Holistic Evidence and Design: Sensory Impacts, Practical Outcomes (HEAD)

People spend around an average of 90% of their time in buildings and the built environment sector (at least until recently) makes up 20% of GDP. The built environment is evidently a significant part of society that impacts on individuals through their direct experience, but also forms a massive element of the economy and of society's investment in its infrastructure. This research offers the potential for clients and their advisors to be able to use the engineering knowledge of a calibrated Environment-Human Performance Model to predict the impacts of various options and so to create optimal designs with greater confidence.

This is a two year project to contribute to the longstanding research question: can evidence be found for a link between a building's overall design and the performance of the occupants of that building? To explore this complex issue it makes sense to focus on building uses for which clear and objective user performance measures are available and it has been decided to take primary schools as the special case to address the above general challenge. Hence the specific proposition that this study seeks to explore is that: Demonstrable evidence can be found for the holistic impact of school building design on the learning rates of children in primary schools.

Despite a lot of design knowledge about schools, there is nothing that links the integrated features of school design directly with the impact on pupils' performance. Filling this gap should have a transformative impact as it will enable researchers and designers to contextualise and calibrate the specific elements being considered within an holistic impacts model. A hypothesis-driven, empirical study will be carried out shaped by the notion that the characteristics of the brain's functioning in synthesising sensory inputs shows the importance of three aspects of our environment, namely: naturalness, individualisation and the appropriate level of stimulation. This broad framework will be used to guide the selection of physical dimensions to measured, working within the rich context provided by the multitudinous focused studies already in existence.

The core element of this study will be an expert assessment of 150 diverse classrooms (c4500 pupils) to test, improve and validate an Environment-Human-Performance (E-H-P) model that allows the measurement, and so assessment, of built spaces and their human impacts. In this case the impacts will be measured improvements in the pupils' performance in mathematics, English and science. A sample of ten schools for a six month pilot phase has been identified to provide a diverse sample of school types and sizes. Once started the project will further identify five diverse classrooms within each school, in terms of their physical characteristics (orientation, level, size, etc). Building from the pilot study over the following nine months, the assessment of spaces will then extend to twenty more schools (100 classrooms) of diverse types and locations across UK. The data collected will support further analysis to refine and robustly evidence the E-H-P model. The theme of diversity in the spaces sampled is important to provide maximum opportunity for the impact of the physical factors to become evident.

After this main phase of measuring spaces and developing the E-H-P Model, a second six month phase of validation and refinement will be carried out through targeted, follow-up researcher observation of 50 classrooms, c1500 pupils. This phase is essential to calibrate the range of major factors identified with rich descriptions. In addition, observation of dynamic user influences, especially in relation to outliers, will strengthen the evidence base for the E-H-P model. The final phase of three months will focus on finalising the analysis and writing up the results and their initial promotion to the sector.

The results of this research will highlight and evidence those aspects of school design that synergistically support pupils' learning, and this at a time when there is intense pressure to optimise the school estate to maximise positive outcomes. This could be in relation to new schools, alterations or small refurbishment projects. The results will also contribute to the general thrust to maximise the positive contribution that the built environment can make so that value really can be addressed, rather than being overshadowed by cost considerations. This aspect affects all building types and the practice of designing spaces with positive impacts on users - offices, hospitals, homes, prisons, etc.
The time is ripe for knowledge of this sort to be surfaced for additional technological reasons. There is a big change sweeping the construction industry around the use of Building Information Modelling (BIM), which the UK Government has indicated will be an essential requirement for all Government projects by 2016. As the systems evolve beyond elaborate drawing tools, there will be a demand and a practical route in for "intelligence" to inform design options. This is a general opportunity, but for schools in particular it links closely with the James Report's call for more standardised and industrialised approaches. Knowledge created and inputted into this context will have real practical traction.
A series of mechanisms have been designed to maximise the realisation of the above potential to stimulate change and innovation in the construction sector. The strategy is to evidence, and then exemplify what is possible and to promulgate this through publications and events, supported by a web site and leveraged by the close involvement of key influencers (to the school building sector, construction in general and policy makers). This approach has proved very successful in past projects. The routes to impact follow a snow-balling logic. First the immediate partners to the project and some of the schools studied will take up the findings and thus it will influence their practices. Further, the international Sounding Panel of 25 experts will not only steer, but will also act as advocates for the project outcomes. Drawing from the above, two launch events are planned within the project resources, for practitioners both in education and in school design. At these events a high quality summary report will be launched and because of the timeliness, focus and importance of the issues we anticipate a high level of interest from these audiences. Taking this all-together awareness of the results will be raised very widely.
Crucial to success is that there are then resources to which those interested can go. In addition to the refereed journal papers, a summary design guide will be made available as a high quality pdf via a website that will also provide illustrative resources drawn from the project activity. Longer term a book will be produced, probably with Wiley-Blackwell.
Working closely with the British Council for School Environments the implications of the results will continue to be promulgated with practitioners and policy makers, via a stream of meetings and events. This is something that BCSE has a very good track record for and Salford in addition has extensive policy and industry contacts itself. It is expected that as a result both policy and practice will change to give increased importance to the sensory sensitive learning environment provided in our schools.
Where the project delivers models and algorithms with implications for associated issues (such as energy issues, intelligent BIM / ICT, holistic standards and other building uses), links to experts and other researchers will be drawn upon to ensure that this potential is fully exploited in the medium term. This is expected to involve various research teams building on this work, and also future activities of the current research team.