This design provides a mobile classroom which is simple and effective.
Simple Effective Architecture (SEA).

This design addresses three primary concerns for a classroom. Comfort, lighting, and noise. This design is very quiet, comfortable and provides ample amounts of natural light.

It also provides a highly adaptable modular assembly (HAMA) construction method suitable for many climates. This modular construction concept can be extended to other buildings on campus, allowing for a highly configurable campus layout. These buildings are designed to be ‘stand-alone’ but can be easily integrated into a closed or open series of structures.

Main Structure - Utilizes structural insulated panels (SIPs)
High thermal resistance
High structural rigidity
Simple construction

Field or Factory Fabrication
SIPs provided with electrical conduit channels within the panels (field or pre-wired)
Arrives to site either completely knocked down or fully assembled (double-wide trailer style). Shipping requirements and local labor costs would determine which configuration makes more sense.
Domed roof could be hinged on the factory assembled units allowing the roof to fold down for ease of transportation (bridge and wire clearance) and quick field assembly

Lighting
This design provides ample natural light with little thermal solar gain.
Natural and artificial lighting is reflected off the ceiling to provide diffused light with minimal or no glare.
Light sensors would automatically turn on/off or dim the artificial lights to adjust for the daylighting conditions.
Side bottom windows are shaded by the light shelf and located 4.5-ft high. This provides the students with a view outside but not a direct view of the outside environment while seated (see attached inside views). They would have to look up a bit which would obscure much of the foreground. This may cut down on a students desire to stare out the windows?

Noise
Exterior noise mitigated with SIP construction. Panels made by sandwiching polystyrene foam in between oriented strand board (OSB). Wall panels (2” to 4” thick), floors (8” to 10” thick), ceiling (2” to 4” thick). SIPs provide excellent noise mitigation of the external environment.
Double pained glass will mitigate exterior noise through the windows
HVAC systems designed for quite operation (more under HVAC designs)

Building Coatings
Roof - Coated with Eneseal HR - Durable, seamless, waterproof and breathable, heat reflecting, flexible skin coating. This coating can be painted on (sprayed, brushed, or rolled). Field or factory applied. Will keep the roof cool and water tight. Maintenance and repair is very simple if required (just clean area and paint on). No off gas / no odor when applied. (www.enecon.com)
Exterior Walls, Underfloor, (and possibly roof) - Coated with 1/4” to 3/8” Grancrete layer. It is a ‘green’, inert material. Field or factory coated (sprayed on, requires commercial equipment for application; similar application to “shot-crete”, sprayed on concrete). This coating provides greater structural rigidity, a monolithic coating, moisture barrier, and high flame resistance. (www.grancrete.net)
Grancrete can be mixed with pigment so no painting would be required. Since the color is mixed throughout the material, if vandals were to paint or mark the material in a permanent way, it could be sanded down to eliminate the damage. No painting or reworking would be required. Grancrete sticks to itself, so patchwork is also an option.

Resistant to many Natural Disasters
Full Structural Insulated Panel construction along with a domed roof would provide a very strong structure. Such a structure could resist high wind loads (hurricane, tornado, etc), and high snow / ice loads. It could also resist strikes from flying debris.
With an exterior coating of Eneseal HR the building would be highly resistance to moisture problems caused by environments with high humidity and/or rain. A fully coated structure would essentially be waterproof and weather a flood unharmed.
SIPs use polystyrene foam which would not be affected by water or moisture. The insulation therefore does not deteriorate with time or exposure to moisture.
With an exterior coating of Grancrete the building would essentially be impervious to water and highly resistant to fire. It would also be stronger and resist high wind, snow, or ice loads. An exterior coating on a SIP construction would be highly resistant to flying debris and/or exterior explosions. Grancrete has high tensile strength but can flex a good deal. It also has a very high fire rating.

Location

Pretty much anywhere. The nature of the construction method, shipping options, along with the options for coatings would make this form of construction suitable for pretty much any climate.

Ventilation

There are many options for forced ventilation using an HVAC system; these will be discuss in the HVAC section.

