Fresh air and natural light affect not only the academic performance of schoolchildren, but neither more nor less on a country's gross domestic product (GDP). This pattern was recorded by European and American scientists, having analyzed a large amount of data over several years. With the help of numbers, they show that everyone's individual comfort and the common good are strongly interconnected. These patterns should form the basis for the construction of modern schools and the modernization of existing ones.
According to statistics, in Russia, to cancel the second and third shifts, it is required to create 1.857 million training places. The need due to demographic changes by 2025 may amount to another 3.625 million additional training places. Fundamentally new educational buildings and new projects of atypical schools have already appeared in the country. This modern experience gives architects and teachers an opportunity to reflect on the role of spatial experiences and sensations of schoolchildren, on the influence of school space on the educational process. Moreover, the problem is long overdue and its scale is national: 16 million Russian children attend school on average 175 days a year and spend 70% of the school time indoors.
The topic is promoted already at the level of schoolchildren and teachers by the GlobalLab research platform: from anywhere in the world you can fill out a questionnaire with questions about the microclimate at school. And the specialists of the company "Velux" said that they are asked for advice and technical solutions immediately at the stage of creating the concept of buildings of educational institutions.
In fact, a properly designed and constructed school building converts light and air into the well-being of the country. It turns out that the more comfortable the environment in which the child studies and lives, the more reliable taxpayers will be able to grow up. This kind of love is calculated.
What are the elements of the school environment that help you learn better? Professor Peter Barrett and his team of school design experts from the University of Salford, UK, provided a study based on observations of 153 classrooms in 27 different schools. General conclusion: where children are comfortable and academic performance is higher. Quantifiable comfort metrics have identified 6 key elements that have a significant impact on learning:
- daylight;
- indoor air quality;
- air temperature in the room;
- room acoustics;
- classroom layout;
- environmental design.
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Image 
zooming 1/3 Provided by VELUX
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zooming 2/3 Prague-16, Radotin district, Czech Republic Attic structure of an elementary school Author: engineer-arch. Borek Suffered Project: 2018 Implementation: 2019 Provided by VELUX
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zooming 3/3 Courtesy of VELUX
The study clearly demonstrated the impact of the overall layout of the classroom on its users. Individual factors, such as air quality, have been studied in the past, but the overall impact of classroom space on students has so far been assessed only on the basis of their feelings and wishes.
The new studies took into account a wide range of sensory factors, but, in accordance with the method of multilevel statistical modeling, excluded the emotional relationship between students and teachers. As a result, it turned out that the size of the school itself, the orientation of the building to the cardinal points, special and play equipment are not as important as the layout of individual classes.
The building of the municipal school was built in 1901. In 2010, its phased reconstruction began, as a result of which the roof was raised by one meter while maintaining its shape. The facade is complemented by a strip of glazing, which serves to illuminate the attic room. The skylights are located only on the side of the school yard, therefore the appearance of the roof from the side of the church and the town hall is preserved and corresponds to the time of the building's construction.
In addition to new classrooms under the roof, there is a new classroom for teachers; an external emergency staircase and an elevator for people with disabilities have been completed. The construction cost CZK 26 million, the capacity of the school increased by sixty places. The new premises made it possible to reorganize the school's space so that it would work as a cultural center of the district.
Studies conducted even before the period of COVID-19 showed how harmful and even dangerous the air in rooms with large crowds of people. In schools, moreover, in forced congregations. Opening a window, a transom or a sash is a serious problem for domestic schools, especially those who have not replaced old windows with modern ones. It is scary to imagine, but in Europe it is recommended to open windows for ventilation even during the lesson. An innovative solution for natural ventilation was adopted - automatic opening of windows when the CO2 concentration is exceeded.
Hybrid solutions have also been developed that combine the advantages of natural and forced ventilation. For example, in Denmark not long ago, according to studies, in more than half of the country's classrooms, the level of CO2 was higher than the recommended (Norway 21%, Sweden 16%), and the average indicator of the coefficient of natural light (KEO) was less than 2. At the same time, the level of academic achievement was 10% below the Scandinavian average.
Denmark worked on the mistakes and immediately calculated the effect of improving air exchange, natural lighting: an increase in academic performance - 16%, a decrease in the number of repeaters - 15%, a decrease in the incidence of teachers - 6%. The country has 5 million inhabitants, has increased its GDP by 173 million euros per year due to labor productivity and … a decrease in the number of repeaters. What magic happened to the unsuccessful - let's leave it on the conscience of the researchers. However, it is worth paying attention to the fact that, in fact, children's learning abilities increase by 15% if children are in a room with a good indoor climate.
By the way, if we recalculate this effect on the population in Russia, then it will amount to 368 billion rubles a year. There is something to think about.
But the example of the reconstruction of one of the provincial schools clearly illustrates what affordable and effective measures can be taken. Langeberg School is located in the municipality of Fredensborg, 40 km north of the Danish capital. The complex of several buildings was built in the 1980s, but it is already morally outdated: the classrooms were dark, stuffy, and the fiber cement roofing slabs cracked a year earlier.
