Design Forecast 2016

Gensler Design Forecast 2016
Education
Self-directing their futures
Students’ cost-to-value issues could prod
them to bypass traditional institutions for new
options tied more closely to job markets
and careers. Current certification is often
proof of competency, even for degree holders.
In some sectors, certification has actually
supplanted degrees. It’s leading to new
“schools” that tap online games and the
Maker Movement as models. The responses
from existing institutions include greater
interactivity and self-direction, shorter
and more career-targeted programs, and
interdisciplinary STEM and STEAM programs.
These shifts will generate a need for new,
often hybrid, facilities.
As more institutions move into R&D and its
applications, they are using labs, incubators,
and accelerators—often developed with
outside partners—to speed up innovation,
support startups, and enable faculty and
students to team with industry. As learning
becomes more hands-on and interactive,
educational spaces—inside or outside of
the classroom—will be designed to inspire
students to learn in different ways.
Education’s real estate strategies are
changing. Institutions are teaming up, often
at government instigation, on new campuses
that support educational and R&D
initiatives. Super-campuses that combine
K–12 and higher education at several
levels—and sometimes integrate public
building—help spread the costs of expanded
facilities. Mixed use and alternative delivery
approaches are very much in the picture.
Taking a total-return view of new
construction and retrofit, institutions look
to data-driven design and operation
to optimize their facilities and systems for
long-term, holistic performance.
Dwight-Englewood School,
Englewood, NJ
28 29