If natural ventilation is desired, manually operated grates can be located at the bottom of the doors, along the bottom of the side walls, or underneath the perimeter of the floor if the building is raised above the ground to allow cool ‘ground level’ outside air in. If floor level grates are not desired, the bottom side windows could be opened, along with the top (arch) windows. These two sets of windows open out but are hinged opposite so together would provide a natural air pattern that would follow the natural pattern of heat rising and aid cooling. Or the doors could be opened. The design shows four in total (one in each corner) but this many doors in not required.

The domed roof has six panes of glass on each side wall that can be manually opened to allow hot air to flow up and out. These panes of glass would be hinged along the bottom edge.
The lower rectangular side windows would open as well but would be hinged from the top. If it were raining, the bottom windows would be utilized in lieu of the top windows.

Utilizing the top windows for ventilation would be slightly more effective from a thermal perspective and would help to mitigate outside noise.

Discussion of Interior Design?
As noted earlier, this design addresses three primary concerns for a classroom. Comfort, lighting, and noise. This design is very quiet, comfortable, and provides ample amounts of natural light.

The domed ceiling provides many benefits. It provides:
A curved reflective surface that allows for reflective natural light and artificial light. Having the light hit the ceiling first and then reflected down would reduce or eliminate glare from the outside light and/or the artificial light sources.
A high ceiling. Studies have found that big rooms with high ceilings and plenty of natural light are better environments for creative thought (art, some science work, brainstorming, writing, etc). The same referenced studies showed that a low ceiling / smaller space with artificial light provides a more conducive environment for more analytical and/or tedious work (math, some science work, filing, accounting, etc).
A translucent fabric will be utilized as an internal light shelf to eliminate any direct sunlight that might pass through the large top windows. This fabric can be rolled into a holding box (similar to a projection screen) or rolled out to completely enclose the ceiling (each side has a screen so they would meet in the center). These screens could be controlled manually but would be better executed with simple electrical control and motors. This translucent fabric would totally eliminate any glare. This option could be utilized for ‘setting a more conducive environment for analytical and/or tedious tasks by reducing the ceiling height and dimming the nature light a bit. (see illustration for more details)
Walls painted mauve (pinkish hugh). Pinkish hughes such as mauve have been found to have a calming affect on people. This may keep the kids calmer and more under control.
Floors tiled for maintenance and health reasons. Area rugs provided for classrooms with young children for ares of play.

Adjustable light shelf / sun shade / storm shutter / rain collector
The quad-functional architectural element would be hinged on the bottom and adjustable by two sets of connecting wires. The adjustments could be manual (using a winch or automated with a motor and electronic controls). It could be simply adjusted one time and left in place, adjustable by the teacher, or have more sophisticated digital controls utilizing light sensors to auto adjust throughout the day or more likely throughout the seasons.
This element would not only reflect the sun light onto the domed ceiling but also provide shade for the bottom side windows to cut down on thermal gain from the sun.
During a severe weather event (and/or at night for security) the shutter could be closed to protect the large arch windows. Shutters are not shown for the bottom set of windows but could be installed if severe weather and/or additional security are a factor.
This element would also serve as an additional rain collection element. Rain would run off to the bottom edge and into the side gutters.

Rain Collection
All the roof rain runoff would be channeled by the side gutters for use in grey water systems. Bathroom modules would butt-up next to the side of a classroom module. The rain water would enter into water collection basins mounted high on the walls. These basins would be gravity feed into the toilets holding tanks, providing a totally gravity fed sewage system.
Overflow from these tanks would be pipe outside to smaller perimeter gardens if possible.
Gutters not associated with bathroom units could drain into garden areas or be drained into grey water storage tanks or site reservoirs for other building usages.

Storage
Storage modules would also be made to butt-up to the sides of the classroom units. These could vary from small spaces up to near classroom size. (campus layout shows these modules built to the same size as the bathroom modules)

Hallways
Hallways could be made with just the addition of floors and with roof components supported by adjacent building structures (where applicable) - see illustrations for examples.
Thick plastic roofing stretched and supported by wires attached to adjacent classroom modules could provide a cost effective and pleasant looking solution for interconnection of buildings. The translucent properties of this solution would eliminate the need for lighting the hallways during the day and/or drastically reduce lighting demand on dark days.
Hallways could be naturally ventilated or provided with heating and cooling. Since all doors would be exterior rated doors, naturally ventilated hallways could provide a cheaper more environmentally friendly solution.

