Design Standards

Training materials
in educational planning
administration and facilities
Norms and standards

of educational facilities
Division of Educational
Policy and Planning
Unesco
EPP/TM/17
Paris, October 1985
Original: English
(Q Unesco
NORMS AND STANDARDS OF EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES
This Series is made up of the following components:
Module I : QUALITY, RESOURCES AND EQUITY
Module II : DESIGN, CONSTRUCTION AND COSTS
Module III : ALTERNATIVES IN PRACTICE

P R E F A C E
The Division of Educational Policy and Planning (EPP) is in the process of

developing training materials in the area of Educational Planning, Administra-
tion and Facilities.
This project, which started in 1980, has gone through various stages of trial
and error and testing of the materials in training courses organized at re-
gional and national levels with the cooperation of the various Unesco Regional
Offices for Education.
The transformation of technical texts into pedagogical lesson units in order

to facilitate self-learning proved to be a difficult task and it should be
stressed in this connection that the training clusters will be further improved
through testing and experimenting. Such testing and revising will be a conti-
nuous undertaking of the Division with the cooperation of regional and national
specialists and institutions working in this area.
Ministries of Education and national training institutions are encouraged

to use freely the materials produced under this project and adapt them to
national and/or local situations. No prior agreement from Unesco will be neces-
sary for such use, provided the original source is being mentioned.
Any comment or suggestion you may wish to make concerning the present training
cluster will be welcomed by the Division of Educational Policy and Planning.
Please send them to the following address : The Director, Division of Education-
al Policy and Planning, Unesco, 7 Place Fontenoy, 75700 Paris, France.
The present trainins cluster entitled "Norms and Standards of Educational

Facilities" was prepared by Mr. D. Vickery, Consultant to Unesco.
The views expressed in this document are those of the author and do not necessa-
rily represent the opinions of Unesco.
TRAINING MATERIALS IN EDUCATIONAL PLANNING
ADMINISTRATION AND FACILITIES
NORMS AND STANDARDS OP EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES
MODULE I : QUALITY. RESOURCES AND EQUITY
Introduction
Section 1 : Quality and resources
Section 2 : Quality resource control : the components
Section 3 : Establishment of quality and cost controls
Section 4 : Expressing and using norms and standards
Section 5 : Norms, standards, the educator and the architect
Policy and Planning
UNESCO

Module I : Quality, resources and equity.
LIST OF CONTENTS page
INTRODUCTION 2
SECTION 1: Quality and Resources 7
SECTION 2: Quality and Resource Control: The Components 13
SECTION 3: Establishment of Quality and Cost Controls 20
SECTION 4: Expressing and using Norms and Standards 48
SECTION 5: Norms, Standards, Educators and Architects 57
SECTION - CHECKPOINT 62
MODULE I : QUALITY, RESOURCES AND EQUITY
INTRODUCTION
These Modules about Norms for Educational Buildings provide, In a sense,

a postscript to a previous Modules and Workbooks on Accommodation and
Space for Secondary Schools.
In the Accommodation and Space Modules a methodological approach to the

estimation of accommodation needs was developed. The method involved
data inputs - curriculum, teaching groups and per place areas for each
space. The per place areas used, enabled the total area of the school
to be calculated and thus its cost, to be calculated. The final cost,
as well as the total area of the school were dependent on:-
1) choice of area per place which is dependent on function;

ii) the constructional possibilities which are dependent on
men and materials; and
iii) the financial resources for school building which are
dependent on informed choices made by educational
planners.
The choices of area per place, construction method and cost per place
become, when formally adopted, the norms for space, cost and construction
for schools of that particular type.
There are a number of similar choices that have to be made which will
establish norms for other components of the building, as diverse as
illumination levels, number of toilets etc., fire control measures,
floor loads and so on. For each of the choices made, a norm will have
been established.
Opinions on what is required vary surprisingly. There appears rarely

to be any absolute norm on which everyone is agreed. This is well
illustrated in, for example, Europe, where, among eight countries having
similar economies and similar, efficient education systems, the norms
for per place areas in classrooms in primary schools range from 2.2 to
MODULE I : Introduction
7.2 square metres per place. So, In deciding, on norms, the planner Is
not striving to achieve some Imagined state of perfection but, rather
deciding on what Is best In the situation In his or her own country.
Most would agree that, In some manner or other, the following criteria
are Important:
1. that user requirements for space and equipment are met and
met economically;
2. buildings are structurally sound;
3. the occupants are provided with acceptable conditions of
comfort and well-being;
4. that the provision respects the local environment and
5. the cost represents the optimum balance between capital
cost and cost in use in the given economy.
Discussion of norms for educational buildings has, inevitably, to

include consideration of a great deal of material of a quantitative
nature. This material is. In practice, frequently divided into that
affecting safety, sanitation and construction on the one hand and
amenity on the other.
Amenity norms and standards often result in the eventual crowding of

children into classrooms in such a manner as to prevent any possibility
of effective education while, at the same time, structural norms ensure
that under no circumstances, should the classroom floor be liable to
collapse! This is the irony of hundreds of schools in dozens of
countries.
Much unsatisfactory school building is directly due to the dichotomy

between the rules affecting construction and those affecting amenity
which are commonly and by contrast, quite limited in scope.
Bruce Martin (1971) has argued in one of his studies of norms and
standards, that attention should be diverted to, "... building as a
place ....", as opposed to building as a material system, a process
or a science. In another study, specifically related to educational
building, Bussat and Almeida (1974) emphasize that, however effectively
(quantitative) norms are established, they cannot, of themselves,

guarantee good architecture.
Thus, throughout this and subsequent Modules, it is necessary to remember

- especially when the discussion turns to quantitative matters - that, in
the end, the aim is to describe the requirements of a facility for
education in such a way that the resulting building provides a good
environment for the desirable growth of the student.
It has to be recognised that the built-environment limits, to a greater

or lesser extent, the scope of educational programmes and has an effect
on the physical, mental and social welfare of the students. The
provision of an educational facility of suitable quality is essential
if the school building is not to stand between the students and their
optimum development.
The failure of many regulations to include norms affecting amenity are

well illustrated in the field of daylighting in teaching spaces.
Narasimhan (1971), examining a sample of 2,200 children, found
considerable differences in visual acuity that were not connected
with malnutrition alone. Sub-normal vision, he noted, increased with
age from 5 up to 13 years. He concluded that this deterioration was
due to prolonged use of the eyes under poor lighting conditions and he
recommended higher levels of illumination by daylight in schools - a
recommendation that was subsequently accepted by the government of the
country in which the study was made.
While the illumination problem is of universal relevance, sanitation

is probably an even more important problem, particularly in rural
areas where piped water and main sewage disposal facilities are rarely
available. Rural children are thus often at risk from impure water
and lack of toilets. Water plays a predominant role in the transmission
of certain enteric, bacterial infections, such as typhoid and
paratyphoid fevers, bacillary dysentry and cholera. Similarly, the
inadequate and insanitary disposal of human faeces leads to
contamination of the ground and sources of water supply. This, in turn,

provides opportunity for flies to lay eggs and breed and is a cause,
among other things, for high levels of hook-worm infestation in rural
populations. The provision of safe water supplies and of sanitary
toilet facilities in every school are thus important attributes of a
good environment for education and norms for sanitation and water supply
of critical importance.
Learning depends, among other things, on being able to hear the teacher.
Yet many schools are subject to high levels of intrusive sound.
Students may adapt to such conditions but the rapid turnover of teachers
recorded in noisy schools, is indicative of the strains of teaching in
constantly disturbed classrooms.
The three examples given above illustrate well-known ways in which poor
facilities may adversely affect the educational process in its broadest
sense. There are many more aspects of design - some much less well
known - that have similar effects. That there are certain minimum
desiderata for an educational facility is something on which most
educators and designers would agree.
It is the combination of these minimum requirements which give the

school building its functional quality. The minimum requirements will
obviously vary from country to country - not necessarily because what
is needed is in dispute, but because the satisfaction of a requirement
depends on a perceived need, on the technical skills available, and,
finally, on the resources to pay for it. Quality appears thus,
somewhat like beauty, to be, "in the eye of the beholder".
The values which contribute to quality are of two sorts - transitory

and enduring. An enduring value is one which does not change with
the passage of time. School buildings should, for example, always
have adequate and hygenic toilets and a clean water supply; they
should always provide a certain minimum level of illumination;
structures should always be safe from collapse in high winds or
earthquakes - and so on. In short, whatever the country, the
available skills and the resources, there is a minimum quality required

of every educational facility and this minimum quality will not change.
Of a transitory nature are the qualities related to the educational

process itself. The content and methods of education are continually
developing and, where they have to be reflected in the school building
then its quality must change too. For example, if the overall, per
place area in a secondary school is 3 Sq.M. and the content of
education is changed to add vocational work, then the minimum required,
overall per place area may have to be increased to, say, 4 Sq.M. In
one country, over a ten-year period the economy improved to the extent
that most teachers acquired vehicles and provision for parking became an
important feature of site layout and thus of the quality of the
facility.
It may be concluded that it is possible to define the minimum

qualities that are desired of an educational facility in fairly precise
terms. It will be necessary to examine in the following sections the
various aspects of quality and the possibilities of realizing buildings
of suitable quality, having regard to available skills and financial
resources.
Quality, in the context of these Modules, refers to attributes

of the educational facility perceived as essential in a national
situation. These attributes, which can precisely be defined,
may have enduring or transitory value. Quality stems from a
perceived need, from the availability and exercise of appropriate
design skills and the allocation of adequate financial resources
for its realization.
MODULE I Section 1 : Quality and Resources
SECTION 1 : QUALITY AND RESOURCES
The quality of educational facilities in a particular country has to

be related to resources. The resources are human, material and
financial and, as far as facilities are concerned, are interdependent.
For example, a country having a sudden economic windfall may have
neither the human nor material resources to use its newly acquired
income. Similarly, where neither money nor building materials are
available, then human resources alone may not be sufficient to design
schools to meet quality requirements.
So it is essential in defining quality in a national context, to bear

in mind the possibilities or otherwise of its realization. Of course
the situation is always such that quality of some sort can be achieved
even if it is less than is ultimately desirable.
The illumination levels, discussed in the Introduction to this Module

illustrate the point rather well. The optimum level was found to be
220 lux. This is the norm or the level of illumination most
favourable for working in classrooms. It was recognized by Narasimhan,
however, that 220 lux is often unlikely to be achieved (due to costs
of larger windows and lack of design skills) and so he suggested a
lower level of 106 lux, as even this will substantially reduce eye
strain. Thus 106 lux level is, for the time being, suggested as the
standard for illumination in classrooms.
A norm, for the purpose of this Cluster of Modules, is thus

a statement of the most favourable condition while a standard
is an expression, at a particular point in time, of the minimum
acceptable quality, having regard, among other things, to the
current resource position - human, material and financial.
Standards may thus be expected to change with time as the resource

position alters and the education process develops. This is well
illustrated by a document published by one country in which the
national stock of school buildings was studied. "It (the study)
describes the statutory basis for the standards applied to the
design of schools and how these standards have changed over the past
thirty years; the study looks at the educational pressures to which
schools have been and may be expected to be exposed; and in the light
of these suggests appropriate standards to be applied in future".
A good illustration (Figure 1) of the changes in this particular

country is provided by the area standards for the period 1949 to the
present and immediate future.
non-teaching area
¥**"*m<\ teaching area
58.8%
lac
• °-
gross area per
39% 40%
r "> 41.7%
r ~> r^ ^>
-
r ^>
41.2% 61% 58.3% 60%
^ J ^ J k^ J k^ J
1953-68 1973-76 1976-on
CHANGES IN AREA NORMS 1949-85

MODULE I Section 1 : Quality and Resources 10
An important point relates to changing standards and resources. An

examination of new school building needs and the preparation of future
construction programmes may be thought to be an occasion for making
changes in standards to improve facilities. The educational planner
will have to consider such proposals for change very carefully indeed.
The effect of introducing a new standard for school premises

at once often makes the bulk of the stock of existing schools
sub-standard and thus budget may have, at some time, to be
allocated to bring the old stock up to the new standard to
avoid disparities. Even the most wealthy countries have
found it difficult to allocate the resources needed for such
changes.
This is not, of course, to suggest that improvements should never be

made, but to remind the planner that the introduction of an improved
standard for new schools carries an implied financial commitment to
improving the old stock.
In practice, this may result in a budget looking something like the

following:-
Year New Schools Minor Works to up- Other Works

grade existing (repairs,
schools to standards maintenance)
N X Dollars Y Dollars Z Dollars

(possibly a fixed (See Cluster
% of X) on
Maintenance)
N + 1 Etc. Etc
Etc
It is worth drawing attention here to an aspect of quality and resources

that will be discussed in greater detail in Section 5 of this Module.
While financial resources may be available for quality improvement,
human resources will often be found of no less importance. It is
often simple to raise standards in urban areas where there are usually
good designers and building contractors, but rural areas often have
neither resource. Likewise, materials are often available in urban
areas which can neither be found in, nor easily transported to remote
rural places.
Two sharply contrasting examples from mountainous areas will help

illustrate this important point. In one country, it was decided to
provide new aluminium roofs to rural schools where traditional roofing
was poor and the quality of the facilities consequently sub-standard.
Roof sheets were sent from the capital. On arrival at the schools
in the hills, no-one knew how to fix the sheets, they did not match
the roof spans and the high winds blew many sheets away. Here was a
financial and material resource, but not the matching human resource
needed to improve quality.
In the second country - away in another continent - it was decided

to provide remote mountain villages with totally pre-fabricated steel
schools to resist frequent, disastrous earthquakes. Designers produced
easily transportable and easily built, pre-fabricated parts and teams
of erectors were trained to go out and erect the schools. In short,
the planners in the Education Ministry recognised that the human
resource was as important to quality improvement as the financial
and material inputs.
Finally, it is important, as was mentioned in the introduction, to

recognise that there are rarely any universally held and absolute
values of qualitative achievement. This is well illustrated by,
for example, the primary school area standards for a number of
European countries. Similar data could be produced from many other
parts of the world.
MODULE I Section 1 : Quality and Resources 12
Country Teaching area Total area

per student M per student M
Belgium 4.3 7.2

Denmark 7.2 9.6
Finland 4.8 7.4
France 2.7 4.0
Ireland 3.O 4.0
Norway 4.4 6.9
Sweden 4.5 6.1
United Kingdom 2.2 3.6
The financial resources of these countries do not differ significantly,

nor do their methods of primary education, yet the perceptions of quality
as expressed in the space needed for teaching vary by some 300 per cent.
Similarly, in five other countries, the illumination norms for classrooms

varied from 215 to 753 lux - again a 300 per cent difference.
In an economically poor country, the need for toilet facilities was

found to be greater than the need in an economically more developed
country. Investigation showed that the children in the former often
came from homes where toilet facilities, if they existed at all,
were primitive and they preferred to wait until they reached school
to use a good toilet. In the wealthier country this was not the case
as home facilities were more comfortable than those at school.
These conclusions were reached in two independently conducted studies,
and lend further support to the point that:
The need for careful study of national needs in relation to

quality, coupled with realization of the fact that "more" is
not necessarily "better™, seems important. Quality standards
might be thought of as a "safety net" below which the facility
will begin to have a detrimental effect on education.
MODULE I Section 2 : Quality and resource control : the components 13
SECTION 2 : QUALITY AND RESOURCE CONTROL: THE COMPONENTS
The components of an educational facility to be controlled in respect

of quality and resource utilization are:-
teaching spaces
non-teaching spaces
built and hard paved site areas
playing fields
Control is realized through:-
design - of space and furnishings

- of construction
cost analysis of design alternatives.
The relationship is as follows:-
teaching spaces
design (spaces/furniture)
non-teaching
spaces
design (construction)
built/paved areas
playing fields
cost analysis
Consider, for example, teaching spaces as a component to be controlled

in respect of quality and resource utilization.
MODULE I Section 2 : Quality and resource control : the components 1£
The critical aspects are those which make the space and its furniture
most helpful in task performance - that is the task of teaching and
learning. The science of improving task performance through detailed
attention to the environment is ergonomics. Reference to the ergonomic
aspects of facilities design has already been made in the Modules relating
to accommodation and space for secondary schools. From this material it
will be seen that the environmental components likely to lead to
Improved task performance and thus, to be considered for quality control
- (i.e. the establishment of norms) are:-
illumination and visual comfort;

thermal comfort;
comfortable and convenient furniture;
acoustics;
spaces for teaching/learning.
The first three of these components are also of importance in the

design of non-teaching spaces.
A second concern of the designer is with facilities for health care.
Health facilities are taken here to include accommodation such

as:-
toilets (and sewage disposal);
washing facilities;
drinking water facilities;
food preparation and consumption facilities;
medical inspection/treatment rooms (including dentistry).
A final aspect of design which affects quality is safety. Obviously

of critical importance (for good teaching facilities are of little
significance in an unsafe building), safety relates to matters such
as:-
Means of escape in case of fire and fire control measures;

staircases;
balustrades and window design in multi-storied schools;
special measures required in laboratories and workshops;
kitchens - such as safety kilns, cut-off switches etc.
Design and the quality of the site which provides outdoor

accommodation for education, also demand control of:-
Location and access;

parking provision;
total minimum areas (gross, hard paved and playing areas);
environment (noise, atmospheric pollution etc.,).
The general aspects of design which might, depending on the (national)

circumstances, form the subject of control through the establishment
of norms and the application of selected standards, are summarized
below.
ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN OF THE EDUCATION FACILITY
ASPECT NORMS TO BE DETERMINED
Ergonomic Illumination levels (on working surfaces by

daylight).
Visual comfort (glare).
Thermal comfort (air movement, radiation
shading, orientation).
Furniture and fittings (to match body sizes
of users in relation to tasks to be
performed).
Acoustics (intrusive noise control).
Space per place - net
- in (various) teaching areas
- in non-teaching areas
Space per place - gross for the school as a
whole.
Health Toilets (numbers of urinals/closets)

