Edition 2: How do trends in higher education inform K-12 design?

Welcome back to Lighting Design Talk! This month, in alignment with #AmericanEducationWeek, we've got #learning on the brain. Design practices for K-12 #education have evolved to prepare our youth for the rapidly changing world around us, with many emerging parallels between higher education campuses and K-12 learning facilities. Keep reading for a few examples of higher education trends that are informing K-12 design!

1. Technical programming requires specialized areas for cross-discipline learning.

To expose students to various ways they can participate in their learning experience, technical programming is offered in addition to core classes. Many K-8 schools are starting to include maker-space-style classrooms with breakout spaces by grade. High schools, in particular, have grown in scale so that they can provide specialized areas for learning and practicing trades.

Somerville High School offers both a college preparatory program and 14 career-oriented technical education programs. This means they have spaces specifically created to mimic the experience they might have in hair salons, dentist offices, mechanical shops, and more.

"As lighting designers planning these nontypical classrooms, we're considering how we can replicate what exists in commercial business spaces while maintaining a consistent student experience throughout the campus."

-Michelle Tessier, HLB Senior Associate

2. More K-12 schools are integrating campus-style building layouts.

In some districts, high schools are adopting higher education-style campuses comprised of multiple buildings in an effort to adapt to growing student populations. Each of these buildings requires an individual presence with varying nighttime lighting effects. At Brookline High School, lighting schemes were developed for:

• a renovated #STEM building that features modern lighting updates
• the new Cypress Street building, which includes affordable lighting options for typical classrooms
• an illuminated quad with central green and field spaces that are utilized by both the student body and the surrounding neighborhood
• a renovated Tappan Street building that needed to meet safety standards to accommodate the new MBTA Green Line station that runs below the building

According to the Boston Globe, this campus is not only an excellent display of a successful high school, but it also rivals some college campuses - an example, perhaps, of the student becoming the teacher.

3. Educational buildings are thoughtfully designed by top minds in the industry.

Recently, K-12 school buildings have benefited from a more sophisticated design approach - something that had almost exclusively occurred in higher education until now. More and more, K-12 students are being taught in thoughtfully designed spaces intended to support modern-day and future learning principles. These facilities are created with a focus on wellness for the end user, with considerations like visual comfort kept in mind throughout the entire building.

In schools like King Open Elementary School, students have the opportunity to interact with spaces that expose them to refined design elements and encourage them to think differently about the built environment at a much younger age than ever before. King Open is also designed to produce #netzero emissions, meaning the building includes several features that save and create energy, like solar panels, LED lighting, and a geothermal system to provide heat and cooling. In the cafeteria, there's a dashboard that measures electricity consumption, creating a physical opportunity for students to learn about their impact on sustainability.

Thanks for tuning into this month's newsletter! Now, we have a question for you - how would your learning experience have been different if you were exposed to modern design principles during your K-12 education? Let us know in the comments!