Other variations.
The classroom size shown is 24’ x 24’ with a full dome roof. The classrooms can come in any size and the same benefits can be provided with semi-dome configurations, essentially cutting the structure in half and inserting a larger vertical wall (see the administrative buildings in the campus layout images).
The placement of the rooms and the sub-assembled structures (bathrooms, storage rooms, offices, hallways, etc) have many possibilities.

HVAC systems

If cooling were required and this building were part of a larger campus of similar buildings a “chilled beam” solution and/or terminal induction units would provide optimal performance.
Chilled Beam systems use terminal induction ‘chilled beams’ that consist of sensible coils and primary ventilation air nozzles that induce room air and provide additional cooling using chilled water at temperatures above the dew point, so not to condense any room moisture. These systems require a chilled water system and a central air handling system to precondition the air and provide good filtration.
Chilled beam systems are ‘primary ventilation’ systems that typically utilize energy recovery systems on the primary ventilation air-handling units. These systems provide reliable ventilation air and are very energy efficient. They are also very quiet and require virtually no maintenance; plus they are easy to install. These cooling units can be equipped with lighting which would be recommended.
The Chilled Beams would be hung from the ceiling (just as the lighting is shown in the drawing). Hot water would be run through the coils during the heating season which would require a remotely located boiler. Baseboard hot water heating elements along the perimeter of the windows may be a good idea as well.
This system utilized relatively ‘warm’ chilled water and relatively ‘cool’ hot water so PEX piping could be used in lieu of copper. This would reduce cost further and make onsite connections easy.
The terminal HVAC and lighting could be pre-assembled requiring just water and electrical connections into the main system. Campus maintenance would be simplified by having the main HVAC components centrally located. This approach is a departure from traditional mobile classrooms which usually provide a singe distribution DX-system with compressors mounted to the packaged system. These systems are typically noisy, inefficient, require more maintenance, and have a much shorter lifespan compared to the chilled-beam system outlined above.

Geothermal energy could be utilize in lieu of a boiler/chiller configuration. A water to water heat pump could be utilized instead of a chiller and boiler. This could increase the installed cost but provide greater energy efficiency.

If this building is required to be a stand alone building or part of a small campus that would not warrant the cost of a larger system but still required cooling; a good HVAC system could still be provided. For a ‘stand alone, pre-packaged system’ a rooftop unit located along the perimeter of the building or partially located within a crawl space (see drawing) could provide a good solution. Providing the rooftop with a hot liquid refrigeration circuit for controlled dehumidification and sensible heat control would be recommended (see Carrier Centurion series “Humidimizer” option for more details). Ductwork could be run along the bottom of the floor and distributed from below or along the side of the walls (displacement ventilation style). Such a configuration would require pre-cooled air that is reheated (via a refrigerant energy recover circuit like the Humidimizer option). This packaged rooftop (located below grade) solution could be used for heating as well (electric or gas heat).

If cooling were not required, simple electric baseboard heat could be provided.

Alternate Energy Sources

The large structurally sound arched roof could support solar or wind devices if desired. A device such as the one designed by Bill Gross which looks like a mechanical flower could be used to generate electricity and (heating or cooling; its reversible). To learn more see: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/bill_gross_on_new_energy.html

Classroom as a tool for learning

The south facing windows could have prisms located on the exterior light shelf or inside the windows along the bottom hinge of the top windows. Direct sun would hit these casting rainbows onto the ceiling. This would not only be a beautiful architectural accent to the ceiling but could be a useful tool in teaching the students about the properties of light and wave refraction. More basic lessons about perspective could be taught. I find that prisms still spark my imagination and intrigue me even though I understand how they work, they nonetheless are simple and beautiful.