(ergonomics of closet design)
Sewage disposal (location of septic tanks
relative to wells).
Washing facilities (number of basins).
Drinking water (purity; numbers of drinking
points).
Food preparation facilities (staff toilets;
fly-proofing; storage of food).
Medical inspection/treatment facilities.
Safety Means of escape in case of fire (doors,

corridors, safe distances etc.).
Fire alarms; fire extinguishers.
Staircases (widths, treads, risers for use
by large numbers of students).
Balustrades/ window sill heights in high
buildings.
Safety in laboratories/workshops.
Site access for fire-fighting appliances.
The second feature of the link diagram at the start of this section is
that of construction. To the architect, construction is an integral
part of the overall design process. For our purposes, however, it
will be regarded as separate. In fact, as will be shown in subsequent
sections and Modules, construction is more commonly subject to
control than either of the other components - design or costs. This
is probably due to the general need to control the construction used
for buildings - domestic, public, industrial etc. In all buildings
a basic concern is with structural safety. This leads to control of
the design of foundations, walls, beams and the like.
There is only one aspect of constructional control that is uniquely

associated with educational facilities and that is floor loading.
The engineer, in designing the structure - floors, walls and
foundations or structural frame - will use an anticipated floor
load representing the weights of students, furniture and equipment
likely to occupy spaces of different types. In one country, for
example, the floor loads that have to be assumed for different parts
of a school building range from 250 to 400 Kg per square metre of
floor area. Crowded school staircases have to be designed to carry
300 Kg per square metre.
Constructural control of educational facilities forms part of

the total control of all building construction and is usually
exercised by central or local government.
The third component affecting quality and one the control of which may
be thought most important, is that of costs. It may be argued, of
course, that 'cost' is not a component of a facility and, in a physical
sense, this is so. It may, however, be argued that costs bear
similarity to acoustics or thermal comfort - both intangibles, but
both important in educational facilities. Whatever the semantic,
costs are certainly now commonly included as one of the norms affecting
educational facilities. This is inevitable; if, for example, one
establishes an area norm of, say, 4 square metres per student place,
then having regard to the resources available, it is necessary further
to state in what ways this space is to be provided. Glass walls,
carpeted floors and air conditioning obviously cost more than, say,
a plain concrete floor, simple thin brick walls and natural ventilation.
Without the costs controlled, a mere statement of space needs and
other requirements would be virtually meaningless.
Cost controls enable the educational planner to provide guidance

to the designer on maximum expenditure and this ensures the
achievement of planned targets for places in new schools.
Per Contra, failure to specify cost limits leaves the designer
free to decide on costs and, in effect, to tell the planner
how many new places will be available. This, if it were allowed
to occur, would defeat one of the main objectives of educational
planning.
This section has suggested what may seem to be an almost impossibly

long list of measures designed to control the quality of educational
facilities, as well as the use of resources. In a national context,
planners, educators and facilities designers will have to establish
their own priorities for the institution of controls.
One way of appraising the existing controls is to list them. The

Table, below, adapted from Bussat and Almeida (1974) provides a useful
format. It is, of course, important to include all the norms - not
just those applied by the Education Ministry.
The Table has been filled in for a hypothetical country and, as will
be seen, it shows at a glance, both who controls the quality of
educational facilities as well as what is controlled. There are many
gaps and planners, educators and designers may, once they realize
this, wish to fill some of them by establishing new norms; in this,
the resource position - human, material and financial will obviously
form an important consideration.
Table 1: Norms affecting educational facilities.
Possible Authority currently providing norms

components for
e stabli shment Education Public Health Labour Other
of norms Ministry Buildings Ministry Ministry
Ministry
Illumination Building
Research
Lab.
Thermal comfort
Furniture
Fittings
Acoustics
Space per place *
Toilets *
Sewage *
Washing
Drink water
Food Prep'n
Medical rooms
Fire *
Stairs
Lab. safety *
Site access fire
Floor loads *
Seismic loads *
Wind loads *
Weather exclusion
Cost per place
Other Site
areas
MODULE I Section 3 : Establishment of quality and cost controls 20
SECTION 3 : ESTABLISHMENT OF QUALITY AND COST CONTROLS
Some aspects of what is meant by "quality" in educational facilities

have been examined in Sections 1 and 2 of this Module and it has been
suggested that, while it may not be possible to achieve good
architecture by prescription, it is at least, possible to identify
those features of design to which attention must be paid if a
functional school building is to be provided for the use of teachers
and students.
The Table on the previous page lists the design features directly
affecting quality and also indicates some of the agencies that might,
depending on the country and its system of government, be responsible
for the establishment of norms. An educational planner, unfamiliar
with the detailed procedure of school building design, may, perhaps,
be surprised to note the educational authority has relatively limited
control over design and construction, and thus, the quality of the
facilities for teaching and learning.
There are however, sound reasons for this distribution of control

between various government agencies. First, of course, is the fact
that, although an education authority may recognize the importance of
controlling some aspect or other of the school environment, there is
unlikely to be the professional competence in the authority, to deal
with the technical problems that arise. While, for example, educators
all recognize the importance of good illumination, the establishment
of methods of design for illumination by daylight is the work of
building physicists - usually located in the national building research
station or a university physics department.
Table 2 lists a few of the agencies, common in most countries, and

having, to some degree or other, responsibility for the establishment
or enforcement of norms affecting educational facilities.
Table 2 : Agencies controlling quality and costs of educational

facilities
Component for Technical responsibility for

quality control establishing the control - with
alternatives where appropriate
ERGONOMICS
Illumination levels Building physicists/national building

visual comfort research station/university departments/
national society for illumination
engineering.
Thermal comfort Building physicists/national building

research station/university departments/
national society for heating/ventilation/
air conditioning
Furniture/fittings For basic dimensions - ergonomics

specialists in building research
stations/university department.
For furniture design using the dimensions
- usually the furniture industry.
Acoustics Building physicists/national building

research station/university departments
Space per place Education Ministry - advised either by

its own architects or by the architects
of the national building organization,
such as a Public Works Ministry
HEALTH Scale of toilet provision - Ministry of

Health.
Ergonomics of closet design - for basic
dimensions as in Furniture/fittings
above.
For toilet design - Ministry of Health
Sewage disposal - Ministry of Health
and national building organization
Washing facilities - Ministry of Health
Drinking water - Ministry of Health
Food preparation facilities - Ministry
of Health
Medical Inspection/treatment facilities
- Ministry of Health
Table 2 continued ...
Component for Technical responsibility for

quality control establishing the control - with
alternatives where appropriate
SITE Location and access - Ministry

responsible for physical planning
together with Education Ministry
Parking provision - Ministry
responsible for physical planning
together with Education Ministry
Total Minimum areas - Ministry of
Education
Environment - Ministry of Education
SAFETY Means of escape - Home Affairs Ministry

(or other Ministry responsible for
fire-fighting services)/national
buildings organization
Fire alarms/extinguishers - ditto
Staircases - National buildings
organization
Balustrade and window sill heights in
multi-storied buildings - National
buildings organization
Safety in laboratories/workshops -
Ministry of Trade and Industry/Home
Affairs Ministry/Ministry of Labour/
Education Ministry
Site access for fire-fighting appliances
- Home Affairs Ministry
CONSTRUCTION The national building organization/

national standards institution (for
design, codes of practice and materials
specification)/Ministry of Works
COSTS Ministry of education, advised by its

own cost specialists or those of the
national buildings organization
MODULE I Section 3 : Establishment of quality and cost controls 23_
While this Table makes it clear that the control of facilities norms
requires a broad spectrum of skills beyond those of the education
authority, a second reason for assigning control of educational
facilities to a variety of other authorities needs to be appreciated.
While, in many countries, the education authority may prescribe the
duration of education, the qualification of teachers and the general
curriculum, a substantial number of schools may be established and
operated by private individuals and organizations. Belonging, as they
do, to private persons, such schools are, in respect of the national
and local building regulations, subject to the same controls as any
other private building. Thus structural and constructional control
is based on norms established by the national buildings authority;
control of drainage, sanitation, water supply and ventilation is
based on the norms of the public health department; the safety health
and welfare agency, the electricity authority and others all control
those components of the building within the fields of their respective
competencies.
Most commonly there is a "mix" of government and private schools.

Of course, a government cannot legislate for itself and so, in theory,
government regulations affecting school building have no legal effect
on its own schools. In practice, however, almost all governments
accept their own norms for design and construction.
A building which complies with the national building regulations

affecting construction, health and safety will not, however,
necessarily provide a suitable environment for educators. Indeed,
in countries where private schools are common, educators are all too
familiar with attempts to use dwelling houses and other equally
unsuitable premises for schools.
It is only when a privately-owned building meets not only the

requirements of the national building regulations and satisfies
the space, furniture and other norms of the education
authority, that it can be declared to provide a suitable
environment for education.
MODULE I Section 3 -. Establishment of quality and cost controls 24_
In practice, governments are able to control the quality of the physical

facilities for education in private schools in a variety of ways.
These include licensing of schools that meet the desired standards/
allocation of grants-in-aid of schools that satisfy the quality
requirments, provision of and payment of salaries of teachers to
schools that have approved facilities and so on.
The educational planner, satisfied that facilities play a role in the

general achievement of educational objectives will perforce, at some
time or other, have to review facilities quality control with a view
to establishing norms and standards. Although this activity is
commonly undertaken piecemeal, there'is a strong case to be made for
a thorough, periodical examination of all the norms for school
buildings. How can such an examination be undertaken and new norms
and standards be established?
It is important here to discuss one particular aspect of the word

"norm". In a survey of schools conducted among the countries of a
particular region during the mid-1970s, governments were asked to
state their norms for schools - such as space per place, illumination,
toilets, etc. The responses were interesting as the question was
taken to mean the norms established by regulation. Thus, one country
having a large stock of over 50,000 primary schools stated its norms
to be:-
the area of a classroom, and,

the minimum area of a site,
and nothing more.
In fact, however, the schools could have been described, taking the
word "norm" to mean, "the usual; the normal; the average; the common;
the generality". Of course, to have provided such a description
would have involved knowing what the usual school was like in
quantitative and qualitative terms. Such information would have had

to be obtained from either a survey or, as is the practice in some
countries, from the annual returns of head teachers.
The fact that emerges is that a quantitative and qualitative assessment

of what is normal or usual in respect of educational facilities is
rarely made - the "norm" being regarded only as that characteristic
which is controlled by regulation or similar official pronouncement.
Of course, surveying the stock of schools to establish the

"norm" or "generality" can provide the educational planner
(and the politicians) with all sorts of surprises. But,
what ever these surprises may be - pleasant or otherwise -
they will represent what is normal, what is average or, in
short, "the norm". It is against this background that the
educational planner will want to review the stock of
educational facilities and the legal and actual norms.
To do this, it will be necessary to compile for the specific national

or provincial situation, a Table of the type illustrated at the end
of Section 2. This will indicate the norms and standards legally in
force, as well as the authorities responsible for their enforcement.
Inevitably there will be gaps in the Table. The next step would be
to establish whether there are norms that are used as a matter of
fact as opposed to norms used according to law. The school construction
unit may, for example, always specify windows in the same number and
of the same size in all classrooms, because such windows have been
found to provide adequate illumination by daylight. This is a de facto
norm and, in the assessment of quality, equally as important as one
which is the subject of a regulation. Such norms should be added to
the Table - perhaps in different colour coding - so that the Table
provides a more complete picture of the quality and costs of the
schools. From this point the planner can decide to review existing
norms (legal or otherwise) or to establish complete new legal norms
in areas of facilities where existing conditions are totally
unacceptable. The educational planner may wish to initiate two sorts

of activity in respect of quality and cost control. First, a review
may be made of legal and customary norms. Secondly, where conditions
are totally unsatisfactory and are unaffected by either legal or
customary norms, then efforts may be made to establish norms which
will result in better quality. The diagram illustrates in broad
outline, how these two activities may be planned.
Establish details of all Establish quality/cost

legal and de facto norms components which are
and assess their adequacy totally unsatisfactory
and whether they are and not the subject of
appropriate. legal/de facto norms
Review each norm with the Establish priorities

responsible controlling for new norms/controls
agency (technical review)
Amend norms in the light Develop draft norms/

of the (technical) review controls
Estimate costs of Assess technical

introduction of feasibility of
amended norms/ introducing new
controls norms
Implementation decision
As a first measure, it is worth studying the legal and de facto

norms and standards to establish both their adequacy and relevance.
This will have the advantage of bringing the planner into contact
with many of the persons and agencies responsible for the existing
norms and this will, in turn, be useful when the time comes to consider
new norms and standards.
The "adequacy" and "relevance" of norms and standards that have already
been established and applied in past programmes of school construction
are the important characteristics to be studied. By "adequacy" is
meant qualitative and quantitative provision. In the Table of "Norms
affecting educational facilities" in the last Section, consider, for
example, the norms for toilets. In one country the norm i s , 1 closet
per 100 boys and one closet per 75 girls. The norm was established
many years ago and seems, in the light of modern conditions to be
totally unsatisfactory. In fact, in a number o f other, not dissimilar
situations, the norm ranges from one closet for between 35 to 48 b o y s
and 20 to 24 girls. T h u s , the first question concerns the quantitative
adequacy of the norm for toilet provision. A s the norm states
nothing more than the number of toilets to be provided per 1OO
students and makes no reference to the type of toilet or materials of
construction, the second question must relate to the quality of the
provision.
Relevance of a norm i s also important. C a n the norm be applied?

Obviously in the case of toilets it seems only exceptionally that
there would be difficulty in either design or construction. But is
the norm applicable equally to urban and rural situations?
Having stated the apparent problem of toilet provision, the

educational planner then needs to collect information concerning
the three areas to be studied. Information can, initially, be
collected from people with experience, such as head teachers, the
education inspectorate and the public health authorities. Records
and personal observation will also be helpful.
Assuming that data collection confirms that a problem exists and that
the old norm i s unsatisfactory, the next stage would be to establish
a model for a new norm. In the case of toilets, the simple facts
are that some students will need to use t h e toilets at various times
MODULE I Section 3 : Establishment of quality and cost controls 2(3
in the day and on this need will be based the numbers of closets to be
specified in the norm. A thorough analysis of need, such as has been
undertaken in one country, is a very complex process involving
extensive data collection and the preparation of a computer simulation
model. The educational planners may decide either to arrange for such
analysis by a competent agency such as a building research
establishment, or to adopt, in principle, a modern norm from a
country having similar cultural traditions and economic resources.
As the process continues, the planner will be required to make a

variety of judgements which stem from the constraints on the problem.
Can, for example, the same norm in its quantitative and qualitative
aspects, be applied to the provision of toilets in an urban situation
as to a school which is remote in the mountains? Is it possible to
make decisions on the subject in a rational manner?
Then, the problem understood, the planner and his technical adivsors
can begin to formulate possible norms.
What are likely to be the results of introduction of these new norms?

When there are substantial populations of rural school children, some
in quite remote places, then one possible outcome is that the
additional toilets will not be used because they may be fouled and
not kept clean and because the children may, in any case, prefer to
continue their traditional practice of defecating in nearby fields.
A second and important result of increasing the numbers of toilets
in each school will be increases in expenditure, not only for new
schools, but also for additions to the existing stock to bring it up
to the new norm. What will the increases in expenditure be? Can
they be spread over a period of time so that an impossible burden is
not placed on one annual budget?
The analyses from the studies suggested in the previous paragraph will
require to be evaluated and an optimal solution finally reached.
Following this, the new norm will need to be given legal effect and
implemented in the schools.
This example relating to norms for toilets has been discussed at length
as it presents, through its various stages, a complete anatomy for
establishment of norms and standards.
From the preceeding paragraphs, the stages can be distinguished

as:-
Problem statement;
data collection;
modelling;
judgement;
alternative norms;
functional testing and cost analysis;
evaluation and decision-making;
promulgation and implementation.
It will be rare that education planners will be competent to undertake

the detailed technical work involved in establishing the modified
norms and standards. The initial statement of the problem will,
itself, have been prompted by a report - perhaps from head teacher
or the inspectorate, by an incident of some sort or other such as a
fire which demonstrates the need for general consideration of fire
precautions by complaints from parents, or through articles in the
press or by a comment from another ministry in the government whose
officials have noted some matter that requires attention.
And as soon as matters such as data collection, modelling, etc., come

to be dealt with, then various specialists will become essential in
developing the new norm through the stages listed in the 'anatomy'.
How can these specialists be found and organized to produce the
desired outcomes?
The answer to this question depends, of course, on the nature of the

norm to be developed.
MODULE I Section 3 : Establishment of quality and cost controls 3£
Certainly one of the most important agencies to be consulted will be the

