Community links
We believe the ultimate test of the learning environment is the contribution it makes to society. There are many ways an educational institution can bring benefits to its community. Which one is right depends on the institution's goals and the society it serves.
That can happen in many ways depending on the type of institution and together they make life-long learning a reality. Where parents work for an enlightened, large-scale organisation like the DSS, their children may spend their formative first few years in a crèche provided by the employer. We work hard to provide an environment that encourages children and reassures parents and so helps to broaden the concept of the community in the workplace, and to strengthen the links between the workplace and its neighbourhood.
Schools often provide a social focus for their immediate area. We believe design can help to broaden and deepen this role, ensuring that pupils learn in a safe environment but also that resources like libraries and sports facilities can be shared with the community. Doubling up usage helps to justify higher quality as well as strengthening links with the community. Further education colleges also provide options for adults to increase their skills and prosper within the workplace.
In universities, the community can refer to the world-wide network of specialists in particular fields of academic endeavour, or the immediate group of staff and students in one campus. Our campus extension including 350 study bedrooms to the University of Brighton's Eastbourne Campus has a series of buildings which create secure, landscaped courtyards surrounded by mature trees. This challenging site is in a conservation area and adjacent to an area of outstanding natural beauty. We achieved planning consent where other architects had failed.
In all cases imaginative design can make the purpose of the buildings clearly legible. That gives them a civic identity, and whatever level and method of learning they provide, shows how design can help to make the learning process enjoyable for all, so that it becomes an integral strand of life across an entire community.