The rain water collection gutters could be made with clear plastic in places so students could follow the path of the water. UV-C lights could be installed in the grey water storage tanks to eliminate any organic or viral growth in the tanks. The use of UV-C lights and other filters could allow for this water to be used as safe drinking water. If not used for drinking, it could at least be used in the bathroom sinks to clean students hands. Sink water could be piped back to the toilet reservoirs; for a second use prior to flushing. Designing the layout of these processes to be displayed would also invite lessons for the students. Such a set-up combined would communicate the ‘human’ water cycle quite effectively.

The panels of the building are shear-panel design. Samples of the walls could be provided along with samples of OSB wood and EPS foam for demonstration on how these materials work alone and behave differently when bonded together. Such a demonstration should get the students looking at materials differently and spark some creativity.

The south side of the room and the north side would have different skin temperatures due to solar exposure. Placing a thermostat on the outside and/or inside of these two windows could teach the kids about solar heat gain which could be used as a discussion on thermodynamics and in a broader topic of the earth, the sun, solar systems, etc.

An experiment could be done to see what effect if any opening or closing the horizontal ceiling shades / false ceiling has on test scores and/or student behavior. Teachers and students could learn first hand by being involved in the experiment. Educators and designers would benefit from such a real world application being tested. If the results confirm earlier findings, similar ceiling designs concepts may be used more often in the future.

The mechanical systems that make up the ceiling screens or the exterior light shelf adjustments could be provided with plexiglass windows to expose their functions. The systems could be discussed by the teacher. Other applications for these systems could be discussed. A discussion of the different materials, suppliers, businesses, professionals, etc involved could provide the students with an idea about career paths, industrial/engineering design requirements, business requirements, manufacturing, etc.

The mechanical systems that make up the heating and cooling system could be discussed. Again, this could lead to many more discussions and lessons pertinent to the classroom.

Technology within the classroom

Pre-wired power outlets (wall and floor)
Pre-wired communications wire (ethernet; Wi-Fi hub installed for wireless access)
Interactive White Board or “Smart Board” pre-installed.

The main teachers ‘blackboard’ shown in the drawings was drawn to look like a traditional chalkboard but after further consultation this has been changed. White boards have been installed in lieu of chalkboards for years to eliminate chalk dust as an allergy agent and maintenance item; so no chalkboards.

Interactive White Boards are new and different from traditional white boards. Also known as “Smart Boards” (a brand name made generic like Kleenex), they are a huge step forward and should be included in new classrooms. The ‘smart boards’ require a projector to interface with. A projector would be mounted to a ‘boom’ arm that would mount to the front wall, extend outward, and allow the projector to be mounted below the lights. The power and communication wiring would be chased through the boom mounting arm (not shown in drawings).

Current technology projectors can be used with relatively bright background lighting conditions but the darker the room the more bright the projection image. Many times people turn off artificial lights when using a projector and/or close blinds to the outside. Dimming the room too much could put the students to sleep and be counterproductive however.

Luckily the retractable fabric pseudo-roof could provide dimmed natural lighting with no glare to both keep the room lit well enough to keep student awake and also provide better viewing of the projected items. More than one fabric roll could be provided to offer different lighting options (light / dark colors or more transparent / more opaque fabrics).

The Interactive White Board would be in addition to a traditional white board. To see a demonstration of this technology, see this youtube link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjdNPMZJbLs

Summary

This design primarily seeks to achieve a great inside environment for the students and teachers. Mobile structures require strength and flexibility, which this design offers. The design provides flexible construction offering two methods of construction (knocked-down into prefabbed panels for onsite construction or prefabbed into completed units). It also provides for flexible campus design and layout. The design is also architecturally appealing ‘from the curbside’ and within.

The design is built robustly, so when ‘temporary’ becomes permanent these structures will last and look good. If the intention is to lease, robust construction will help to guarantee the units aren’t damaged by multiple installations.

Schools are typically a place of refuge during emergencies. Building these structures with SIPs and coating it with materials like Grancrete would ensure these structure can withstand most of what nature throws at them.

The basic layout and construction methods should provide a very cost effective solution for school district that are looking to achieve the goals outlined above.

Location