It was necessary to find a quick solution in order to get the result by the beginning of the new school year. And this is exactly what happened: the renovation was going on from July to October, 59 roof windows were installed, additional insulation, and the roof was replaced.
To ensure full natural ventilation, both the classroom area and the number of students were taken into account when calculating the area of new windows. And it is no coincidence that the windows are placed on both sides of the roof, and the schedule of lessons and breaks allows you to comply with the schedule and degree of ventilation. Blinds prevent glare and overheating on hot days, while minimizing heat loss on cold days. The windows are controlled by an automatic system depending on the level of CO2 in the room, it is also possible to control the opening and closing manually from the remote control. The sensors and monitoring system proved to be useful for the educational process, becoming part of the lessons in science.
Sensors, hybrid ventilation, controlled heating systems are energy-saving technologies. Interestingly, as a result of numerous studies, it was concluded that it was impossible to create an average comfortable temperature. Therefore, it is important to allow the users of the building to control the windows for ventilation, control the sun protection system. In all European countries, standards have been adopted for the minimum temperature in the classes - each has its own - in the range from 17 to 20 ° C. In some countries, the maximum temperature in the classes is also allowed - from 22 to 29 ° C. As temperature and humidity rise, students report a decrease in comfort, and their attention and work performance deteriorate markedly.
Temperature control in winter is more effective if the room is equipped with control systems available to teachers. For more information on all the elements of school spaces that affect student mood and academic performance, visit the VELUX website.
Russian examples of new types of schools differ markedly from European ones, primarily in the size of buildings and projects. They are not about reconstruction in a small town, but about a comprehensive solution for large state programs.
Among the first, it is worth recalling the Sirius educational center in Sochi, in fact, one of the buildings of the complex - the School. Sirius grew up around Azimut - a hotel that, like other facilities of the 2014 Olympics, needed a semantic reboot for its further successful operation. The project of the educational center appeared by order of the President of the Russian Federation, and the school is here “to improve the skills” of successful and promising children who come to Sochi for 21 days. It is not known for certain whether there are any forecasts about how the stay in "Sirius" will affect the GDP of our country in the future. It is already good that talented children will confirm their status and will certainly receive more attention.
The space-planning solution of the School building appeared as a result of taking into account many program conditions. And for this large "donut" with windows of different sizes in multi-colored frames, it was important to correctly calculate and choose translucent structures.
An international private school in Letovo near Moscow appeared on the initiative of Vadim Moshkovich, a Russian entrepreneur, philanthropist, owner of the Rusagro group of companies. She, too, is for gifted children, a whole campus. And also - a harbinger of inevitable changes in school construction in our country.
To create a new standard for the educational environment, KB Strelka developed a functional-spatial model of the campus, terms of reference, and held an architectural competition. The winner is the Dutch bureau Atelier Pro - its concept was implemented by the general designer - bureau "Atrium". According to Rosalia Tarnovetskaya, who worked at the Strelka design bureau on the project, “it was possible to match the world standards of the educational environment with the Russian building codes”.
Actually, in order to understand how important this “docking” is, it is necessary to know, including about the studies of European and American scientists on the relationship between academic performance and GDP.
According to Rosalia, the terms of reference for the design of Letovo was developed on the basis of a study of the architecture of schools in the world, special attention was paid to the requirements for lighting - a factor that has the most significant impact on the physical and mental comfort of students. The designers took into account that the natural soft diffused light in the school creates a more comfortable atmosphere, the skylights allow for more uniform illumination at a significant depth of the premises, which ensures energy efficiency and reduces operating costs. The peculiarity of the building is the central atrium - the main event area of the school. According to the experience of Finland, the atrium combines the functions of a canteen and an assembly hall, which, on the one hand, allows you to save on square meters of the school, and on the other, to create interesting architecture and use high-quality materials in decoration. In addition, the central public space helps to navigate the building, the school is no longer a maze of corridors.
Rosalia explains: “Today children do not just gain knowledge in the classroom as a 'reserve for life', but develop the skill to learn. For this, education becomes more individualized, students make projects together, develop their social skills, learn from personal experience how systems work, and the school space should support these processes. So in new schools in Europe, they make windows of different sizes in the same classroom, which allows them to show the child that in life the same things can be arranged differently."
There will be different windows in the building of School-800 in the Upper Pechora area in Nizhny Novgorod. The building on the southwestern slope facing the Volga will be built for the anniversary of the city. Large windows there are not only different, but also protected by lamellas. And the comfort control system is arranged according to the “smart home” principle - with sensors and monitors in a single control center.
Not only the windows can be different, but also the school buildings themselves, the educational environment, built on the principle of multifunctionality, allowing different scenarios of behavior. Regardless of the location and size of the school. The main thing is that these spaces give a feeling of light and freshness.