National Standards Institution. Standards institutions, in full and
often lengthy consultation with a very wide range of interested agencies,
develop and publish national standards and codes of practice covering
all fields of national activity. In the field of educational building,
some standards institutions have already produced, for example, standards
for school furniture and codes of practice for design for illumination
by daylight.
Standards institutions operate basically through committees of interested

agencies and specialists who study and produce drafts which are widely
circulated and tested before finally issuing as standard specifications
or codes of practice.
In one country in one year alone, the national building research

institute was represented by an appropriate specialist on 115 committees
of the national standards institution. So it is evident that an
educational planner, having developed a problem statement relating to
an educational facilities norm, could usefully approach the standards
institution for information as to the most suitable group of people
to consult. The matter might, of course, be one in which the
institution itself would be interested - for example, illumination,
thermal comfort, furniture, fittings, etc. In fact a normal standards
institution would be interested in almost all the topics in the last
Table in Section 2, except space per place and costs per place.
It is, however, important to point out that the national standards

institution is concerned with matters of wide application, it has a
limited budget and usually an excess of work, so that, even if an
educational problem was to be accepted, it would have to be dealt
with in the context of the standards institution programme and the
work would proceed at a pace not governed by the education ministry.
The work might, in fact, take several years, depending on priorities
and the complexity of the problem.
The time scale can be well illustrated by reference to furniture. If

it was decided to modify an existing norm for school chairs and desks
MODULE I Section 3 : Establishment of quality and cost controls 3_1
then, in many countries, an essential first step would be to measure

the children, for not many countries have reliable anthropometric data.
This work would, perhaps, have to be commissioned, for the functions of
a standards institution do not usually include those of basic data
collection and analysis.
It would then be necessary, concurrently, to study existing classrooms

and the activities they house. This might lead to the establishment
of a performance specification which would include, among other things,
a statement of strength, stability and durability requirements.
Eventually these data could be provided to an agency such as a
building research station to develop appropriate tests, establish
critical dimensions and examine suitable materials. The final
recommendations would then be considered by committee of the standards
institute and, after modification, perhaps issued as draft standards
for comment by educators and the furniture industry. In one country,
some 14 standards affecting school furniture have been issued over a
15 year period.
The process is, in short, complicated and lengthy and, from

the view-point of the educational planner, suffers the
disadvantage that no direct account is taken of resources.
From this, it might be concluded that, while it is, in the long term
useful for the standards institution to work on standardization, in
most situations, the need is for quicker (if less effective) methods
of reviewing and modifying existing norms for educational facilities.
An approach that can be adopted is to establish the local (human)

resources that can provide the required expertise and, to form a
norms modification committee within the educational planning division
of the education ministry, to attempt to resolve the stated problem.
The standards institution will always be helpful in indicating useful
resource persons and others who may be interested. In some cases the
resource persons will be obvious. Toilet norms for example, would
require the advice and assistance of the Ministry of Health.
It will also always be worth while remembering the specialized

agencies oi the U.N. system - Unesco, W.H.O., I.L.O. and U.N. Housing
and Building (Habitat), who invariably have local representatives and
whose specific brief is to assist Member States.
School furniture projects, for example, have in the past been assisted
in a variety of ways by both Unesco and I.L.O., while W.H.O. has often
advized on health and sanitary facilities. Habitat too has much data
on construction methods, ft. useful aspect of the assistance that can
be provided by the U.N. agencies is the possibility of bringing in
at U.N. expense a specialist to help, in cases where the project is of
importance and of wide application in the country.
This said, however, it is always the case that the main thrust must
come from local specialists.
It is neither possible to foresee all of the problems that might face

such a modification committee, nor is it necessary to discuss them
here, except in the broadest terms. The committee itself should
always be chaired by an educational planner and have as its secretary,
a representative of the school building agency (either from the
education or the public works ministry). The school building
technician - an architect or civil engineer - is important for,
whatever is decided will, in the end, have to be given physical shape.
Other committee members will be appointed depending on the type of
norm to be amended.
The committee obviously, cannot undertake the detailed technical

studies that may be needed to enable it to reach decisions and, quite
early on in its work, it will have to identify an institution or
nominate a team to carry out these studies.
Perhaps the most common educational facilities norm is that defining

in
the minimum space per place - net teaching and other areas or gross
for the school as a whole. As the cost of construction is expressed
"per square metre of floor area", the fewer square metres in a school,
the less expensive it will be. Thus, educational planners, on the one
hand, try to keep the gross areas of schools to a minimum while, on
the other, the teachers like to have plenty of space in which to work
with the students. So, the space norm is a constant subject of review.
The sorts of questions that arise concern space in teaching areas, the
size of furniture and its effect on teaching space, the utilization
per cent of teaching spaces, the areas assigned to corridors and other
non-teaching areas, and so on.
A committee wishing to reveiw these matters with the object of

modifying the existing space norms might proceed as suggested below.
Establish - Ed, planner;

THE ANATOMY Committee architect;
schools inspectors
PROBLEM
STATEMENT Identify space problem
date
decide on required data collection/ architects;
analysis educators
group
consider analysis and initiate

further studies
studies: furnishing;
space use
percentage;
non-teaching
space
MODELLING consider studies and develop

model accommodation schedule
JUDGEMENT discuss feasibility with head

teachers
ALTERNATIVE develop space norms from discuss fully with

NORM agreed, workable schedule private school agencies
FUNCTIONAL
TESTING AND
prepare and cost prototype cost estimates of
COSTING •-a
design using new norms adapting old stock
EVALUATION evaluate effects of new norm

AND on design and costing and
DECISION- adopt or further modify new
MAKING norm
PROMULGATION
AND
publish and legalise new
IMPLEMENTATION
norms
It would be noted that space norms are one of the category

described in Section 1 of this Module as "transitory"; that
is to say, continually requiring change. Thus the process
described in the diagram will be iterative an< j j^y be repeated
at perhaps about 5-yearly intervals. Cost norms fall into the
same category but may require even more frequent review.
The adjustment of existing standards, discussed above, presents far

fewer problems than does the establishment of completely new norms
and standards. It is fairly easy to identify the components for
which in a. very large number of countries there are commonly no
standards at all. They are:-
Illumination
Thermal comfort Group 1
Acoustics
Special spaces
e.g. food preparation Group 2
medical rooms
Building design
e.g. fire safety Group 3
laboratory safety
Costs per place Group 4
These components have been arranged in separate groups because each

group presents differents sorts of problems.
Group 1 components are distinguished by two characteristics. First,

illumination, thermal comfort and freedom from undesired sound
(noise) are aspects of design which relate to building at large -
dwellings, offices, factories and so on. Secondly, norms and
standards for these components take many years to establish, involve
the application of very special skills and are in consequence very

expensive to develop.
To provide an architect with a tool which enables the design of

windows for a classroom such that 106 lux is delivered on desk
surfaces is the work of 10 or more years. The initial determination
of the design sky requires hourly readings to be made daily for several
years and that is only the first stage in a process which, after the
final training of the architect, can lead to results on the drawing
board and the subsequent construction of adequately illuminated
teaching spaces.
This, however, is of little consolation to the teachers and children

working in badly lit, thermally uncomfortable and noisy schools, so
what can be done?
An approach which finds acceptance in many countries *-s t0
pressure to bear on the national building research establishment to

commence the long-term studies on which standards can ultimately be
based and, as a short-term measure, to establish standards which
use existing knowledge to improve present practices. Where necessary,
study of good local stereotypes may help in extending this knowledge
bases. Thus:-
Problem - illumination/
thermal comfort/
acoustics.
Long-term Short-term
J
Ministry responsible
for Science & Technology
T
Make standards based on
existing knowledge backed
by study good local
stereotypes
Standards
Institution
National Building use 'anatomy' method

Research Establishment already discussed
reconcile in future
Group 2 components which are the 'special1 spaces in schools, are such
that the establishment of norms and standards is much easier for this
group than the components in Group 1. Two cases may be considered.
First, where the space type is fairly commonly provided in schools.
For standards to be established, essentially the same procedure may
be followed as has been indicated in the 'Anatomy' flow chart above.
Secondly where the desired spaces are not a normal feature of the
accommodation schedule, then a different sort of procedure may be
followed. The purpose for which the space is to be used will determine
the constitution of the norms and standards committee set up by the
educational planning unit. If for example, norms are required for
medical facilities in Schools, then the Ministry of Health should be
consulted. Such Ministries often already have norms and standards for
small health facilities and these may, on examination, provide a useful
basis from which to develop facilities for schools.
An important aspect of the establishment of norms and standards for

this group is the decision on content. It may be less than useful
simply to specify the area of the space. If food preparation,
medical inspection and the like are to be provided with functional
facilities then' the services, fixed furniture and fittings,
illumination, etc. may be of not less significance than the floor
area in square metres. As will be seen in Module III, most standards
tend to focus solely on floor area, so much remains to be done to
improve quality in space components, perhaps as follows:-
PROBLEM Planned activity

STATEMENT
DATA COLLECTION
Planned occupancy/
persons
Planned equipment/
furniture/services
MODELLING develop space/services

etc.
JUDGEMENT Discuss with potential

users
NORM Formal Statement of norm
-^
FUNCTIONAL prototype design and
TESTING AND costing
EVALUATION
EVALUATE/ Evaluate/modify/publish
PROMULGATE
MODULE I Section 3 : Establishment of quality and cost controls 39^
The norm resulting from this process need not only be presented in the
usual form of the descriptive text, which is an inheritance from the
old legal tradition of regulations, but should, if it is likely to
help the user, be amplified by as many diagrams as necessary. These
diagrams should not, of course, be such as to constrain the designer
whose business it will be to interpret text and diagrams into
architecture.
Group 3 components - building design - are unique in that they are

likely to be the subject of general legislation affecting all
buildings. There may, however, be a need to draw special attention
to the problems of educational facilities to which they do not really
apply. For example, in a four or five-storied urban school, there
may b e , say, six classes of some 200 children on the upper floors.
What specific precautions should be taken to make means of escape
possible in the event of a fire at a lower floor? It is remarkable
how, under severe pressure to lower costs through reductions in floor
area, some authorities permit narrow access corridors and eliminate
as many staircases as possible. The usual argument is that fires in
schools are rare and the risk, thus, negligable. It is certainly
difficult to persuade an authority that has had no fires in its
schools during the past 20 years, that there might well be one
tomorrow!
One local authority, studying the fires in its schools over a two
year period, recorded 31 fires. It was noted that while most of
them occurred during the day, those that took place at night or at
other periods when the schools were not occupied, remained undetected
and considerable structural damage resulted. Thus, while means of
escape are of basic importance, design to prevent the spread of fire
within a building is also essential if heavy costs for repairs are
not to be incurred.
MODULE 1 Section 3 : Establishment of quality and cost controls 40
10 -f
5 -
tn
UJ
tc
*-*
u.
O
fr
m
00 03 06 09 12 15 18 21 00
TIME OF DAY
Here the education authority should discuss the need for regulation
with both the fire authority and the fire laboratory of the national
building research institution with the object of framing clear fire
regulations for schools. These regulations, when established,
should be given the force of law. Their establishment, as well as
the establishment of laboratory safety rules, need not be discussed
further here as they are matters for specially skilled technicians.
Group 4 comprises a single, critical component and is, moreover,

unique in that, while it has an over-riding effect on educational
facilities, is not in itself a physical aspect of building design and
construction. It should be added that very few countries have cost
norms for educational buildings and those that do, have facilities of
outstanding quality.
The matter is one which is at the core of the work of the educational
planner. "Planning", it has been said, "is the sensible use of
resources". Without questioning too deeply just what is meant by
"sensible", it can be affirmed with confidence that, if a plan to
spend money is not adhered to, then the plan is, to a greater or
lesser extent, a failure. The reason why there are so many failures
of educational facilities plans is that there are so few cost norms.
Cost norms require, for their introduction, political decision to be
made at the highest level. In the countries where they exist, norms
have emanated from Ministerial desire, the application of which has
been very strictly monitored.
The effect of the strict application of a cost norm should be

appreciated before any attempt is made to impose it. As prices of
labour and material rise, the designer will find increasing difficulty
in providing traditional solutions to the spatial and constructional
problems that emerge. First attempts will always be to reduce areas
and cheapen construction. Eventually no more initiatives will be
possible from these attempts to keep within the cost norm. At this
stage, both designers and educators will have to get together for a
fundamental study of educational methods. Figure 9 of Module 1 of
the Cluster, 'Accommodation and space for secondary general schools'
shows the design outcomes of such a fundamental study, made directly
as a result of the rigorous imposition of per place cost limits.
The Figure is reproduced here for convenience. As will be imagined,
it was necessary, not only to exercise imagination in design and
construction to create this school, but also important to train
teachers to work in an open, as opposed to closed classroom situation.
MODULE I Section 3 : Establishment of quality and cost controls
c*i
3
s
:M
ILU
CO
o-1-
Of course, the solution in the Figure is closely related to the culture

and climate of the country in which the school is located. Other
cultures, other climates and other resource situations would demand
other solutions. But, whatever the solutions, they are likely to be
radical and that is why attempts to introduce cost norms should not be
made unless the consequences can be anticipated and the norms likely
to receive political support, from the highest level.
Perhaps the single most important factor bearing on cost control is

the administrative arrangement for financing construction. Where the
Education Minister and those in his ministry regulate the disposal of
funds for construction in such a way that they have direct control of
every cent spent, then they are in a position to consider the imposition
of cost norms. There are two common examples of this situation. First,
where the Education Ministry has its own school building design unit
and lets its own contracts for construction, then the application of
cost norms is possible - though, it should be emphsized, still very
difficult. Secondly, in some countries, the responsibility for the
provision of education is that of local authorities. The common
practice is for central government to provide an annual education
subvention to each authority, depending on its needs. The authority,
for its part, submits detailed proposals of its expenditure plans to
central government as a condition for continued receipt of the
subvention. Thus, design drawings for new schools would have to
receive central government approval in order to enable the authority
to qualify for continued assistance and, in this way, cost norms can
be introduced.
The most difficult administrative arrangement for the introduction of

cost norms is unfortunately, one of the most common. In many countries
the education ministry is allocated a capital sum for construction in
the annual budget, but the responsibility for design and construction
is that of a 'service' ministry, such as Public Works and Housing.
The 'service' ministry will obviously be anxious to do whatever can
be done to keep within cost targets, but is usually constrained in
its efforts by a very heavy work load from the entire public sector
- health, prisons, armed forces, education, and so on. The introduction

of cost norms for education requires a great deal of technical study
for which officials in an over-worked ministry rarely have time. In
such situations educational building is usually, by comparison, the
most expensive.
These difficulties are compounded by the technical problems of cost

analysis. It is self-evident that if costs are to be controlled in any
way, there must be a complete understanding of how money spent on
construction is actually invested. What are the significant
expenditures? Until they are known, then the points of attack on
design and construction cannot be determined. Suppose, for example,
the following analysis could be made:-
Preliminaries/contingencies
Work below floor finish
Structure
Finishes and fittings
Services
Total 10O.0O%
It will be obvious that, if costs are to be reduced, then it is not

much use examining the smallest items as even a big saving in, say
work below floor finish, is unlikely significantly to alter the total
cost. Structure, finishes and fittings and services, on the other
hand, do offer possibilities for larger reductions in cost.
Consider the section 'Structure 1 . This is made up as follows:

Frame 18.26%
Upper floors 3.58%
Roof 13.81%
Staircases 4.42%
External
walls 30.89%
Windows 4.22%
Doors 8.84%
Partitions 15.96%
100.00%
Two items at once attract attention. First, the external walls cost
almost one third of this item (and 10% of the total cost of the
facility).
The cost of external walls is a function of their length, height and

method of construction. Reducing the area of the building will
reduce length; it may or may not be possible to reduce height; it
will almost certainly be possible to cheapen construction.
The second item - or rather, set of items - are doors and partitions
which total 24.8% of the cost of the 'structure1. Reductions in the
number of internal partitions will also reduce the number of doors.
Are all the internal partitions really necessary? Educators and the
designers of the school illustrated above obviously thought not. And
as a result reduced costs.
The preceeding paragraphs have been included to give some sort of idea
of the methods of analysis and ways of thinking that preceed the
development of cost norms. Obviously a great deal of purely
technical cost analysis is involved. It would be useless, for
example, to consider data for one school as they might be atypical.
So the costs of many, recently constructed schools need to be
considered. And when it is possible to identify items of high cost,
per cent, then it is necessary to have in-depth discussions with
educators concerning the educational implications of the changes that
may result.
It would, of course, be wrong to suggest the only ways of controlling

costs are through attention to the per place area and the construction
components of the educational facility. Other approaches have had
important effects on costs and need to be considered. What, for
example, is likely to result from the use of standard components in
all construction? Will bulk purchase reduce costs? Is the award of
a series of tenders to the lowest bidder for a contract likely to
reduce the tendered price? Which of the many alternative forms of
contract is likely to result in the greatest price consistency? In
MODULE I Section 3 : Establishment of quality and cost controls 4£
short, there are a number of initiatives of an 'organizational'

character that need to be examined, in additon to the 'technical'
studies of design and construction, described above. Often, experience
has shown the organizational and technical approaches are beneficially
compatible. In one country, for example, costs were held to a low
norm for a number of years as a result of reducing areas, changing
construction, use of bulk purchase of standard building components and
the award of serial tenders.
Mention has already been made of the need for political decisions in
the introduction of costs norms and this is likely to be nowhere more
important than in making organizational changes, some of which may
result in changing long-standing practices. These practices may be
the subject of administrative regulation, as for example, tendering
procedures or bulk purchase. Building is often one of the largest
industries in some countries and its vested interests may be
challenged by change. The need to carry politicians and senior
education ministry officials along with the arguments as they develop
is thus of critical importance.
The following diagram outlines the main stages in developing cost

control.
MODULE I Section 3 : Establishment of quality and cost controls
Establish Education planner

