NEW schools in Scotland are badly designed and need to be dramatically improved, an award-winning architect has warned.
Paul Stallan, who last month was named a "schools champion" by the Scottish Government, is due to tell Holyrood's education committee today that many of the new schools built since 1999 are poor or mediocre.
The committee is taking evidence on the
school estate in Scotland to look at how it can be improved.
Mr Stallan is representing Architecture + Design Scotland (A+DS), an organisation which seeks to promote good design in new buildings. He will quote an A+DS study of 26 planned school projects between 2005 and 2007 and 28 secondary schools completed between January 1999 and October 2003.
Although the study found some excellent new schools, including Hazelwood Special School in Glasgow, it concluded that most were below par.
Mr Stallan is due to question the environmental credentials of the new buildings, in the way they were built and the materials used.
He is also concerned that the people involved in building new schools are not looking beyond the next 20 years.
Mr Stallan is not convinced that enough has been put into the immediate needs of children and staff.
One unnamed school in North Glasgow had sealed windows because it had air-conditioning, which meant the building was often too hot and stuffy.
An A+DS spokesman said: "The concern is that there is a certain degree of 'greenwash' going on here. If a school has a wind turbine put on it, people are saying it is environmental, but it is not meeting the criteria through basic principles – the materials used, whether the school will last more than 20 years and how flexible it is for changes over time."
He added: "There is a concern that good design is seen as just an add-on rather than essential. It is important because this is about getting the best for our young people at a formative stage.
"The best examples of schools were ones which were at the heart of their communities and were more than just a school, but a community facility.
"All too often, early good intentions are not carried through to the delivery stage and many of the school buildings are becoming generic copies of one another rather than looking at the needs of particular communities."
Mr Stallan is also expected to question the effectiveness of public-private partnerships (PPPs) as a procurement strategy for building schools.
He will not rule out using PPPs but intends to warn that financial constraints imposed often lead to poor or mediocre design, and that the projects need to be managed more carefully.
However, Mr Stallan will say that there is no need for more guidance to be published on school design.
Instead, he believes that the existing guidance is often being ignored and needs to be enforced.
The full article contains 485 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
