Architecture+Design Scotland

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Economic need dictates that we deliver building projects with a sense of urgency. Indeed why would we delay improving the delivery of public services to our communities. As always, this means pursuing the right design solutions in a timely and well managed manner.

But there is one crucial question we all need to ask whenever we are tempted to default to the least troublesome route to our individual project delivery: will this help Scotland deliver more for less across the public sector?

These days, we are all responsible for ‘the big picture’.  

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The Olympics finished yesterday, and today the talk is all about ‘legacy’. Reminds me of the question typically asked the day after a new building gets opened: “Well that was good – now what difference is it going to make?”

Shiny photographs of new architecture without people only serve to underline the focus on project completion. Job done. Well done. And we should never take that achievement for granted. But the purpose of buildings is not to be built, but to create . . . a legacy.

So, perhaps the real test for any new school bulding is: what happens next?

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What can the design of school environments learn from the design of office environments? As someone who strongly believes that ‘informed plagiarism’ is the most effective way to approach most problems, my answer would be – a lot.

However, it is striking just how much the commercial sector has learnt from the innovative spaces being created within the education sector. Yes, the brief for any company workplace strives for efficiency – but it will also prioritise creativity, innovation, and collaboration as essential elements of the modern , successful business. Sound familiar?

When we compare schools to offices let’s remember that both are about outcomes and both are about people.

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