While relocatable, prefabricated learning environments have formed an important component of school infrastructure in Australia, prefabrication for permanent school buildings is a new and emerging field. This review of prefabrication for schools is timely. In 2017, Australia’s two largest state education departments committed to prefabrication programs for permanent school infrastructure. In this paper we examine the recent history of prefabrication for Australian school buildings in the context of prefabrication internationally. We explore the range of prefabrication methods used locally and internationally and introduce evaluation indicators for school infrastructure. Traditional post-occupancy evaluation (POE) tools measure indicators such as indoor environment quality (IEQ), cost benefit, life cycle performance, and speed of delivery. In response to a shift towards more student-centred learning in a digitally rich environment, recently developed POE tools now investigate the ability of new generation learning environments (NGLEs) to support optimum pedagogical encounters. We conclude with an argument for departments of education to consider how prefabrication provides opportunities for step changes in the delivery, life-cycle management and occupation of smart green schools rather than a program of simply building new schools quicker, better, and cheaper.

This book explores the expanded roles of schools, investigating how they may offer more to their communities than formal education. It also discusses what schools can gain from their communities through various forms of partnership and collaboration. We explore this ‘more than a school’ idea through past examples, in current practice, and as a model for schools into the future. Uniquely, the book investigates these issues from a spatial perspective, adopting the view that school and urban infrastructure, including buildings and landscaped outdoor areas (i.e., space), matters in the context of school-community relations. Indeed, we suggest that it mediates these relations, even though such influence is infrequently mentioned in the existing literature. Aligning our research with the spatial turn in the social sciences, we argue that research into school-community connections has tended to view such relations as fundamentally social, omitting adequate consideration of the role that space plays in enabling and/or constraining connections between school administrators, students, teachers, parents, carers, and members of the wider community. Adopting a spatial approach, a range of new perspectives are offered with respect to fostering stronger school-community connections through engaging thoughtfully with the built environment. The recurring themes of partnering, planning, designing, and enabling schools as community hubs are used to structure the 20 chapters that follow the initial scene-settings chapters.

The benefits of schools as community hubs for students, teachers, families, and the wider community have been documented in Australia and internationally. Indeed, connecting with community is now a key performance indicator for many Australian school principals. Nevertheless, planning, designing, and sustaining community-facing schools can be time-consuming and demanding for the professionals tasked with their delivery. Successful hub projects rely on the creation of trusting partnerships and establishing and communicating shared visions, as well as deft management of entrenched attitudes, resistance to change, and at times conflict. This chapter examines the experiences of professionals involved in delivering schools as community hub projects. Data is drawn from a workshop, post-workshop survey and seven in-depth interviews with school principals, architects, hub partners, policymakers, and others tasked with delivering ‘school as community hub’ projects. Rewarding as hub projects can be, the findings suggest that they can place high demands on the emotional resources of those involved. Our evidence suggests a strong theme of emotional labour, with implications for wellbeing, job satisfaction, and burnout. As a counterbalance, we argue that hub partnership mediators, dedicated hub staffing, and training pathways for leaders may help sustain more schools as community hubs to benefit children, their families and the broader community.

Https://doi.org/10.65388/HBES5218 Designing indoor environments that support wellbeing is a growing focus in architecture, with much research exploring individual needs in collective settings such as healthcare, education, and offices. Consequently, researchers have developed a range of design frameworks and survey instruments to examine the relationship between indoor environments and the multidimensional construct of wellbeing, informed...