Committee Architect
Cost specialist
Educators
PROBLEM
Determination of
STATEMENT sustainable, per
place cost norms
Initiate organizational and

technical studies
Organi zational Technical

Data collection Cost analyses
on e.g. tendering of recent
disbursement; construction
standardization programmes
Consider studies and

identify key aspects of
cost control
Appraise
g politicians
of proposals
JUDGEMENT
Discuss feasibility
with construction
agencies and others
Appraise
politicians
of proposals
FUNCTIONAL Apply adjusted norm
TESTING to trial contracts
MODULE I Section 4 : Expressing and using norms and standards 4jB
SECTION 1 : EXPRESSING AND USING NORMS AND STANDARDS
This section is concerned with the legal or quasi-legal means of

ensuring that the desired norms and standards are reflected in the
design and construction of educational facilities. The technical
expression of norms and standards is dealt with much more fully in
Module II. There is also discussion, later in this Section, on the
aspect of the 'usability1 or 'applicability' of norms and standards.
It is evident that there would be little to be gained from the
promulgation of a standard, the effects of which would be nullified
by some technical or other difficulty.
The means of ensuring that a desired norm or standard is reflected

in the design and construction of an educational facility will depend,
in the main, on the legal system in force in the country. In
addition, it will depend on the ownership of the facility - government,
local authority or private agency.
It is a settled rule in some countries, that the government (that is,

as represented by the President or the Crown) is not bound by legal
statute unless the statute makes clear that the government should be
bound by its provisions. The effect of this, in a situation where
schools are government owned and managed, is that they would not have
to be designed and constructed in accordance with building regulations
unless the education statute or law explicitly provided for compliance
with the regulations.
Such would not be the case in some countries where governments are
legally bound by their own and previous statutes. It is thus, first,
important to establish the legal position before attempting to
introduce rules requiring adherence to norms and standards.
Where governments, as well as other agencies/ own and manage schools,

then most government architects will, even if not legally necessary,
tend to follow the rules prescribed for design and construction. This
MODULE I Section 4 : Expressing and using norms and standards 49
in practice, often results in a very unsatisfactory situation with the

design and construction agency sometimes unwilling to meet the
requirements of educators who have no means, legal or otherwise, of
bringing about change. Resolution of the problem is only achieved
through explicit requirement in the Education Act or Ordinance, for
compliance with such regulations for premises as the Education Minister
may, from time to time make.
Control by law is much more easily exercised when the provision of

educational facilities is the responsibility of local authorities or
other agencies. In such cases, the education ministry may use its
powers under an Education Act to issue and enforce norms and
standards. What form might such regulations take?
It is useful, in considering the answer to this question, to examine

the possible end product. An example of a standard from one country
is as follows:-
Black-boards for Schools
Heights
Primary classrooms O.54m.
Elementary class rooms 0.64m. ff°™ " o o r to b a s e of
black-board
High School class rooms 0.76m
Height of black-boards l.Olm; 1.22m; 1.37m.
Specifications:- Under coat of 12ranv Cement plaster of 1 cement,

2 sand and 1 charcoal powder. Finishing coat of 1 cement and 1
charcoal 3mm thick.
Chalkboard paint:- Dissolve 1 Kg of shellac in 10.0 litres of
methylated spirit and add 1 Kg of Wory black, 13 gms of finest
flour emery and 0.5 Kg of ultramarine blue. Mix and keep in
stoppered bottles. Shake well when using.
It may be thought that the provision of chalk boards of a suitable size

colour and texture are one of the most important items in an educational
facility. Yet, as teachers know only too well, schools around the
world have boards of the wrong sizes, with surfaces too shiny to take
chalk and when the chalk is finally applied, too light for it to be
read. Chalkboards are thus an important item for standards of
quality.
Returning to the control process; in most countries control emanates

from an Education Enactment of the national parliament, assembly or
legislative assembly. Obviously this enactment cannot be expected
to contain details of matters such as control of chalkboard quality.
The enactment will, however, give powers to the Education Minister to
control such matters, sometimes without further reference to the
national, law-making body. This, the Minister may do in a variety
of ways, the most common of which is through regulations for school
premises.
The regulation made under authority of the Education Enactment will,

however, itself be concerned with matters of principle rather than
detail. In one country, for example, the regulations extend to 17
pages and comprise five parts and schedules, as follows:-
General
School land
School accommodation - general
School accommodation - boarding schools
Structural requirements, etc.
Schedules:- application
recreation areas
playing fields
teaching accommodation
The Schedules provide a way of dealing with important, though not very
detailed matters. Thus, in the part on "School accommodation - general1,
under "Teaching accommodation" it found "The School buildings shall
include teaching accommodation of net area not less than the minimum
for the school determined in accordance with Schedule 4". This, three
line regulation is then amplified in a two-page schedule. In addition

to keeping the regulation itself short and concise, the device of use
of a schedule to deal with matters of detail, has the added advantage
of enabling changes in area to be made from time to time, without
altering the basic, three-line, regulation and, thus, avoiding what
might be a complicated legal procedure.
The regulation for this particular country also contains another

method of exercising control without entering into detail in the
regulation itself. The Education Ministry of the country produces
'Design Guidelines' on various topics and in the regulation the
design and construction of schools is required "to give effect to
the main recommendations" of these design guidelines which thus
become documents having quasi-legal significance. And in the Design
Guide-lines may be found reference to even more detailed natters of
import. Thus, in a Design Guide for laboratory fume cupboards,
there is reference to two national standards which deal with flame
spread and flammability of materials used for constructing the
cupboards.
Thus, it is possible to exercise control through use of a succession

of measures, each of increasing detail, as is suggested in the diagram
that follows.
One of the most important aspects of this diagram is that the formal
controls specified by the legislature and the Minister of Education,
are kept to a minimum. This is important because legislative
enactments are difficult to change. Education and building are both
dynamic in character - content, method and duration on the one hand,
and technology on the other, are subject to frequent change. Thus
controls should be framed in such a way that change is both possible
and easy to effect. Design guides and, to a lesser extent, standards,
can easily be changed and the benefits of improved norms and
standards, relatively quickly reflected in physical facilities.
basis enactment Established and

of legislature modified by national
legislature
*
schedules to Established by
basic enactment Education minister
as regulations
id design guides Established by
0 e
0 amplifying the technicians under
STt)
flj
4J
id
__,
id
content of the
schedules
instruction of the
o
OJ V 3 Education minister
c
E
,-H 0 ? •oH4J
c
«
> c> u
o
•H
c
3 V. standards Selected by
>i
m o> JJ : amplifying specific technicians as useful

•o id n topics in design elaboration of design
O) 0 c c0
u 6 u 0 a guides guides
It would, however, be quite misleading to suggest that the mere

Enactment of regulations designed to control the quality and costs of
educational facilities will bring about a total improvement in the
national stock of school building. Three factors mitigate against
the likelihood of such an occurence. First, the controls which are
to be imposed, have to be technically feasible: often, they are not.
Secondly, the controls have to bear relevance to schools in all parts
of the country and in all sorts of ownership; often controls bear
little relevance to the rural situation or that of private schools
in towns. Thirdly, no control is worth while unless there is a
competent agency for its enforcement; even in very well developed
situations, control often proves ineffective.
Technical feasibility is a term having a wide range of meanings. The

example of prescribing illumination levels when the technology for
design is non-existent, has already been mentioned in this Module.
Equally pointless are requirements, such as those of one country, to
MODULE I Section 4 : Expressing and using norms and standards 53_
the effect that, "schools should be not closer than 183 metres to a
tavern and sites should be selected such that students do not have to
pass bars or houses of ill-repute on their way to school." This puts
the onus of site location on the education authority and does nothing
to stop a bar or house of ill-repute being opened near a school
(which is the action taken by another country while this Module is
being written). One is also entitled to wonder about the rationale
for the distance 183 metres. Are distances of say 180 or 190 metres
likely to affect the intention of those who, no doubt with the best
of intentions, drafted this regulation?
Urban schools, designed and built by capable technicians may be

expected to reflect requirements of the regulations: can the same
be said with confidence of a rural school in a remote area, put up
by the local community? Certainly very simple rules, such as those
relating to minimum areas, may be understood and observed.
Regulations relating to construction, especially where they result
in the use of non-traditional methods of building, are likely to be
difficult to implement. One recalls the problems posed by very
simple rules for the construction of earthquake resistant construction
of small schools in remote areas. The concept of extending window
lintols to join up and form a continuous ring around the building to
stiffen unstable stone and mud walls was rarely understood - even
with the help of scale models. "What" said one headman of a
village in an area of high seismic risk, "is an earthquake?" Another
area of difficulty in attempting to relate regulations to rural
realities is that of sanitary accommodation. The washrooms and
toilets that are possible with urban water supply and sewage systems,
are often totally inappropriate in rural schools where water may be
very scarce and the use of conventional, urban toilet facilities
totally unfamiliar to villagers.
The urban/rural situation <is it relates to norms and standards

for educational facilities is one which, in many countries.
requires specia] attention and. possibly different standards
for town and country schools.
MODULE I Section 4 : Expressing and using norms and standards 54_
It may be added that it is usually the quality of rural school

buildings that gives most Cause for concern and thus there is a
special need for attention to this sector of design and construction
programmes.
The third and final factor affecting the use of norms and standards
in practice is that of compliance. Two aspects need to be considered.
First, the design requires to be checked in a formal manner before
the building is constructed. Ideally this check would be made
initially by the design group leader and finally by a specially
assembled review panel whose members would be thoroughly familiar
with the norms and standards. Secondly, a building control authority
would check construction norms and standards at the working drawing
stage and as construction progressed. Such would be the ideal
arrangement. It is rarely found to be practiced in any other than
an informal manner. Where operated, the following is a typical
review procedure.
CLIENT AND ADVISORS DESIGNER DATA

Educators and Ed. planner, Senior architect Architects
Fire and health officers Job architect brief
Physical planner Structural Eng. Norms and
Ministry Building Inspector Cost specialist standards
and Design
Guides
Consultation Outline
Educators/Ed, planners
\
proposals
I Design brief
Physical planner \
)
j
Consultation Design of 1 Norms, standards
All advisors t facility K Design guides
/
Consultation Detail
Educators, \ design
Ed. planner (costs)
Fire & health officers
Working
Drawings
Consultation £ • Check by Norms, standards

All advisors Senior Design guides
Architect
TOTAL: FOUR
FORMAL REVIEW
MEETINGS
Site checks Ministry / Site

building inspectors ^ \ supervision
/
Site check. / Final Check list of Norms,

Ministry Building \ Check standards and Design
Inspectors, Fire / Guides
officer.
The procedure is very evidently one which could only be applied with
any hope of success in a well-developed situation such as is likely
to occur in a town or suburban area or a rural area where the
education authority customarily exercises thorough control over
education in general.
MODULE I Section 5 : Norms, standards, educators and architects 57^
SECTION 5 : NORMS, STANDARDS, EDUCATORS AND ARCHITECTS
Thus far, it might be argued, the concepts of norms and standards

have been discussed from a somewhat theoretical standpoint. Consider
the realities of a few examples which are not as atypical as they
may, at first appear:
Dozens of schools in a mountain district where, after crossing
a river in a cradle slung from a wire, it would be necessary
to walk for a week or more to visit each school in turn -
One concrete ring road, more or less round the country and
access to all the several hundred schools by unmade tracks,
some of which are suitable for jeeps, the rest for travel by
horse or on foot -
The "road" is the river and the villages and schools are on its
banks, it is often a days journey by country boat from one
village to the next. The villages are clearings in jungle -
the schools are in villages separated by tracts of jungle.
The inspector of schools, forced to walk from village to
village through the jungle, is frequently stopped by elephant -
there are many islands, each with one or two small communities
and schools. Travel is by boat - often a journey of one or
two days from island to island -
and so on; the list could be extended for pages and almost every
informed reader will be able to add to it from his or her own
experience.
The purpose of establishing norms and standards is to improve the

quality of educational facilities and one of the affects is reduction
of the disparities between schools such as in situations described
above and schools in the towns and the more easily accessible parts
of the country.
Two important points need to be made here. First, there seems no

good reason why there should be only one set of norms and standards
for a country in which there is a variety of climates, where the
topography of the area is diverse and where the availability of
MODULE I Section 5 : Norms, standards, educators and architects 5£
materials and skills for construction differ from place to place. In

one country, for example, it is a requirement that schools in the hot,
dry plains have what is known as a 'water room1 in which drinking
water is kept in rows of unglazed, locally made, ceramic pots, so
that cool water is always available for the hot, thirsty child. Yet
not 3OO Km away in the same country, the hills rise up sharply and
a child would appreciate a warm, rather than a cold drink. In the
hills, moreover, metal is used for water storage vessels as cheap
clay pots are not made locally.
The second point flows naturally from the first. There has
developed a practice in the matter of norms and standards for
regulations and design guides to be formulated centrally and to be
passed down through provinces, districts and sub-districts to the
most remote areas. This is a practice which requires examination.
It is authoratatlve in style and may be autocratically or
benevolently exercised. It requires formal communication of
matters which are described in often difficult, quasi-legal language.
Even drawings, graphs and pictures may be unsatisfactory means of
communication. In one country, some few years ago, village people
were shown a variety of pictures. As the only pictures they had
previously seen were of the national leader, they assumed that the
new pictures were of the national leader too! Perhaps an extreme
example, but one which will illustrate that the understandings of
the town are not necessarily those of the country. Socio-cultural
peculiarities and variations in different environments should be
important considerations in deciding on norms and framing standards.
One author has said, perhaps unduly harshly, that, "centralized
(planning) procedures are inefficient, inequitable and irrelevant."
and this, no doubt is, to some degree, true of centrally established
norms and standards for educational facilities.
A solution to the difficulty may be found in the idea of

'participatory planning'. This, it is argued, provides a framework
in which the ideas and competencies of the community can unfold.
MODULE I Section 5 : Norms, standards, educators and architects 59^
Thus, for example, within an area having uniform topography, climate,

supplies of materials and availability of skills, it should be
possible, given a broad statement of the qualities desired of an
educational facility, for endogenous norms and standards to be
developed and become established. In this way, all the schools in
the country would achieve standards of quality, but in ways appropriate
to the environment in which they are located.
An example may illustrate the point. In some countries, urban

primary school children sit on chairs at desks in school, while in
the rural areas, the children sit on the floor at low desks and like
to do so because this is how they sit at home. Whether the child
sits on a chair or on the floor has no affect on learning, as long
as a decent working surface is provided for the student. The
standards for floor space will be the same in each case, but there
will be different standards for furniture and window sills will
need to be lower in the rural than in the urban school.
For participatory development of norms and standards for 'local'

schools it would seem to be important that local educators are
involved as well as an architect, drawn from the locality if possible,
and, if not, from the centre. Also participating should be local
craftsmen and builders as well as the local health authority.
Such a team would overcome one objection to participatory planning,

which is that it lowers efficiency. Participation of professionals
should overcome this.
A second, and more serious objection to the determination of norms

and standards at local level is that it may spread conflict.
Sociologists argue, however, that it may, in fact, "provide an
institutionalized mechanism for conflict settlement." Conflict
brought out into the open can at least be dealt with in a constructive
manner and one way of resolving problems is to leave final decisions
to the professional educational planners or to local "development
councils".
MODULE I Section 5 : Norms, standards, educators and architects 6O_
A third objection to participatory development of norms and standards

is that it will lead to 'parochialism' or "provincialism1. In reply
to this it can be argued that in as much as topography, climate,
materials and construction skills are often peculiarly local,
parochialism is no bad thing, as long as it results in schools of
good quality.
Fourthly, there are those who would claim mediocrity is the most
likely outcome of local participation in matters affecting education.
Local participation will involve many people who will not have the
professional skills associated with facilities design and they may
subject the professional participants' expertise to majority rule
and unsatisfactory compromise. Against this it may be argued that
creativity, ideas and first-hand experience are not the prerogative
of professionals and, indeed, the main purpose of participation is
to tap local people for appropriate experience in problem-solving.
Where a complex technical matter is at issue (for example, daylighting),
then a small technical sub-group may study solutions and present them .
to the main group for acceptance.
Finally, perhaps the main remaining objection to the participatory

establishment of local norms and standards is likely to be that it
will upset authority and control. Indeed administrators and
educational planners might warn that, without centrally established,
uniform controls, the quality of educational facilities might be
reduced in some areas and disparities enhanced, rather than reduced.
This danger can easily be avoided without stifling local initiatives
by giving broad and general sets of directions on the main topics
for standardization. Thus, for example, local bodies might be
directed to standardize floor areas for classrooms, to establish
norms for toilets and drinking water, and so on.
Participatory activity leading to the establishment of norms and

standards is only likely to succeed if it is well-organized. There
should be:-
MODULE I Section 5 : Norms, standards, educators and architects 61
a legal framework within which the activity can operate. Simply

because it is local should not mean that the output of the
activity can be used optionally.
the professional participation of educators, architects and

educational planners should be mandatory
compliance with the norms and standards established locally

should be ensured through adequate supervision
vertical and especially horizontal communication and exchange

of experience between various local groups developing their
own norms and standards should be maintained
there should be common quality goals established centrally (and

in broad terms) which should guide all local groups in their
work.
The reader will recall that in Section 3 of this Module, procedures

were suggested leading to the establishment of quality and cost norms.
These procedures will be equally applicable at the local level if
participatory establishment is decided upon. Similarly, where the
participatory group requires specialist advice as, for example,
from the Forest Products Laboratory, on timber structures standards
or from the Building Research Station on illumination, then this
should be made available.
The educational planner's task will no longer be to control matters

at the centre, but to serve others attempting to establish standards
by arranging for specialist resources, by providing information,
assisting in communication, comparison and evaluation of the local
standards established. This, it has been said, "will place planners
and, indeed, architects, in a new centre of action."
MODULE I : Section - Checkpoint 62
CHECKPOINT
The following provides the reader with an opportunity to reflect on

some of the issues raised in the Module. Framed as questions, the
answers may either be provided by the reader and checked with the
discussion that follows, or the discussion can simply be read as a
gloss on the Module.
1. Amenity is said to be a much neglected area in the field of

norms and standards. Poor standards of amenity in respect of
illumination, sanitation and noise are discussed in the Module.
There are other aspects of amenity which are often also omitted
from standards: List and briefly discuss them and their
importance.
2. Almost all countries have standards for area - as area per place,
as areas for individual teaching and non-teaching spaces and as
areas for sites. In many countries, these are virtually the
only controls affecting educational facilities. What are
possible reasons for the popularity of 'area' as a standard
and to what extent does it in fact affect the quality of a
facility?
3. A change in the standards affecting educational facilities would

appear, inevitably, to result in existing schools becoming
'sub-standard'. Is this necessarily so?
4. It is said in the Module that, "... there are rarely any

