The Arts in Schools - Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation

time, inappropriate provision is often useless provision anda waste of resources. Buildings can easily dictate curriculum.In all cases the body of a school reflects its mind. The principlesof the curriculum need, somehow, to be incorporatedinto the design and allocation of spaces and facilities. Forsome years, little attempt was made in school building designto relate different areas of curriculum activity to each other,or to think overall of the use of facilities by all age groups,including adults and young people who have left school. 5113 A Local authorities are now becoming mindful of the need —different in building or conversion — to base the design of spaces andapproach facilities on the principles of a co-ordinated curriculum whichcaters for a fully comprehensive range of interests andabilities.Figure 2 shows a design for a new school in Leicestershire.The Director of Education makes the following comments:'Schools should combine the opportunity for flexible programmeplanning and individual project work with thespecialist facilities that are needed for pupils of secondaryschool age. The design should facilitate fluidity of grouporganisation and easy movement from space to space. Thewhole should be conceived as a series of associated curriculumareas, each serviced by groups of teachers workingtogether to meet the needs of individual pupils and groupsof various sizes.The starting point in a continuing dialogue between theEducation Department and the Architect is the brief whichwill establish clearly the relationships which are to beachieved in the final design. It is important that themulti-purpose use of school buildings should be reflectedin the brief to the Architect.We have tried to make the library and resources area afocal point of any new secondary school. The design complex— which includes engineering and woodwork shops,painting and drawing, textiles, fashions, ceramics andhome economics — is closely linked to the biologicalsciences — drawing and botanical areas are often adjacent.Beyond the science laboratories contact is made withmathematics, modern languages and the humanities, whichin turn links up again with the library/resources focalpoint.Another complex, generally associated with the entrancefoyer/social area is the raked lecture hall cum dramastudio. These two areas can be opened up to form atheatre and replace the conventional assembly hall for800 pupils, which in our view is hardly relevant any longer71