Partner with a school of your choice

We are inviting you, the designer, to work with students and teachers to design the classroom of the future for a school of your choosing. Your design should address the unique challenges your school faces in trying to provide innovative, safe and sustainable learning spaces.

Find out what teachers and students in your school need to make their learning environments more effective. Does the classroom inspire learning? Is it overcrowded? Noisy? Does the classroom have natural daylight? What obstacles prevent schools from upgrading classrooms or building additional classroom space? Show us how your design would address the obstacles to providing inspiring learning spaces in your school.

You may partner with any primary or secondary school. (Please note: Classroom designs for universities and other training academies are not eligible to win.) The school you choose to partner with can be a local school or one in another region or country. Student participation is strongly encouraged and will be considered by the jury. The competition focuses on the design of a single, replicable adaptable classroom. Design teams are not asked to submit designs for an entire school.

We've created teacher resources, including a design curriculum and web casts to help you engage and inspire students. Who knows, one of the students you work with could be the next Calatrava. And, you could be the one who inspired them to become a design professional.

Translations available at the bottom of the page.

We are inviting you, the designer, to work with students and teachers to design the classroom of the future for a school of your choosing. Your design should address the unique challenges your school faces in trying to provide innovative, safe and sustainable learning spaces.

As a designer you can:

• Share your design expertise and inspire school students to re-imagine their classroom
• Help students learn about the built environment using a companion design curriculum
• Become an advocate for better classroom design in your community

Find out what teachers and students in your school need to make their learning environments more effective. Does the classroom inspire learning? Is it overcrowded? Noisy? Does the classroom have natural daylight? What obstacles prevent schools from upgrading classrooms or building additional classroom space? Show us how your design would address the obstacles to providing inspiring learning spaces in your school.

You may partner with any primary or secondary school. (Please note: Classroom designs for universities and other training academies are not eligible to win.) The school you choose to partner with can be a local school or one in another region or country. Student participation is strongly encouraged and will be considered by the jury.

The competition focuses on the design of a single, replicable adaptable classroom. Design teams are not asked to submit designs for an entire school.

We invite you to work one-on-one with students to develop your design. There are no specific requirements. Student involvement can take the form of an hour-long after-school workshop or a more traditional lesson plan. We've created teacher resources, including a design curriculum and web casts to help you engage and inspire students. Who knows, one of the students you work with could be the next Calatrava. And, you could be the one who inspired them to become a design professional.

Need help finding a school partner? Know any teachers? Why not ask them if they would be interested in participating. How about re-connecting with the primary or secondary school where you learned your ABC's? We also recommend contacting your local education ministries, school boards or parent teacher associations. (Or, you can submit a design for one of our school building partners).

If your design wins your school will receive up to $50,000 to build or upgrade a classroom, and you will receive an award of $5,000 to help them do it.

May the best classroom win.

Challenge

In this challenge, you as a design team get to define the brief. To guide you, we're offering a template below. This will help you and us to understand the needs of your school. Please consider the elements below when you submit your project description.

With increasing student populations, schools are strained to capacity. Limited budgets are forcing school administrators, churches, and NGO's to accommodate students in makeshift classrooms: a portable classroom in Florida, a roof over an alleyway in India, or a tent in a refugee camp in African countries. Often these classrooms are dark, cramped, unhealthy and even unsafe.

Schools around the world can no longer afford to design and build for future capacity. To cope with increasing populations and keep the budget balanced they are addressing the need for additional learning spaces one classroom at a time.

Whether upgrading an existing classroom or adding classroom space, how can we design classrooms that encourage curiosity and creativity? How does a classroom adapt to regional needs and still meet the demands of 21st century learners? How must the classroom change to encourage parent and community involvement?

Partner

Choose a primary or secondary school near you.
Your School ______________________________________

Partner Description

Please tell us about your school. When was it founded and is there any unique history? Where is it located? How many students attend the school? How big is the school? What grades are taught?

Partner Website

Your school website (if available)

Location

Your school location. Please include any relevant information on the location (i.e. rural, low-income, high density, urban, suburban)

Need

Tell us why your school needs a new classroom or why an existing classroom needs to be upgraded?

Program

You are free to create a program based on the needs of your school.

Your design for a single classroom can take the form of a) a new, stand-alone traditional construction, b) a modular classroom, c) a site-built addition, d) a prefabricated construction or e) a conversion of an existing space. The classroom can be for general use or to teach a specific subject.