universally held and absolute standards of quality ...." What
are the 'rare* exceptions and in what sense may they be
universally held?
5. Standards for urban, multi-storied schools were prescribed and

included space standards, fire standards, toilet standards, etc.
Educational planners noted also that national standards were
available for the cement and reinforcing steel that would be
MODULE I : Section - Checkpoint 63_
needed for the structure of the buildings. Should they include

these standards in the general list of standards they proposed
to issue for educational facilities?
6. School organization is, in this Module, treated as if it is

relatively stable. This, however, may not alway be so. Space
may be needed for a changing variety of needs; time may not
always be divided in 45 minute lessons in a 35 hour week in a
3-term year; the students' age range may be expected to widen
as life-long education becomes a reality; content may transcend
traditional limits and increasingly focus on student interest/
societal needs; organization may change from a classroom-based
arrangement to a mix of groups of varying sizes. In a few
countries, some of these changes are already taking place. What
effects, if any, might such changes have on the determination
of norms and standards for educational facilities?
1. Amenity is said to be a much neglected area in the field

of norms and standards. Poor standards of amenity in
respect of illumination, sanitation and noise are
discussed in the Module. There are other aspects of
amenity which are often also omitted from standards.
Well illuminated, noise-free accommodation, with adequate attendant

sanitary facilities is required for hospitals, offices, places of
worship, banks, laboratories and museums. There are additional
qualities that would make such accommodation uniquely suitable for a
school building - qualities that would enable the users to teach and
learn with ease. Amenity, in this sense can be taken to mean,
'resultingin functional efficiency 1 . Thus amenity in a classroom will
result from adequate and correctly located chalkboards and other
fittings related to visual aids; from the provision of storage
facilities for materials and equipment; from the provison of furniture
designed to match both the body sizes of the users and the tasks to be
performed.
MODULE I : Section - Checkpoint 6£
In other spaces such as laboratories, staffrooms, workshops, etc.,

similar appropriate amenities will be essential if teaching and
learning are to proceed efficiently and standards specifying the
quality of these amenities are no less important than those specifying
floor area, acoustics, illumination and other more commonly specified
amenities.
2. Almost all countries have standards for area - as area

per place, as areas for individual teaching and
non-teaching spaces, and as areas for sites. In many
countries, these are virtually the only controls
affecting educational facilities. What are the possible
reasons for the popularity of 'area' as a standard and
to what extend does it affect the quality of a facility?
One of the many definitions of architecture is that it is, "the art

of enclosing space for contemporary activities". In as much as area
incorporates two of the three dimensions that describe space, area
is thus critical in providing for activity - in this case, for
teaching and learning. So the area provided for education is
rightly thought to be an important matter for specification as a
standard for schools; but why the only matter?
Speculation includes first, teachers' experiences. Large numbers of

teachers have had, at some time or other in their lives, to teach
very large numbers of children, crowded into spaces intended for
smaller groups. The experience is traumatic and leads most teachers
to place stress on the need for classrooms large enough to enable
them to teach effectively.
Secondly, there is an impression that, given an adequate space in

which to teach, the rest of the environment can safely be left to
architects, equipment and furniture, maintenance men etc. This may
MODULE I ; Section - Checkpoint
be, perhaps, coupled with lack of the skills necessary exactly to

describe the total environment in technical terms.
Finally, and as far as the educational planner is concerned, an

expression of area is, automatically, a statement of cost and thus,
from the viewpoint of preparing a budget, area is the critical
component. Thus, if the per place area is standardized, the cost
is given by:
(Number of places x area per place x costs per square metre)
It is, of course, possible to use a per square metre cost which allows
for the construction of a desired environment, or, to put another
way, the unit cost may be fixed at a level which includes the desired
amount of window for daylight, adequate chalkboards, fire resistance,
services and so on.
So, if there happens to be an architectural service highly skilled in

the design of educational buildings and having strong links with the
educators likely to use or supervise the use of the new schools, a
specification of per place area (together with other basic data
such as schedules of accommodation) is probably enough. Such,
however, is rarely the case and 'area1 as the sole standard is not
an adequate specification for a school building or for its site.
3. A change in standards affecting educational facilities

would appear, inevitably, to result in existing schools
becoming sub-standard.
Reference to Figure 1, Section 1 of this Module makes it immediately

clear that, as far as area is concerned, the change in standards
made over almost a 4O-year period results in schools constructed
during the first 20 years exceeding the minimum standard required.
MODULE 1 : Section - Checkpoint 66
Indeed, in the particular country from which the example has been
selected, old standards of area per place proved wasteful and the
government, for financial reasons, decided on reductions which
enabled their resources to be better deployed on fittings, finishes,
furnishings, etc.
It is, however, generally true to say that in countries which

traditionally have had very limited resources for education and where
school buildings are often almost primitive in their construction,
that a change in standards invariably results in most of the stock
of schools becoming seriously sub-standard. Where, however, a change
in standards results in over-provision in some of the old stock
then advantage can sometimes be taken of the situation to increase
enrolment or to make some other use of the excess capacity.
It is said in the Module that, "... there are rarely any

universally held and absolute standards of quality ... "
And this is true with one exception which is of considerable

importance for educational building (and other building) designers.
It is the case that the ratio of the parts of the human body to
the standing height do not appear to alter from generation to
generation. Of course, the standing heights of populations may
and do increase. Anyone who has seen suits of 14th century armour
will have noted this and, indeed in the period since the last world
war, during which nutrition has improved in some countries, there
have been measured increases in mean standing heights of males and
females. But the ratio of the parts to the whole has remained
constant. Thus, a chair seat should always be 0.25 of the standing
height above floor level if the user is to sit comfortably without
undue pressure on the popliteal arteries. The critical dimensions
MODULE I : Section - Checkpoint
of other parts of furniture and the heights and dimensions of

fittings will likewise be related to the ratios of the parts of the
body to its standing height.
Perhaps strangely, it is not possible to be as precise about other

human characteristics. The eye is able to adapt to a wide range
of illumination levels and, while it is possible to give 1O6 lux as
a level below which there is a risk of strain, discrimination
increases as illumination, so no upper level can usefully be
stated. Likewise with hearing. We adapt to sound and what is
noise to one remains unnoticed by another.
5. Standards for urban, multi-storied schools were

prescribed and included space standards, fire standards,
toilet standards etc. Educational planners noted also
that national standards were available for the cement
and steel that would be needed for the structure of the
buildings. Should they include these standards in the
general list of standards they proposed to issue for
educational facilities?
Two situations need to be considered. First, in the towns and

wherever educational facilities are being designed and constructed
under the supervision of qualified architects or engineers. The
training of architects and engineers is such that, given a suitable
set of instructions from the client, they are able to arrange for
the construction of the building, using their technical knowledge.
In short, the only information the designer requires from the client
concerns the functional requirements of the building type that he or
she is called upon to design. There are, of course, hundreds of
'types' of buildings ranging from crematoria to dairies, from
restaurants to religious buildings. No architect could possibly be
expected to be aware of the functional requirements of them all.
MODULE I : Section - Checkpoint
So the norms and standards for educational facilities have to provide

that information specifically related to educational building as a
type, which will ensure that the designer meets the quality and cost
requirements. This will not include instructing the designer about
matters which are of general concern in any building such as cement
and reinforcing steel.
The second case concerns communities in rural areas who are

constructing their own schools. In general, the assumption would
be that local people will build in local materials with which they
(and often only they) are fully familiar. Advice on functional
requirements would then be the only requirement.
There is, however, sometimes a need to provide standards relating

to construction, particularly in areas subject to risk of natural
disaster such as tropical cyclone or earthquake. Norms and
standards for educational facilities in these areas may thus relate,
in the usual way , to quality and costs and also to construction.
6. School organization is, in this Module, treated as if it

is relatively stable. This, however, may not always be
so. Space may be needed for a changing variety of needs;
time may not always be divided in 45 minute lessons in a
35 hour week in a 3-term year; the students' age range
may be expected to widen as life-long education becomes
a reality; content may transcend traditional limits and
increasingly focus on student interest/societal needs;
organization may change from a classroom-based arrangement
to a mix of groups of varying sizes. In a few countries,
some of these changes are already taking place.
Space - the norm should be for non-loadbearing internal partitions

to permit adaptability.
MODULE I : Section - Checkpoint , 6£
Time - the norm should be for use of the facility at night as well
as during the day and this will require illumination other
than by daylighting.
Students - furniture and fittings adaptable for adult use - at

least in some parts of the building; more heavily
serviced buildings for a wider activity range.
Content - the norms dealing with adaptability of space and with

services cover content change.
Organization - norms for flexible space will be important.

Flexibility is defined as high frequency, low
magnitude change (as opposed to 'adaptability'
which means low frequency, high magnitude change)
The norms reflecting changes in school organization will force the

designer to focus on the provision of an 'envelope' of high quality
(lighting, ventilation, acoustics) enclosing a volume inside which
there is adaptable 'scenery' for the educational activity of the
time.
TRAINING MATERIALS IN EDUCATIONAL PLANNING
MODULE II : DESIGN. CONSTRUCTION AND"COSTS
Introduction
Section 1 : Physical Planning
Section 2 : Architectural Design
Section 3 : Construction Norms
Section 4 : Cost Norms
Policy and Planning
UNESCO

Module II : Design, construction and costs
LIST OF CONTENTS
Introduction to Module II 2
Section 1: Physical planning 3
Section 2: Architectural Design 26
Section 3: Construction Norms 61
Section 4: Cost Norms 75

Module II: INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
Module I of the Cluster comprised a general discussion of ways of

controlling the quality and costs of educational facilities through
the application of norms and standards. This Module examines the norms
and standards themselves, considers the ways in which each standard
can best be established and the specific technical problems associated
with their expression and application.
Module II: Section 1. Physical planning
SECTION 1 : PHYSICAL PLANNING
A school site has two sorts of quality. The first is its relation to
the community it serves and, secondly, is its intrinsic quality in
respect of the functions for which it is selected, such as suitability
for construction and area for play or other outdoor activities. The
discussion that follows explores these two quality aspects and
suggests ways of determining and expressing norms and standards for
each.
Sites, like the buildings located on them, have value - even if they
are donated free of charge. And they need to be maintained. There
have, thus to be norms for costs in much the same manner as there are
building cost norms. Both free and purchased areas of land need to
be controlled by a cost umbrella. Free sites are sometimes not truly
'free' of cost. One such comes to mind. It was given on the other
bank of a river and access to it required the construction of a costly
bridge which, at the same time, opened up access in general to the
villages far beyond! Other 'free' sites that can be recalled include
sections of marshy land that required buildings to be constructed on
expensive piled foundations, sites on the sides of steep hills
resulting in expensive foundations and costly access paths, and so
on.
Sites, above all, can be politically sensitive. The member of a

Constituent Assembly who can arrange for a school site to satisfy his
or her electorate is often regarded as a political success. In one
country, indeed, there are fields near a number of villages in which
remain, to this day, the foundations stones of schools that candidates
promised to build if elected!
Whether a site for a school should be on the north or south side of a

village can cause a major political upheaval as any education planner
who has been engaged in site selection will tell. And how does one
refuse a manifestly unsatisfactory 'free' site offered by a powerful
politician?
In short, while the planner may establish norms and standards for site
location, site area and site quality, the norm is often that of
satisfaction of the local politician. How the educational planner
responds to political pressures varies from place to place. One
percipient Director of Education always dealt with politicians by
offering them a cup of tea and, as they drank it, quickly ran through
the criteria for site selection, getting the politician to agree on
each criterion, turn by turn. Then, this done, he would turn to the
site offered and, using the politicians own words, approve of it ox
reject it, as the situation demanded.
It is, however, with criteria, rather than politics, that this Module
has to be concerned and these criteria will differ, depending on
whether the school is to be located in an urban or rural area.
First, what are 'urban' and 'rural' areas? A rural area is most
easily defined as "an area, not being an urban area, having a population
of mainly agricultural occupation living on farms or in villages and
having elementary social and administrative institutions."
The definitions of an urban area are many and varied. In general, an

urban area is one defined as urban by law or, an area, including a
town characterised by a population of mixed occupations, including
commercial and industrial activities and including central social and
administrative institutions.
Some countries define a town as one having more than a stated number
of inhabitants. For the educational planner, the best definition is
to be found in places where the term 'urban' is related to population
density. One such definition in a country having a very uneven
distribution of population is, "an area with a gross density of not
less than 100 inhabitants per hectare."
Population density in urban areas is likely to become of increasing

significance in the next decade or two. It is, indeed, already of
significance in many places. One metropolis covers over 1,000 square
kilometres of which nearly half lies outside the city's official
boundaries. It has, today, a population estimated at 14.5 million
or some 1OO per hectare. And by 2025, ninety three cities will have
populations of over 5 million, while twenty four will exceed 10 million
people.
The growth of cities is, in part, due to the birth rate but, perhaps
more importantly, due to the movement of rural populations to the
towns. A United Nations medium-variant projection for the year 2025,
suggests that, by then 60 per cent of the population of most
countries will live in urban areas.
The main issue facing educational planners concerned with

locating schools and selecting sites, is increasingly that
of the urban, rather than the rural school.
Not the least of the difficulties is the unplanned manner in which

many towns are growing. The old urban centres were and still are
often subject to physical planning laws. But around the planned
centres grow areas of shanties, semi-permanent houses, small
factories, shops and more or less temporary commercial buildings.
It is rare in such growth areas to find space for schools or, for
that matter, for other public buildings such as police stations and
post offices.
So it is necessary in circumstances such as these, to take a hard look

at conventional physical planning requirements' for school sites such
as:-
- no frontage on railways or major roads

site not less than 200m from noisy and noxious industries
4OOm or more to the leeward of factories
- children going to school not to cross dangerous roads,
pass bars or brothels
land level and well-drained
water and other services readily available
easy access to a playing field.
This list may be regarded as a 'norm' in the sense that it represents

a desirable state of affairs, but in many towns, it increasingly bears
less and less relation to the real situation. This is well
exemplified in a recent study (Almeida and Rodriguez, 1982) which
identified, "the major obstacles that hinder the provision of
educational facilities," in a city of some 15 million persons. The
obstacles included:-
lack of land for schools within reasonable walking distance

for the students
inadequate land (in respect of form, area and topography)
disagreement among the people as to the best location for
schools
disagreement with the education authorities on school sites,
resulting in withdrawal of financial support by the
authorities
illegal land tenure with squatters occupying sites on which
schools might otherwise have been built
conflicting land ownership claims making the purchase of
school sites difficult
and in the older, inner urban areas:-
virtual non-existance of unoccupied sites making expropriation
of existing buildings necessary so that, after demolition,
schools can be constructed
sites - even of expropriated buildings - likely to be small
and such that, after the school has been built, there is
little or no room for outdoor activity
changes in land use as the population moves out of city centres
and commercial interests take over, thus reducing school
populations
changes in traffic patterns making access to schools
exceptionally hazardous.
It must be added that, where it has been possible to develop and

rigorously to implement physical planning for cities, the problems
listed above are amenable to solution and norms and standards for the
location and quality of sites are both relevant and fairly easy to
apply. Almeida and Rodriguez argue that, where physical planning is
not effective or non-existant, designers and educational planners will

have to rely on their imaginations to develop strategies for a
solution of the school location problems that characterize so many
marginal urban areas.
From the perspective of this Module, it has, however, to be assumed

that physical planning and physical plans for cities are an
inevitable outcome of political development in all countries and, on
this basis, norms and standards for the location and quality of sites
for schools will be of increasing importance provided they are
relevant to the new realities.
The main purpose of this introduction has been to explain that, among
all the norms and standards for educational buildings, those dealing
with site location and quality are unique. First, they are often in
conflict with "political norms", secondly, they have often to be
applied in situations of intractable difficulty.
Schools in rural areas
There are very few countries in which the rural areas are the subject
of formal physical planning and they are usually city states, often
on islands. So, in the countryside, the approach to site selection
and quality is relatively simple. Each school serves a population
the students from which must be able to reach the school site on foot,
by cycle or by public transport. In most rural areas students will
have to walk to school so the first decision that has to be made
concerns the reasonable distance for such a walk, made twice a day in
all weathers. A local judgement has to be made on an acceptable
maximum distance of travel. For primary school children, the maximum
distances in a number of countries ranges from 2 to 4 Km from home to
school. For secondary school students, 5.O Km has been decided on in
one or two countries, however, the students are older and the schools
usually more widely separated due to lower enrolments resulting from
the often terminal nature of primary education. It is frequently the
case that greater distances than 5 Km have to be travelled.
Once the maximum distance of travel has been decided upon, then it is
possible to estimate with some certainty, how many students can be
enrolled. This can be done by counting the numbers resident within the
prescribed distance from the site or within what is known as the
"catchment area".
In larger villages, the population may be sufficiently large to support

more than one school of optimum enrolment and the distance to be walked
from home to school is, thus, not a significant factor in site location.
In other situations, such as are common in mountainous areas having
very small villages, no one village may have enough children of
school age for a viable school of its own and it may then be necessary
to locate a school at some point between the villages and within the
maximum prescribed walking distance from each.
Thus, the first norm for the location of schools in rural areas
will state the maximum distance that the student is to travel
from home to school.
In countries having compulsory education, compulsion to attend cannot

be enforced where the distance from home to school is in excess of
that stated in the norm.
The distance decided upon may vary, even within one country, depending
on the terrain and climate.
The journey to school, moreover, should be such that local people regard
it as safe. Opinions of what is safe and what is not will vary. A
major road is safe, provided that at times of going to and coming from
school, a temporary 'warden' or teacher is stationed to control
traffic so that small groups of children can be shepherded across the
road. One recalls, in a mountain area, visiting a school access to
which was on shaky stepping stones in a wide but shallow river. Local
people, used to the journey, thought it quite safe for their children.
Module II; Section 1. Physical Planning
Thus, the second norm, given below, needs to be interpreted in the light
of local knowledge and experience. It is:
"Children travelling to and from school do not have to cross or

