Courting Nature in Design
Nature comes to school
The benefits of biophilia are also dramatic in schools. Research by the Herschong Mahone Group, Capital E, and others have demonstrated improvements in student behavior and learning with natural ventilation and higher indoor-air quality and with daylighting, especially when coupled with view windows. Although a building can be daylit without being naturally ventilated or vice versa, greater benefits can be achieved when the two systems are integrated. The Portland, Oregon, architecture firm BOORA combined them in the LEED-Silver Baker Prairie Middle School in Canby, Oregon.
BOORA designed courtyards in the Baker Prairie Middle School to give students secure access to nature. Photo © Pete Eckert |
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The school is organized as three rectangular volumes bisected diagonally by a corridor, forming triangular interior courtyards. These courtyards supply daylight to interior spaces that could otherwise only be electrically lit, assist with natural ventilation, and provide views to enclosed landscapes. Surrounding them are "learning communities," one for each grade level, composed of interconnected classrooms, workrooms, and multipurpose rooms. Full-scale physical testing determined the optimal arrangement of skylights to ensure that nearly 90 percent of occupied spaces has access to daylight, and the architects chose a low-velocity displacement ventilation and convection system to introduce fresh air to classrooms most efficiently.
In addition to daylight, nature views, and ventilation, these courtyards provide a sense of security to the young students, says BOORA principal Heinz Rudolf, FAIA, referring to the concept of prospect and refuge. Though Rudolf is a firm believer in the benefits of biophilic design, he never had to even broach the subject with his school district clients. Instead, he emphasized how light levels improve learning. Yet the effects are greater than higher test scores. "Natural light is a pulsating light," he explains. "When a cloud goes overhead it gets darker inside. When the sun reappears, it gets brighter. We sense that as an experience, as well as light changing colors at sunset or in the winter. When light is changing, it gives us variety: nature already gives us all these phenomena, if we know how to harvest them."