Collaborate with students

Architects and designers must partner with schools and students. This partnership can engage students of any age. A companion curriculum developed by Architecture for Humanity geared towards secondary school students will be freely available for use in conjunction with the competition. Use of the companion curriculum is not required in order to enter the Open Architecture Challenge; however, some form of engagement with partner schools is strongly encouraged. School engagement can include one or more of the following activities:

• Students partner with the designer in the design process
• Examples of original student work should be included with submission
• A survey (3-5 questions) completed by students (download example)
• A letter of support from school administrators indicating their interest in implementing the design should it be selected as a finalist
• Architects and Designers must demonstrate how student voices were included in the final design on the presentation board.
• Use our companion curriculum developed in partnership with Curriki and Global Nomads or develop your own.

Get creative. Let us know how you engaged students and teachers in the design process. Include documentation as an optional file in your submission materials.

Design Considerations

For help with design process, refer to the design considerations below.

Site/context

• Designers should consider responding to the context and site in the design process.
• How will your design effect the ecology of your site and be sustainable?
• In case of a classroom addition designers may illustrate the location of the addition and how it improves the learning environment of the school.

Spatial planning

• Innovative ideas for spatial planning of the classroom. The spatial planning will encourage flexible seating arrangement accommodating different teaching styles, such as group exercises or peer-to-peer learning.
• Effective spatial planning may include the design of classroom furniture and storage.
• Consider how you can add to and enhance play space.

Technology

• Designers should consider technicalities involved in incorporating computers into the learning environment.

Teaching aids and storage

• Consider how various architectural elements such as doors, windows, walls, ceilings and hallways (corridors) can be used as learning aids to enhance the learning experience for students and teachers.
• Classroom teaching aids (science equipment etc) are often shared among classrooms. Explore how teaching aids can be stored and shared between classrooms.
• Consider storage of student books and bags.

Materials and Construction

• Designers may consider incorporating locally available materials and simple construction techniques that address prevailing climatic conditions as well as seismic risks if applicable.
• Design teams are encouraged to explore the use of new and environmentally sustainable materials that may be easily procured locally and can be sourced within the cost constraints.

Lighting, ventilation and acoustics

• Designers may consider including innovative ideas for natural lighting and ventilation. Cost effective and low maintenance methods of mechanical or artificial lighting and ventilation to be considered.
• The innovation of traditional methods of lighting and ventilation is encouraged.
• Schools located in high-density urban areas require acoustical solutions for a better learning environment. Designers are encouraged to address acoustical issues through innovative use of materials (baffling, partitions etc.) and techniques in order to reduce noise levels.

Building codes

• Designers are required to refer to local building codes for school design.
• Designers may consider existing guidelines for best practices as applicable (See below). We would encourage you to refer to the local standards in your region.

Safety considerations

• Designers are asked to consider entry and exit strategies for students and teachers.
• Consider security in terms of visitors’ access and safeguarding students.
• Fire safety should be considered.
• Design of your classroom must be structurally sound within the context of the existing building.

Regional Cost Parameters

Your design should be competitive with prevailing construction norms in your area. Designers are asked to use the regional estimates below as a budget for the construction of their classroom. Costs should include site preparation and all building services.

Professional designers are strongly recommended to provide a detailed cost estimate along with their design proposal.

Region	Average Cost of Construction Per Classroom
Africa*	$7,000 USD
Latin America*	$8,000 USD
Asia*	$4,000 USD
United States (standard)**	$100,000 to $180,000 USD
United States (modular)**	$35,000 to $100,000

* Source: "Education Notes" World Bank August 2003
** Source: EdSource

Design Requirements

• Your design must be a proposal for a single classroom, though you may illustrate how your design works within the existing school.
• Your submission materials should include a list of building materials used in your project (either in the project description or illustrated in the drawings). Use of non-toxic, low VOC materials in the construction.
• Building costs must be in line with regional cost parameters. (See above.)
• Construction lead times must be competitive with current approaches in your region. (For eg. 8-10 weeks procurement lead time for portable classrooms; 8-12 weeks design, planning and execution for traditional construction)
• The design must provide natural and/or mechanical ventilation able to supply 480 cu ft per minute of fresh air.
• Acoustic levels should be 45db in an empty classroom or better to allow teachers to be clearly audible by students.
• The design must meet energy efficiency standards required by ANSI 90. 1-2004.
• Lighting levels, combining both day lighting and artificial lighting must be between 150-300 lux at desk height. And no more that 0.8 watts per square for artificial lighting.
• All dimensioning should follow the local standard of measurement most commonly used in the region.

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Please note: Additional information may be added to assist participants during the course of the challenge. Please check this website periodically for updates.

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