pass major roads, railways, dangerous rivers or other such
features as are deemed (locally) to constitute physical
hazards."
Finally, although rural areas are usually agricultural in character,

there are countries in which industry has sites in the countryside
and, moreover, many of these industries result in the production of
either some pretty objectionable smells (sugar factories; tanning
factories; breweries) or of quantities of dust (cement factories;
grain mills). Sometimes chemical plants, too dangerous to site in or
near cities, are located in rural areas.
If the country for which the norms are intended has industry in rural
areas, then the provisions relating to noxious industries of the urban
norms should be included in the provisions for rural sites.
As to the site itself, the norms will relate to those qualities which
are important in enabling the school to function effectively as an
institution:
These qualities can be categorized as follows:-

area; in relation to the functions of the site which will
include space for the buildings and may include spaces
required for paths, play, gardening, parking, outdoor teaching
soil; structural stability of soil and adequate bearing
capacity in relation to foundation design; well-drained
services; availability of an adequate supply of drinking
water on the site or near enough to be piped to it.
Module II: Section 1. Physical Planning 10
The area required for a site should be standardized, per student place.
This will ensure, first, that more land than is actually needed is not
acquired. Secondly, a per place area requirement allows a site of any
convenient shape to be selected.
There are otill countries in which the standards for sites include a
requirement for a rectangular shape. One such country specifies/ "The
size of site should be 45.7 x 30.5 metres ...." - and this for a place
which is very hilly!
To calculate the per place area, all that is necessary is to add

together the areas required for buildings, paths, playing fields/space,
parking, gardening and outdoor teaching and to divide by the number of
places. An allowance of say an extra 10% can be made for trees and
small pieces of unusable land that might reasonably be expected in any
rural site - especially in the hills. The exercise should be
repeated for a range of enrolments and it will quickly become evident
that the law of diminishing returns applies, with larger schools
requiring less area per place than smaller.
Thus the norm for site areas for rural schools might read as follows:-
"The area of the site shall be 'X' square metres per student
place of planned enrolment. The site shall have sufficient
level areas for the construction of buildings and for play
areas."
This norm refers to "planned" enrolment and that means if it is

intended subsequently to increase enrolment, the site area should be
determined with this in mind.
The soil of the site
The sub-soil of the site should be structurally stable as, indeed, it

usually is in the plains. In the hills, it may be less stable. The
Module II: Section 1. Physical Planning
foundations of a rural school - usually of one or two stories - do not

impose a heavy load and soil able to support a local, traditional,
two-storied dwelling house will usually be adequate for a school. It
can be assumed that the sensible designer will use foundations similar
to those proved locally satisfactory. Along rivers or in marshy or
flood-prone areas, the practice may be to build on piles and this
would be sensible for schools built in such locations. So the norm
might read, briefly, as follows:-
"The site should compose stable sub-soil, suitable for a load

such as might be imposed by a well-built, two storied dwelling
house of the type commonly found in the area nearby."
This apparently unscientific norm will be well understood by local

communities who are selecting a site and, if the site selection is by
the national building authority, its engineers will, in any case, make
their own judgement. For the local people the norm says, in effect,
if the soil is so bad that you wouldn't wish to build your own home
on the site, then it won't do for the school!
The services that can be demanded in most rural areas are few. One is
mandatory, namely a supply - piped or from a well - of pure drinking
water. The amount required will be decided upon locally having regard
to the climate and other factors. Basically it should be enough for
each child to drink as much as he or she requires and to wash the hands
two or three times during the school day.
Where anal cleansing using water is the practice or where water-flushed

latrines are usual, then some 45 litres of water per place per day
will be required for washing, drinking and toilet use. Where, of
course, anal cleansing is with earth, then water is in any case,
likely to be in short supply and the norm will be for drinking water
only.
In some areas, water not required for drinking jnay be rainwater, river
or stream water. So the norm should clearly distinguish between the
one and the other as follows:-
"Pure water for drinking and washing hands is to be available

at the site at the rate of 'X' litres per place of planned
enrolment."
Two points are important here. First the expression, "... at the site
...." means on or next to the site. So if there is a perfectly good
well or standpipe within a few yards of the site boundary, that would
be acceptable, for it would be difficult in most rural areas to
predict with any certainty that a well giving pure water could be
dug on an otherwise satisfactory piece of land. Secondly, the 'planned
enrolment' is that foreseen as the school grows.
Where water is required for flush type toilets, then the following
norm should be added:-
"Water for flushing toilets to be available on the site at the

rate of 'Y' litres per place of planned enrolment and in
addition to that provided for drinking and washing hands."
Finally, and having regard to the subjective nature of what is and what
is not "pleasant", the remark of Martin, given in the Introduction to
Module I, should find some reflection in norms for sites. Martin, it
will be recalled, suggested the importance of regarding (school)
building as a "place", rather than, "a material system, a process or
a service." The norm for selection of rural sites for schools should
include, perhaps, some reference to the quality of the site - its
trees, water, landscape, and general setting. This might avoid
Module II; Section 1. Physical Planning
selection of some rectangle of featureless land beside a dusty road in

the middle of which, and without reference to climate, wind direction
or the sun, a building is set to house children whose spirits must fall
every time they enter it.
Schools in urban areas
Urban areas are here taken to be either those areas defined legally
as urban and other peripheral areas outside legal urban boundaries
which have, none the less, the density of population associated with
an urban centre - that is something of the order of 1O0 persons per
hectare.
Unlike the rural areas, distance from home to school is not usually an
important criterion for site selection except, perhaps, where children
have the choice of attending either a state, religious or private
school. A distance of travel norm is thus not of importance in high
population density areas, the more especially as such areas are likely
to be well served by buses or other means of transport.
Nor, in a densely populated area, criss-crossed by roads, is it

realistic to attempt to insist that schools should be located in
places where students do not have to cross main roads to reach school.
The urban student is used to traffic and may be assumed - except in
the case of the very young - to be familiar with traffic lights,
crossing places, etc. Some schools, indeed, devote time to teaching
children how to behave in traffic.
This leaves only the questions of pollution - smell, smoke and noise.
These are intolerable, both for students trying to learn and teachers
trying to teach. The norm should specifically exclude the use of
sites subject to nuisance from pollution. It is, however, only possible
to frame such a norm in general terms for smell and smoke are difficult
to quantify. Noise, however, easily lends itself to statements of
limits. Chaudhuri (1973) suggests there is very good evidence that

sound levels above 6OdbA require measures for sound reduction to be
taken in building design. His findings were based on a lengthy series
of articulation tests made in rural and urban classrooms of a number of
Asian countries and his conclusion is thus of high validity. Of course,
while sound is generated within the school itself, its levels in the
classroom or other teaching space can be controlled by design, the
sound with which there is concern here is intrusive and has its source
outside the site. The norm will thus have to include a requirement that,
at the actual location of the proposed building, sound levels should not
exceed 6OdbA. It is true that in temparate countries, some reduction
of intrusive sound results from insulation by walls and windows, but
in the tropics where buildings are often designed to be more open,
there is unlikely to be much reduction as a result of the structure of
the external surfaces of buildings.
Thus a norm relating to sites and pollution might read as followss-
"School sites are to be located to the windward of industries

which are a source of noxious smells and smoke or at least
400m. to the leeward of such sources of pollution. The measured
sound level at that area of the site on which it is proposed to
construct buildings should nowhere exceed 60dbA."
That it should be necessary to write such a norm is a wry comment on

the state of physical planning in many cities. The fact is, however,
that where factories have sensibly been erected on the outskirts of
towns, the workers and those serving them - shopkeepers and the like
- have slowly settled round the factories and new urban areas of mixed
industrial and residential occupancy have developed in an uncontrolled
manner and, as recent experience has shown, sometimes with disastrous
results.
The school site itself and its desired qualities have also in some
respects, to differ sharply from the rural model. It will be recalled
that site area, soil and services were the qualities for which it was
possible to devize norms for rural schools.
The site area for an urban school is something concerning which it is

very difficult to be specific. Of course, in the cases where town
planning is effectively practised, sites for schools will have been
allocated in the town plan and the areas allocated will be the result
of discussions between the planning and education authorities. In the
majority of cases, however, such is not the case and, as has been well
described by Almeida and Rodriguez, above, a rationale for site area
is difficult to establish. Where land is densely occupied, the
concept of the traditional school with low-rise buildings, set in play
areas, is not tenable. High-rise schools have already become common
in many countries and, with the towns predicted to house some 60 per
cent of populations by 2025 - barely 40 years away, the availability
of land for schools may be expected to decrease. In some places, school
buildings already occupy 100 per cent of the site area with playing
areas provided by entire floors at the upper levels and on the roofs.
A study by Notley and others (1969) examined the problems - design
and administration - of high-rise schools in one country where nine-
storied schools had been designed for small sites. For an average
enrolment of 1105 students, the area of the sites was 2.72m per place.
The school was, moreover, operated in two shifts so that one could
argue that only 1.36m per place was the cost requirement for land. It
may be added, by way of explanation that the vertical movement of
students was by lift, each lift holding exactly half a class of students.
Internal corridors were treated as roads with a white line down the
centre and a "keep left" rule in force. Running in corridors was
strictly prohibited. Three of the nine floors had some recreation
facilities while the playing field - shared by other schools, was a
bus ride away. Scheduling of use of teaching spaces was critical to
avoid undue movement of class groups about the buildings.
At the time (the 1960s) such schools were revolutionary in character

but they are now evidently the fore-runners of the schools of the
hbdule II: Section 1. Physical Planning
future and make it evident that it is possible for the site area
available to have a decisive effect on the design of buildings rather
than is the case with preconceived low-rise buildings which demand
certain areas of site for their effective construction and operation.
It may be concluded from this discussion that an attempt to formulate

norms for site areas for urban schools must, in the present and
foreseeable conditions of urban growth, be fruitless.
The soil of the site for urban schools, because of the probability of
high-rise design solutions, assumes greater importance than that for
rural schools. Loading is certain to be heavier and the acceptance
or rejection of a site may depend on the possibility or otherwise
of designing and constructing economical foundations. The norm might,
thus, read as follows:-
"The site should be such that the subsoil is able to carry

the load resulting from a multi-storied building without
recourse to foundations, which are expensive, having due regard
to the foundations commonly used in buildings in and around the
area. Soil tests should be made before a site is finally
acquired."
The reference to the foundations commonly used in the area is

important as these, depending on the sub-soil profile, may be "unusual"
in relation to foundations in other parts of the country. In one
country, for example, most buildings are founded quite simply and at
low cost. The capital city, however, is on deep silt and all
buildings - even two-storied shops and houses - require deep-piled
foundations which, by comparison, are expensive. However, as there is
no alternative, they would, using the norm suggested above, not be
regarded as a reason for rejecting a school site in the city.
The services for urban schools, it might be thought, need not form the
subject of a norm. Certainly in those areas legally defined as urban
and thus administered by an authority, it would be reasonable to
expect to find water, electricity and main sewage services distributed
to almost every street. The difficulty is likely to arise, however, in
the peripheral areas, as yet not formally so administered. Many sites
in these areas will have no services at all and it is necessary to state
what is required before they are adjudged suitable as school sites:-
"There is to be available on the site, pure drinking water at

the rate of 'X' litres per place per day of planned enrolment
and, in addition 'Y' litres of water per place per day of
planned enrolment for use in flushing toilets."
Disposal from toilets and washbasins where main drainage is not

available, needs to be carefully considered. Either septic tanks or
cess pits may provide a solution, but land is necessary to
accommodate the tanks/pits and the overflow is to be disposed of. Cess
pits need to be emptied regularly. Thus:-
"Where mains drainage is not available for sewage disposal, the

site must be such that it is possible to provide septic tanks
and there must be safe provision for the overflow. Cess pits
may only be used where there is regular provision for emptying"
In summary, norms and standards affecting the site - its location in

the physical plan and its intrinsic qualities - should be prepared quite
separately for rural and urban areas as defined locally.
The main function of these norms and standards will be to advise

communities unfamiliar with the requirements for educational facilities,
Module II: Section 1. Physical Planning
of the main points to be considered in locating and selecting a school

site.
The emphasis should always be on the realities of situations. It is

easy to make specific quantitative and qualitative demands in respect
of the designs and construction of buildings, but this is rarely
possible with sites. Thus the object should be to state the minimum
acceptable conditions for land suitable for school, leaving final
selection to the good sense of those whose responsibility it is.
Finally, it is important to consider the role of the education authority

in physical planning. The impression that has (deliberately) been
given in this section is one of uncertainty. Few rules, it has been
argued can be expected to apply in a situation which is so often
affected by political decision, by lack of services to sites,
incomplete knowledge of ownership, difficulty of selection, etc.
The education authority is, despite these difficulties responsible for

the efficient and effective conduct of education and thus as concerned
with the si-ting of schools as it is with facilities design, curriculum,
teachers and so on. Sometimes this concern is direct as, for example,
when the school is owned by the authority; sometimes the responsibility
of the authority is that of making grants-in-aid to schools whose
premises and activities are deemed effective. In either event, the
Ministry will want details of the physical facilities in which
education continues and this will include information on the site.
Thus, for both urban and rural areas the following documents should be
prepared, preferably before new sites are acquired for schools. The
documents, which should be submitted to the education authority, are:-
i) A simple map to a scale of 1:20,000, indicating the site of

the school, demarcating the planned catchment area and
showing topographical and other features of the area, such
as roads, rivers, railways and the like. A photocopy of the
official survey map of the area with the site and boundaries
of the catchment area marked in colour is an easy way of
presenting the required information.
Module II: Section 1. Physical Planning 19[
ii) A simple map to a scale of 1:1,OCX) indicating the proposed

site, showing adjoining roads, the present use of adjoining
property and main water and sewage pipes - if any.
The information provided will enable the education authority to ask

further questions, if necessary.
The second role of the education authority in relation to physical

planning occurs when a large scale physical planning exercise is
undertaken by the local, regional or national physical planning
authority. While a picture of peripheral slums to major cities has
been drawn in this section and the difficulties of planning have been
stressed, it is certain that, as time passes, all governments will
get to grips with the problem and slowly, but surely, physical plans
will be developed and implemented. Such plans will obviously include
provision for facilities for all levels of education and this will
require the Education Authority to develop norms for sites, to be
discussed with the physical planners at the appropriate stage in the
physical planning process.
To prepare for this eventuality, it is important that every education

authority develops such norms, bearing in mind that the end product
of a physical planning exercise represents a compromise that reflects
the existing conditions of growth of the area being planned. Planning,
in short, rarely starts with a blank sheet of paper on which it is
possible to mark out large sites for schools. A physical plan may,
in fact, throw up sites which are less than desired in area. So in
preparing norms for sites for educational facilities it will be
important to state what is needed in relation to the existing conditions
under which the overall plan is prepared.
Module II: Section 1. Physical Planning - Checkpoint 20
As with the Checkpoint to Module I, the following questions and

discussions on them may be used to test understanding or simply as a
gloss on this section about Physical Planning.
1. It is suggested in Section 1 of this Module that the criteria for

the location and quality of sites in rural areas should differ
from those in urban situations. Differences in the provision of
education facilities in towns and in the countryside often give
rise to a charge that they further disadvantage the rural student
and that disparities in education are the result. Discuss.
2. An education authority decides that one way of ensuring the

provision of rural schools of good quality is through the use of
a well-designed, standard building type. The architects have
produced two designs from which a choice is to be made - one is
a longer building, the other a series of shorter buildings
giving the same total usable area as the longer, but costing
more per unit area. As a planner concerned with, among other
things, the selection and acquisition of new sites for schools,
which design would you recommend be selected and why?
3. The following are the areas required for a .rural secondary

educational facility. Calculate the jper place areas required
for the sites of schools of 200 and 400 places.
Building - 3.6 sq. m. per place (assume single storied)

Gardening - 1.0 sq. m. per place for 50% of the enrolment.
Volleyball courts - 1 court area 200 sq. m. per 100 places.
Football pitch - 4945 sq. m. - one per school up to 1000 places
Hand play areas - 1.5 sq. m. per place.
Parking - 100 sq. m. per 100 places
Paths/access roads - 10% of the total area
4. Calculate the site area required for a 10-storied urban secondary

school based on the criteria in 3, above and discuss ways in
which the area might be reduced while maintaining the broad
educational requirements for physical education.
Module II: Section 1. Physical Planning - Checkpoint 21
1. It is suggested in Section 1 of this Module that the criteria

for the location and quality of sites in rural areas should
differ from those in urban situations. Differences in the
provision of education facilities in towns and in the country-
side often give rise to a charge that they further disadvantage
the rural student and that disparities in education are the
result. Discuss.
The quality of education depends almost totally on the content and

methods used by teachers. Equipment and books are required to match.
Buildings and the sites on which they stand play a minor, supporting
role. Buildings keep out the weather and provide the background
environment for teaching and learning. The site itself provides
additional teaching accommodation. One can assert with considerable
confidence that if the curriculum and the quality of teachers are the
same in rural and urban schools, then some differences in physical
facilities will have little if any measurable impact on student
achievement. Where achievement between rural and urban areas differs
then it is virtually certain to be as a result of the quality of
teaching and of equipment.
This is an indirect answer to the question, but of great importance. As

far as sites are concerned, because land is, by and large, more easily
acquired in rural than in urban areas, the rural school is likely to
have a "better" site in terms of space, freedom from pollution and
general "pleasantness". Part of the differences are, at most, likely
to have some small effect on the affective development of the student.
On the wider issue of differences in facilities as between urban and

rural facilities, the main disadvantage of the rural school is its
small size which, at the second level, results in failure to provide
as full a range of educational options as is possible in the towns.
This, however, is a function of population and not of administrative
or legislative attempts to differentiate between one area and another.
Module II: Section 1. Physical Planning - Checkpoint 22^
2. An education authority decides that one way of ensuring the

provision of rural schools of good quality is through the
use of a well-designed, standard building type. The
architects have produced two designs from which a choice
is to be made - one is a longer building, the other a
series of shorter buildings giving the same total usable
area as the longer, but costing more p e r unit area. As a
planner concerned with, among other things, the selection
and acquisition of new sites for schools, which design
would you recommend be selected and why?
Land for school sites can rarely be acquired in the specific dimensions
necessary to accommodate a building of pre-determined size. This is
particularly true in both urban areas and in tracts of hilly land. Nor
is land for school sites always rectangular: it may be totally
irregular and possibly more interesting and useful if it i s . Thus,
if buildings of standard design are to be sited o n plots the
dimensions and shapes of which are likely to vary significantly from
place to place, it is important they be as short as possible. A long
building demands a long site dimension and this m a y not b e possible to
arrange. Several short buildings give good opportunity for interesting
site layout and, moreover, layout which can improve the thermal
environment through correct orientation.
Module II; Section 1. Physical Planning - Checkpoint 23
3. The following are the areas required for a rural community

educational facility. Calculate the per place areas required
for the sites of schools of 2OO and 4OO places.
Building - 3.6 sq. m. per place (assume single storied)

Gardening - 1.0 sq. m. per place for 50%. of the enrolment.
Volleyball courts - 1 court area 200 sq. m. per 100 places.
Football pitch - 4945 sq. m. - one per school up to 10OO
places.
Hand play areas - 1.5 sq. m. per place.
Parking - 1OO sq. m. per 1OO places.
Paths/access roads - 10% of the total area.
Component Rate 200 places 4OO places 2OOO places
Building 3.6 720 1440 720

Gardening 0.5 100 200 1OOO
Volleyball 200/100 4OO 800 4OOO
Football 4945/1000 4945 4945 9890
Band play 1.5 300 600 3OOO
Parking 10O/10O 200 400 2OOO
Total 6665 8385 20610
10% total 666 838 2061
TOTAL 7331 9223 22671
Area/place 36.5 sq.m. 23.05 sq.m. 11.33 sq. m.

