviews were made and published in the frame of the project:
- Ingrid Domenig- Meisinger, arch+more (architectural office), Österreich
- Ana Kosi and Ana Kreč, Svet Vmes (architectural office), Slovenia
- Vesna Žegarac Leskovar, University of Maribor, Slovenia
- Susanne Hofmann, Die Baupiloten (architectural office), Germany
- Cornelia Becker, agn over architekten GmbH (architectural office), Germany
- Kirsten Engelund Thomsen, Danish Building Research Institute (SBi), Denmark
- Ditte Rode, Mangor & Nagel (architectural office), Denmark
- Lidewij Tummers, TU Delft, Faculty of Architecture & the Built Environment, The Netherlands
- Karin Doberer, LernLandSchaft (office for pedagogic architecture), Germany
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