Sample Projects
Strictly speaking, Happy Schools is not a project: it is an initiative IDEAS
has undertaken with our school design teaming partner, Fielding Nair
International, to package all of our tools into a due diligence and management
package for educational infrastructure. Happy Schools illustrates our humanistic
and holistic approach to due diligence and management.
Why Our Feasibility Studies Are Different
Many feasibility studies on schools are carried out by architects and
consultants who hope to be in a position to bid on projects authorized as a
result of the report. This leads to reports that resemble marketing and sales
pieces more than rigorous due diligence reports. They rarely discuss, or even
mention, the connection between Educational Excellence and Infrastructure, and
we have never seen one that guarantees or warranties that the work they are
recommending will be even moderately successful or will even function as
designed within the school's human-centric system.
The language used in many reports is highly technical and challenges the
comprehension of many of the recipients, to the extent that one may be led to
question whether the obfuscation is deliberate, intended to leave stakeholders
and decision-makers so confused and in such difficulty understanding the
contents that they will blindly rely on the consultant to guide their decision.
The document or data is generally either hard copy paper or static electronic.
Hardly ever is a detailed usability study carried out among building occupants
and parents of the children, and there is never a way for anyone to see how
requests and feedback from the building users are translated into real life or
successfully incorporated in final recommendations.
Widely distributed hard copy paper documents are seldom comprehended
similarly when reviewed by different parties in the project. Unsatisfactory end
results and exploding costs, which appear to be the norm in present-day school
construction/renovation, demonstrate this only to well. Seventy percent of the
data about problems within school infrastructures is hidden or not readily
available, and most of it requires translation by a specialist. This is one
reason why many school districts seem to have lost control of their facilities.
“You cannot manage what you do not measure, and you cannot
measure what you do not see.”
Our preliminary and more advanced working information systems are very
different from static reports: they contain clear data from all parties on the
project with end goal targets easily defined and made visible. Parametric
modeling combined with feasibility data very clearly reveals all the aspects of
a project in a much more accessible way than a simple text and document report.
As shown in the preliminary report on Carlos Gilbert
Elementary, you can even combine the total history of the site and school
(over 65 years) which includes how the demographics of the area and the
resulting design of the school have changed over its lifespan. A similar
exercise can be done looking into the future some 20 years, a task with which
many construction programs have great difficulty. Most importantly, the data is
easily viewable and what-if scenarios and the means for immediate feedback are
available to all participants, whether administration, construction, design,
state, federal, civic, school staff, parental and even the students.
Our systems also evolve with the school throughout its entire lifespan, so
that the school's complete current and historical data is available to all
parties in an easy to access and understand format. It can also be used to
obtain invaluable feedback from students who are at and have left the school.
The systems are truly dynamic as they grow and change with the school and its
district. Feedback is bidirectional, unlike 99 percent of building committees
and architectural charrettes (which several school board members on have
commented often resemble a charade controlled by the presenters more than a
technique for consulting with all stakeholders).
So if you have a complex problem with your school or district, try us! You
will be pleasantly surprised at how the successful results will delight you.
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