Module II: Section 1. Physical Planning - checkpoint 24_
4. Calculate the site area required for a 10-storied urban

secondary school based on the criteria in 3, above and
discuss ways in which the area might be reduced while
maintaining the broad educational requirements for physical
education.
The calculation for the site area is given as the last column of the
table which is the answer to the previous question. Over 20 thousand
square metres at land prices current in most cities with their fast
increasing populations, would cost a very considerable sum of money.
The planner thus needs to examine the functional requirements for
space to see whether or not it is possible to effect a reduction in the
amount of land required.
Always in examining a bill of any sort/ it is important to examine the

large items first as the savings that can be achieved, per cent, will
greatly exceed similar, per cent, savings made on a smaller item. Thus,
the items to be examined would be football, volleyball and hard play
areas. One option would be to search the locality for alternative
accommodation for football. Possibly one pitch might be available
at a park or could be shared with another school. Football is not an
economical game. Only 22 students can play at a time and they require
4945 sq. m. or 224.8 sq. m. per student to do so. Volleyball, on the
other hand provides physical exercise for 18 students per court at the
rate of 11.1 sq. m. per student which is much more economical. And
volleyball courts could be arranged on the hard area, saving 3000 sq.m.
Then to make the building eleven, rather than 10 stories high will not
add to unit costs so 700 metres of car parking could be arranged at
the ground floor under the building. The flat roof may provide 500 sq.
m. for gardening.
Module I I : Section 1. Physical Planning - Checkpoint 25_
So the total savings that might be achieved would b e s -
1 football pitch 4945 sq. m.

Volleyball on hard play
area 3000 sq. m.
Parking under building 700 sq. m.
Garden on roof 500 sq. m.
Total saving 9145 sq. m.
Area required (22671 - 9145) = 13526 sq. m. or

6.76 sq. m. per place.
Module II: Section 2. Architectural Design 26
SECTION 2 : .ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN
The preparation of standards for the design of educational facilities

poses the dilema of writing, on the one hand, for the trained and
experienced architect and, on the other, for the community wishing to
construct a school without the benefit of professional advice. The
inescapable conclusion is that two sets of standards are needed, each
to respond to the specific requirements of the situation.
The experienced architect will need only the minimum of guidance and
that often in technical terminology which he or she has been trained
to understand. It will, for example, be sufficient to state the age
range of the students and the architect will ensure that fittings
are fixed at the correct height because he or she will have access
to or be familiar with the anthropometric data.
In a village where the community has decided to build its own school
and, subsequently, to apply to the education authority for teachers
and equipment, the standard would need explicitly to state the
dimensions applicable to furniture and fittings, for the village
people cannot be expected to know much about *-he theories underlying
this aspect of design.
The "two standards" concept obviously requires discrimination in its

application. Stringent rules for means of escape in case of fire,
for example, will only be required for multi-storied schools which
will always be designed with architectural or engineering advice. One
standard will, in this case, be all that is necessary.
The concern in this Section is with those broad aspects of norms and
standards for architectural design outlined in Module I, namely:-
ergonomic
health
safety
Module II; Section 2. Architectural Design 27
Under these three very general headings the topics for norms and
standards will be further broken down into:-
ergonomics related norms that derive from the work of
building physicists. The norms will be for illumination,
thermal comfort and sound control
ergonomics related norms concerned with anthropometries,
including furniture, fittings and general space needs
education related norms dealing with spaces for teaching/
earning, storage, circulation and the like.
amenity related norms including norms for health facilities,
.community use of school and other accommodation
safety related norms concerning fire and general safety
in schools
In each case the reason for the norm will be briefly discussed, the
ways of expressing it as a standard explained (with the "double
standard" considered if necessary) and, finally the problems of
implementation will be outlined.
It will already have been noted that the number of topics for which
norms and standards could be prepared is considerable. In several
countries, the standards for educational facilities comprise several
small booklets of tightly packed information, supplemented by design
guides and national standards. Sometimes the amount of material is
so considerable as to be virtually indigestible and it may be thought
that, for many situations, something very much simpler is likely to
be equally effective. Indeed, in one country, such is the number of
norms, standards and other material that a special group is maintained
in order to keep the design architects up to date with legal
requirements.
There are so many well-designed, functional schools in various countries

that are not burdened by an excessive number of educational facilities
norms and standards as to lead one to question the importance of
excessive legislation affecting design. An equally effective way
of promoting good school architecture may be that practised in a
number of countries through the publication of critical reviews of
good school building design, including a thorough analysis of the
schools in use, contributed by the teaching staff.
Against this background, this Section will be kept as brief as possible.
Ergonomics related norms: illumination, thermal, acoustics
a) illumination
i) Reasons for norms
Every task, depending on its "fineness" requires a minimum level

of illumination, below which eye strain will result if work on
the task is continued.
Secondly, even if the level of illumination is adequate, the

performance of tasks can be affected by 'glare' which occurs
when a very bright light source, such as a window, is seen
beside a very dark surface such as a wall between windows.
There are other aspects of lighting relating to surfaces and
contrast but they need not be considered here as the most
important features, namely adequate illumination and freedom
from glare are by far the more important.
ii) Ways of expressing illumination standards
a) Illumination levels
For the architect, it is sufficient to state the minimum

required level of illumination on the working plane (desk,
workbench, machine, etc.) in the unit of measurement,
the "lux".
Thus, for example:-
The minimum level of illumination in spaces shall be as

follows:-
Classrooms - desks 106 lux*

. Laboratories - benches 215 lux
Home economics - sewing 323 lux

Workshops - rough work 106 lux
- medium work 215 lux
- fine work 323 lux
Libraries 215 lux
Other/ non-teaching spaces 106 lux
Circulation areas 106 lux
* Note:- the values given above are selected from one

country having illumination requirements typical
of many others.
For rural communities building their own schools the list of levels
given above will be useless and, in its place, it is wise to substitute
a more easily usable standard which gives the sizes of openings to
admit the desired daylight.
The standard should be the subject of consultation with the Building

Physics Division of the National Building Research Institution and
might include the following elements:-
openings to be 'X' per cent of the floor area of the room

for rooms up to 'Y' metres wide.
rooms wider than 'Y' metres to have windows, total area
'X' per cent of the floor area but arranged along two
opposite walls of the room.
the openings to be evenly spaced along the walls.
If it is thought likely to help, then the standard could be simply

illustrated.
b) Glare
The topic of glare is best dealt with by a simple

statement to the effect that chalkboards or other
visual aids should not be located on walls having
windows.
iii) Problems of implementation
The basic difficulty with achieving desired illumination levels

by daylight in schools is the lack of design data. In very crude
terms, one can say that to be fairly certain of accurately
calculating the light inside the building, it is necessary to
know of the availability of daylight outside. This information
has only been obtained in a very limited number of areas of the
world and in many places where it exists, it is somewhat difficult
to use.
In preparing standards for daylighting in schools, the first thing

for the planner to do is to enquire whether, given a specific
level in lux for a particular space, it is possible accurately
to design windows. If the answer is, as it will be in a large
number of countries, in the negative, then other approaches will
have to be tried. Of these, the most useful is likely to be
experience derived from observation of successful local prototypes.
If the areas of openings in rooms that seem very well lit are
measured and expressed as a percentage of the floor area, then a
rough and ready standard will result which will certainly be
better than no standard at all.
b) Thermal Comfort
After careful and protracted measurements, it is possible to state

Module II: Section 2. Architectural Design
the conditions (of temperature, humidity and radiation) in which

most people in a country would describe themselves as thermally
comfortable. There are even stronger opinions on what is not
thermally comfortable and it is in these conditions of thermal
discomfort that it is difficult effectively to perform tasks,
such as teaching and learning. Thermal comfort in a cold winter
is achieved partly by designing a building that does not "leak"
heat and by providing fuel to generate the heat needed for
comfort. So a norm for heat losses is an evident need in cold
arfeas. Per contra in the hot areas, a building which excludes
heat and, depending on humidity, permits the penetration inside
of cooling breezes will also bring about a sensation of thermal
comfort in those using it. So norms for heat exclusion and
ventilation are needed in these warm or hot places. Finally,
there are many areas of the world where both conditions pertain
in the same year and norms to ensure comfort are needed in these
conditions too.
ii) Expressing thermal comfort norms
The wide range of climates in the world requires an equally wide

range of building design solutions to the problem of providing
thermally comfortable environments for teaching and learning.
Certainly in countries having both wealth and design expertise,
it is possible to design either heated or cooled buildings,
tailored to provide the desired temperatures, humidities and
radiation components of comfort. It is not the intention to
repeat the norms for such situations here. The real problems
are to be found in places where the mechanical conditioning of the
thermal environment is neither possible nor, in the view of many,
desirable.
For the hot zones of the world, the expression of norms is

simple. There are two:-
Direct sunlight should not be allowed to fall in any

of the spaces inside the school during the school day,
and,
The solar load on buildings is to be reduced to a
minimum by orientating their major areas in an
east-west direction.
The effects of these two norms on design will be to make

sun-shading essential and to provide guidance on site selection.
For the hot-living zones, a further norm would require

buildings to be oriented so that the winds prevailing at
the site can blow through the teaching spaces.
For the hot-dry zones, the norm would require the

exclusion of hot, dry dusty winds and the use of construction
which is as massive as is possible.
It will be noted that two sets of standards are not proposed for
thermal comfort because the general nature of the requirements
makes this unnecessary. An architect will have the protractors
needed for designing sunshading and the norms for orientation and
ventilation require no special skills in their realization. Two
problems may arise. Village people may not be able to provide
adequate shading and thus some diagrams published with the norm
may be helpful. Secondly, people do seem to like their buildings
to be parallel to site boundaries, especially roads, even when
Module II: Section 2. Architectural Design 33_
this results in a building orientation which presents severe

shading problems.
c) Freedom from noise
1) Reasons for norms
The word "noise" means undesired sound. What is "undesired" may

differ from place to place and from culture to culture. It does,
however, seem more or less universally true that the intelligibility
of speech of a teacher in a classroom depends on the level of
background noise and where this rises above 60 dbA, then noise
reduction becomes necessary.
ii) Expressing norms to control noise
There are three sources of noise that need to be controlled:-
1. From adjoining teaching spaces;

2. From major noise sources in the school itself, such as
from workshops and music rooms and,
3. From traffic and other sources off site.
The first and most important aspect of design for a good hearing
environment is to ensure that the student is close to the teacher.
The norm is thus:-
No student in a class or discussion group situation in

workshops or laboratories, should be at a distance
greater than 7.0 metres from the teacher.
To control noise from an adjoining teaching space (other than a

workshop or other major noise source), the partition should be
defined.
Partitions between classrooms should be of solid material

of at least 4 to 5 cm. thick. Where flexible partitions
divide classrooms, then these partitions should be not less
than 2.4 metres high and no student should be closer than
2.0 metres to such a partition. Flexible partitions should
extend the full width of the room.
Workshops and other noise producing accommodation units in the

school may be controlled as follows:-
Workshops, music rooms and other elements of accommodation

in which high levels of sound are produced are to be
located as far from classrooms, laboratories, libraries
and other quiet spaces as the s^te permits and preferably
in separate buildings. Where separation is not possible
then buffer areas of accommodation such as stores, toilets
and the like are to be interposed between the quiet and
high sound level producing areas.
External noise, such as from traffic and nearby factories may be

controlled too:-
Where busy roads or other noise producing activities are

located on site boundaries then noise reduction is to be
achieved by locating buildings as far from site boundaries
as is possible and, where not possible, by presenting blank
walls to the noise source, with windows only on the side of

the building away from the source. Where cross ventilation
in necessary, then some noise reduction can be achieved by
arranging the major axes of buildings at right angles to the
site boundaries.
There appear to be no problems of implementing the norms in rural

areas. The norms themselves can usefully be illustrated to make
them more easily understandable to rural communities. In urban
areas of hot-humid countries where schools need to be 'open' for
ventilation, then the architect will have to exercise skill in
reducing noise from off the site.
Finally, an education authority proposing to issue norms and standards

for illumination, thermal comfort and noise reduction, would, before
so doing, be well advised to consult the National Building Research
Station for advice.
Ergonomics related norms: furniture and fittings
Cognative and psychomotor development are, in themselves, difficult

enough to achieve without artificial obstacles in the form of
poor lighting, thermal discomfort and furniture and fittings that
make prolonged sitting painful and laboratory experiments
dangerous. The average student sits on a school chair at a
school desk, at least four hours a day for periods ranging from
six to 12 years. Some of this furniture - a majority, it has to
be said - seen by the author over the years and in many countries,
is appallingly uncomfortable because it so often bears little or
no relation to the body sizes of the students that use it. Thus,
the reason for norms for furniture and fittings is to ensure that
students are able to work in comfort - sitting at desks, standing
at laboratory benches and using the various fittings associated
with life at school.
ii) Expressing norms for furniture and fittings
Furniture and fittings are topics for which two norms and
standards are needed, the one for the professional designers, the
other for people constructing furniture and fittings in areas not
having professional services.
Where professional designers are employed, it may be unnecessary

to do more than state the age range of the students for whom the
school is to be planned; thus:-
The age ranges of students attending schools at the

different levels of education are as follows:-
Pre-school X to Y years
Primary etc. ,
Secondary lower etc.
upper etc.
Furniture fittings and the scale of the parts of the
buildings are to be designed to match the body sizes of
students of the appropriate range.
Where professional services are unlikely to be used, then the

standard will have to be explicit concerning all key dimensions.
The presentation should take the form of text amply supported by
dimensional drawings or dimensional photographs. For convenience,
the standard can best be divided up into types of accommodation.
Thus a section devoted to Classrooms would include dimensional
information on:-
Students' desks
chairs
Teacher's desk
chair
Chalkboard - length, height and position on wall relative
to floor
Pin-boards and pin rail - ditto
Cupboards - dimensions/shelving
Window cill heights - above floor level
Door handle heights - above floor level
Switch heights - above floor level
Similar information would be specified for other spaces, such as

laboratories, workshops, etc.
For toilets, the heights of wash basins and taps would be given,
iii) Problems of Implementation
While there are adequate data on students' sizes available for

the countries of Asia, Russia, Europe, Australasia and North
America, some of the countries of Africa, the Middle East and
Latin America have not published material on the body sizes of
their students. Where data does not exist, then the Educational
Planning section of the education authority should have some
students measured and the data included in the standard for
furniture and fittings. Measurement is a simple process and has
been well described in a variety of documents published by
Unesco and others.
The only other problem that is likely to arise stems from

application of the dimensions to design. Many school chairs and
desks are far too high for the students whose feet often hang
clear of the grouns when seated. A good chair is one which
allows the user to sit feet flat on the floor without any pressures
on the underside of the thigh. But teachers, used to higher chairs,
often object to lower chairs, claiming them to be uncomfortable!
Certainly in a village setting where tradition is deeply entrenched,
there might be a risk of the 'standard' chair being given longer

legs to satisfy traditional ideas. Thus, a few words should be
put in the standard to help overcome this objection. One also
often finds window cills well raised above reasonable levels
"to stop the children looking out": The Inspectorate of Schools
has a role to play in such matters, persuading people that such
ideas have neither relevance where the quality of teaching is
good nor when it is not. Often educators from the rural areas
visit the towns for administrative reasons and, when they do, a
tour of one or two, well-furnished classrooms is a useful means
of spreading ideas on good design. There is a trend in some
countries to include a unit on school buildings in teacher
training courses and this is another helpful way of getting ideas
to the more remote schools.
Education-related norms - spaces, storage, circulation
Almost every country has standards for space in schools and in

quite a few countries, these are the only standards. There are,
as has been explained in Module I, two reasons for this. The
first is that educators feel that space is the most important
and easily identifiable commodity that has an effect on their

teaching. Secondly, the cost of building is measured per square
metre, so educational planners have an obvious interest in space,
as their capital budgets are, by and large, framed round it.
From this, it will be concluded that two sorts of space standard

are needed to satisfy the two interests. The educator is
concerned with space for teaching and thus with the area of
classrooms, laboratories, workshops and the like. The educational
planner, on the other hand, is concerned with the area of the
school as a whole and comprising, not only the teaching spaces,
but also, the corridors, toilets, staffroom, waiting spaces, and
so on.
Module II: Section 2. Architectural Design 39^
Thus the educator will require a standard that expresses the

minimum space to be provided in teaching spaces, while the
planner will require a standard that expresses the maximum area,
beyond which more than has been budgetted will be needed.
These standards impose a tight control on the designer and their

realization often requires the exercise of considerable design
skill - certainly a skill that is unlikely to be available in the
villages where communities intend to design and construct their
own schools.
ii) Expressing norms and standards for space in schools
As has been indicated above, the design difficulties are such as to

make two sets of standards essential. Where professional design
advice is available, then standards may take the form as follows:-
Classrooms not less than X square metres per place

Laboratories:-
General not less than Y square metres per place
Physics not less than Z square metres per place
Chemistry etc.
Biology etc.
Etc. for all teaching spaces (including storage)
For non-teaching spaces, the area for the space may be specified
or the area per place of students in the school. Storage should
be included.
Circulation spaces (corridors, staircases) not more than 'P'

per cent of the total area of the above.
The gross, per place area of the school not to exceed 'G'
square metres per place.
It will be readily apparent that, within the constraint imposed by

the maximum gross per place area, the skilled designer can, by
keeping circulation to a minimum, ensure that as much as possible
of the maximum gross area is assigned to teaching areas. In fact,
a good designer will usually be able to provide slightly more
than the minimum area specified for teaching spaces.
For situations where the professional designer is not used, then

a totally different type of standard is needed. One reason why
a per place area for, say a chemistry laboratory, is likely to be
unsatisfactory is that it may produce an unsatisfactory plan shape.
Thus, say, 28 places at 3.5 sq. m. per place, given an area for the
laboratory of 98 sq. m. This could be arranged as a laboratory
of any of the following selection of dimensions:-
24.50 x 4.0m
19.60 x 5.0m
16.33 x 6.0m
14.OO x 7.0m
Chemistry teachers would have an opinion as to the best shape of

the laboratory and, where they are unable to express it to the
designer, then the standard should give the preferred dimensions
in unequivocal terms. Dimensions for classrooms are of special
importance if the furniture, for which standard dimensions have
already been discovered, is to fit the room. Thus the following
type of standard is needed for the designerless situation: -
Classrooms 'X1 m. wide x 'Y' m. long.

