BUILDING FOR SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY - Kennedy Bibliothek

agencies, but also an office for parole and probation which serves the
community. All agency staff, interviewed during the 1976 visit, seemed
to be pleased with the physical proximity to each other which they perceive
as enhancing social contacts and communication among participants. "Sharing
spaces" is not an issue as all agencies have their own offices and territories.
Apart from these, they use the theatre or lecture halls for
occasional gatherings.
66. Comparing the ways in which overlap and proximity have been designed
in the three centers, a continuum between closely integrated/highly
compatible uses to close but separated less compatible uses begins to
emerge. On one side of the continuum, T.J. with its education/recreation
overlap can be placed. The HRC would range somewhere in the middle but
nearer to Dunbar with its highly complex and (from a traditional point of
-view) somewhat less compatible uses.
c) Materials and Detail
67. Apart from functional criteria, such as sufficient parking spaces
and accessibility of publicly used areas, the quality of detail, lighting,
warmth of colours and textures and vistas through different spaces are of •
far greater importance in the new centers than in traditional schools.
Better quality and hard wearing materials which will stand heavy use, and
the need for additional foyer spaces, toilets and storage rooms, usually
add to capital costs but also add to the feasibility of opening the school
to various age groups and users.
68. In contrast, the high cost flexibility - movable partitions, blackboards
and bookshelves - provided in HRC's, Dunbar 8 s and T.J's instructional
areas are hardly ever used (as in many other new and large schools planned
for on-going change). More successful are open learning areas with their
variety of levels, colours, textures and vistas, simulating small scale
plazas, corners and niches. Thus, relatively large areas achieve a
human scale and personal atmosphere. An example for the importance of warm
colours and textures, as well as comfortable seating, in multi-use
areas is the heavily used theatre in the HRC with its brick walls and red
and brown textile covered chairs. In comparison, the cafetorium, also
built for multi-use, but featuring white walls and plastic chairs, is
very much underutilised. A new idea now, in order to make it more attractive
is to decorate its walls with Walt Disney figures.
Economic Considerations
69. Economic reasons are those most often cited for combining educational,
social, cultural and recreational services in multi-use facilities. More
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