Laboratories 'A' m. wide x 'B' m. long.
Etc., for all spaces in the Schedule of accommodation in
the school.
The widths of corridors and staircases would be specified
exactly.
Such a standard still leaves much of the design initiative with

the community and, from this view-point, is to be preferred to the
publication of a 'type-plan' which rural communities may find
difficult to build with their available labour and material
resources.
The main problem - and it is uncommon - is the architect who

claims a design solution is not possible within the constraints
of the areas set out in the standards. The only solution is to
engage another architect to undertake the work.
A second difficulty may occur with the set of standards proposed

for rural communities. Often the most severe constraint in rural
areas is that of spanning and roofing wide spaces. Thus, where
the village has a job to span 5 metres due to available timber
lengths, then a classroom 7 x 7m is unlikely to be buildable.
The draughtsman for the standards should take such factors into
account.
Amenity-related norms - health
Toilet facilities - urinals and W.Cs - and safe drinking water

are basic requirements for all schools and thus a clear
statement of norms is most important. The requirements,
moreover, are unusual - large numbers of students, freed
between classes for a few minutes before the next class starts
and many wishing to use the toilet or have a drink. How many
wish for toilet use; how many want a drink? The answer may be
the result of measurement of frequency of use (rare) or the
result of the experience over the years in schools. In any event,
the information is unique and will have to be provided to
everyone designing a school. Thus, only one norm is needed.
Module II: Section 2. Architectural Design 42_
ii) Expressing the norm
The norm should comprise a simple scale of provision of facilities,

related to the enrolment. Along with the norms for areas,
discussed above, scales of accommodation for toilet facilities
are most common in a number of countries. The scales may be
expressed in a variety of ways, as follows:-
The number of fittings (that is, water closets or urinals)

is expressed in general terms , per group of students, and
of these, in the case of boys , a fixed proportion are to
be urinals.
The number of fittings is expressed in terms of water closets,

per group of students and urinals for boys are expressed in
metres lineal of trough per group of boys.
Urinals are sometimes not regarded as necessary for the very

young and sometimes, where the sewage system is not water bourne
and anal cleansing is with water, the scale of closets is
increased due to the Increased time taken for individual use.
Scales of fittings (of whatever form) for washing hands after

use of the toilet usually reflect the numbers of toilet fittings,
thus:-
The numbers of wash hand basins to be provided is to be

not less than the number of fittings (i.e. water closets/
urinals).
Also generous provision may be necessary where water is in short

supply and, of course, in many areas, washhand basins will be
difficult to transport to school sites, so a substitute such as
a tap or water pot may be a more appropriate specification.
Strangely, drinking water is rarely mentioned as a standard

provision in schools, it perhaps, being assumed that students
will drink water from the same source as that provided for hand
washing. In some cases this may be possible, provided suitable
fittings are provided. In hot-dry areas, it is the practice to
include "water rooms" in the accommodation schedule. The water
room is set apart for drinking water kept cool in unglazed clay
pots.
Whatever the local arrangement, it should be the subject of a

norm setting out the provision to be made.
Thus far, the reference has been to facilities for the students.
Toilet facilities are required for female and male staff members
but the view taken in all countries for which standards are
available, that it is not necessary to specify the scale of
provision, the matter being left to the good sense of the
designer. Dining facilities, however simple, require toilets for
kitchen staff and hand/utensil washing arrangements to be made
for students:-
Every school kitchen is to have at least one W.C. and

wash basin for the exclusive use of the kitchen staff and
every dining space for students is to have one hand
washing fitting for every 'X' students for which the
dining space is provided.
The main problem of implementation in some countries is in their

rural areas where the students commonly defecate outside in the
fields, along the sea shore or on banks of rivers. Such students
often find an enclosed closet with fitting, difficult to use.
The student will often defecate on the concrete floor near the
fitting and leave the closet without washing the excreta away.
This suggests the importance of closet design, possibly with
raised foot pads and a water system - tap or valve - which
enables the entire floor to be flooded. Whatever solution is
adopted - and solutions will vary from country to country - the
best aid to the published standard on the provision of water
closets is a clear drawing or photograph of a model closet of a
type which local experience has shown to be effective.
Safety-related norms
There are four apparent physical risks to students in school.

They are:-
1. Fire
2. Laboratory accidents
3. Workshop accidents
4. Falls in or from multi-storied buildings.
In the first three cases, the situation is of one teacher who is

responsible for 30 or more students and whose duty it is to see
that all students are moved, without injury, to a place of safety
outside the premises. It is the business of the designer, guided
by the norm, to make sure that the movement of students in groups
can be achieved effectively, to provide a means by which
machines causing accidents can be stopped and to provide window
cills, balustrades and staircases which prevent students from
accidental falls.
ii) Expressing the norms
1. Fire
The concern here is with fire warning systems and means of

escape in case of fire. Constructional design to prevent the
spread of fire is not considered here. The trend towards
more high-rise schools makes these norms of critical
importance in urban school design.
The norms have been so well expressed in a Unesco Document

(G. J. A. Van't Loo, Unesco, Bangkok) that they are
reproduced below.
Mddule I I : Section 2. Architectural Design
f B. M e w s of escape in -tine, ewlu s+Aoe of A-fire.
I. A wieov)s cf escape, /eve! o

is vnoi i|
—<
2.. Sww\ll rwxns owe. door is si>fficie«+
escape
-to doorcoau is
^ 12 vn)
ft
escape
3. Small rooms
p -from the, door 'if
VTO p
(iv\v»e.r rooms)
::::: riru—1 v\On\ber of occo^wfe is
less -ttaw> 25" ^yvJ dist
-to one exit vnust be- less
T*JO s&panvfe exits
-the. roow <\re- rejoined if
== wore. -rWi 2? and idistA*Tce
•f rovn door t o exit wnyst be-
less "Hv*i 18 vKid'f in
evid, fc-ss -TÎAH 12 « t )
4-.
Serves s»v«x\l rooms risk o-f "Five. i t r c>r IniaUi -fiirc.
\{ "tloeve. is onl« one. door f S e e p<xr+ Ck )
Wge. rooms UJ rialt of p«Aviic is bwaer of oocupavrts is -tde

tcr of occcp of s<uvts ( i f -fixe^)
1-dan 100 vw. of wo. of
Aoorz, o"f <d
iiina
|O0- Zoo t Ivxll
Z*
3*
7<Tl-|ooo per
eadi exit
A sepRTft-tt route to
•fivw^l e x i t
Wee. exi+s
bw s«.fx»r*+«. TO
t o A -fivwl exit.
of or'idi«n of "fire.
Module I I : Section 2. Architectural Design
6. dot»\-purpose c\te.i>. cveidnq

WW scrvts rooms -tfxargiv
one. door "fire. risk.
• fl»e -term "• purpose, txre.fr." is t>sed -towtesvi <ai™ Area uMein
serve a -t*oo d'rff«rAvrt purposes, ooe of ujW[c\i is An £s<^tpc noote.
7. -purpose. <\reA
i i+salf k\s
floor
less ^Vwvi 18 m
( o o flinooKid -ffoor 3OH« )
See. B-6 C-6
8. pp is -foir Cx^wiplt pl^cc served by -rfiis

Jt Viijli"fii r t
-fire. will spre<acj q eve* if
\o oVn&Y -floors cÂ -were. pnovyed, -tke coos.\to<Xwi
'is V\O escape -t^royad this slnoiAd be. s o -tlvsi-t cxA^ce/At.
of -fire, rs virltvillu impossible-
Set po.r|
/O. corridors
porpost
i
p^rfitioos
11. corridors and dvo\- one. door of cve.ru room Itss

penrposc. irt tlo<N>0 I 2 vn -from JxH or
bl sfovrtoaq and iot^l viowiber
<?f oc^^wv^ts is less-fh«>i 120
doors purpose are* otvot<?f criglm ^f -fire

> W -41
\L o f escape- dorw\ Vior\z£>vyfa\ spre<5td of -fire
I. S<*K>kc. bus entered •frovn evexu room •tfnc-rt. '

1
3!
tVie corridor" shoyld be oy\ c&c&pe- roi >fe j
\v\ -(IAJO directions
p in out
is blocked
2. corridor i* o/i in corridor B-l.
-floor serve, ^s escape roy+e.
so one. exi+ door la orouob
3. corridor is $ corr\ciar is
opptrfloor
See. I > - 7
4. S-fe>>i»vuflys <xs close-to -tfet exfrcvu'rfies ef #11 corridors ^ s possible
i
Yrrr-
floor less
cwxi dx
less
.+
exi
cud o
upper -floor I2O
f if distance, to -finv
(ess -tVwi 18 wi
door -type 2. vnusi
i tli f
the rest <?f -rti
r
'See -for door
A>
7. O u t dc»r <?f etjertj foom should be. wi+hivo 3ovn af vOear'es-f
or dooY (-fi>TAl exit )
. 30 tn
8. dexsrs -to stop .A;
Siwioke. a
corridor
duoi-pvrposz, occeas or corridors

B-IO
—s
10. cv<»rt| door in -the. escape. roo\e. sWxM Optv\ i/itlie. direction <?f
iTivid /itver be locked eohile. -the. builc/ina Is yscd .
•the. doors provided -to prevent tke spread erf s»nok:c ^r-fire. •should
t be- self-dosina.
I D. of escape, M CCXSC of v&r+ical spread of -fire
I. no "fire doors ivi
eppcrs+ovits \>u
Z. one. •fire door 'm

f*«mxv/ is
\ouaVi ft i
pttfplc. -frowi-rhk •floor fA»wi above ) cawwf escape.
3.
îrd door
1
people, -from -this -floor cure, assumed -to have
I l , people, fmom <\ll wppcrstorits owi s-fill
4. s+oirto<ws will btMctobc e»doscA so people. "fro"*i.

recall bo-H9 ^ J - :
means Sec.
o/dii-u? -ffrc. .sroors of
-. "t<jpc.
s w
5. escape l'.:l rnost be-

"to opevo
Oir s-;?:*^'A.-^. See. also D - 8
i"f VTO+
copper -floors -flicrc 'is A
arwftd +|oor -fliert is

ywjr^-floor nd maws
<A second maws of
of easApe
See. cxlso B ~ l .
of sfo«r«J<M/s i be usevd
Ti mi
>
•
T
-tWrs areo vioea^pe possible. escape, possible -from -4ic ioliole. -floor
Module II: Section 2. Architectural Design -50
7. viomnbtr of » bf + vnoVe- if disWxx- -to nearest

i/i -vhire*. aîd. s > 3O w>
6+orcJ/ school end > 18"O
comber of oea>p«nts
-f Icor is > 120
8 . in two s+oMM school • m w b t r of occcpo*T+5 tv» -first -floor is < IZO

for two siomj part Ke. fmom o*i«fl!oo*"-to st«ir«jA'/ is < 18 K
of A school ) one. fixed ptMr-fifiois ««d < I Z w ti-H^ w O vt
if: •-fine- sfohtittu/ is eyidoseA cwd -the. oAut

•from c^rHfclors (vvrfdo^l pen-pose.) <aâ! Uv«torics.
• w> p«r+ <7f -fke s+ftir«jAi/ is «vo oxeA c»f hi^h -fire risk.
> I.OKM viof +o fcc

vuvrrocoed »-f aKVj spot
if > l.5-vr>,
d IO -fruo p^rts of
ioi^ <?f s+cps
> 280 m
(i less,
vie.v&y )
11. vXMbi-T of steps in in iy)os+ be- SCCM

one. fl
12.
a chancy, in di
13. wnvVimtMi depth wot less than -tht See D-14

•the stair.
14-
p
should alto<Mjs fcc provided
oots'de -the. 5*Jtcp of
h doors
«iiM erfor'wivn i>f -fire.

,^_i -fins, door
Module I I : Section 2. Architectural Design 51
2. Laboratory Accidents
The consequence of a laboratory accident will often be a need

to evacuate the space quickly so the first consideration will
be adequate means of escape.
All laboratories are to have not less than two exit

doors, opening onto a corridor. Stores and offices
opening into the laboratory are also to have
alternative means of escape leading directly onto
a corridor. In buildings of 5 or more stories or
buildings above the reach of a normal fire escape,
laboratories are to have external balconies leading
as a means of escape, to an accessible staircase.
In multi-storied buildings, fire hoses should be provided on

all floors where laboratories are located. Where this is
not possible, fire extinguishers should be provided.
3. Workshop accidents
An especial danger in workshops arises from the increasing

use of electrically-powered machine tools. It should be
possible for the teacher , wherever he or she is in the
workshop when the accident occurs, to be able to cut off
all power at once. This may be necessary either after the
accident has taken place or if the teacher sees the possibility
of an accident occurring and is not close enough to the
student to prevent it. Thus:-
The workshop is to be provided with a well-distributed

system of "Knock-out" switches using which all two
and three phase power in the shop can be cut off in
case of emergency.
4. Falls in or from multi-storied buildings
A standard height should be prescribed for all window cills

and balustrades to external balconies such that there is no
accidental risk of students falling over to the ground
beneath. Thuss-
All window cills and balustrades to open corridors and

round accessible flat roofs, should be not less than
'X' metres from finished floor level on every floor
above the ground floor.
A further risk, especially in a fire, is that of the

open-well staircase. Mot only may such a well act as a
chimney, but in a panic, students may be tempted to climb
over into it. Thus:-
The core of all staircases between flights is to be a

solid wall of thickness not less that 'Y' cm. from top
to bottom of the staircase. Staircases should not be
designed round open wells.
Module II; Section 2. Architectural design 53
ill) Problems of Implementation
In many countries, much of what has been suggested in this Section

on Safety-related norms, will already form the subject of
legislation. Where this legislation does not affect school
buildings, it should be studied and as much as appropriate
adopted for the standards to be applied to school design. The
draft standards should, in every case, be discussed with the fire
authorities and the factories inspectorate who will make useful
suggestions.
The main difficulty with implementation is usually with those who,

never having experienced a fire or an accident, believe such
things are most unlikely to happen in their schools. Cost is
the usual complementary arguement which has, of course, to be
resisted.
Module II: Section 2. Architectural Design - Checkpoint 54
CHECKPOINT
The following questions and discussions about them may be used to test
understanding or simply as a gloss on this Section about Architectural
Design.
1. In what way is there a difference between the nature of the

norms and standards for ergonomic, health and safety-related
aspects of the architectural design of educational facilities?
2. Many of the standards suggested in this Section would require

considerable time and effort to develop to a satisfactory and
useful level. Some countries already operate well developed
standards. Which of these standards could be "borrowed" by a
country wishing to develop its own regulations for facilities
design and which could not - and why not?
3. The standards suggested in this Section represent, some might

think, the minimum that are needed. Yet, collected together,
they would comprise a fairly formidable number of, sometimes
complicated, requirements. In a country having few, if any,
standards for facilities design, what are likely to be the
problems of introducing and implementing so many new standards
and how might these problems be resolved?
1. In what way is there a difference between the nature of the

norms and standards for ergonomic, health and safety-related
aspects of the architectural design of educational
facilities?
The first, and perhaps the most evident difference, is that, while it
is possible to check that the health and safety-related norms have been
observed, it is very difficult indeed (with the exception of
anthropometric norms for furniture and fittings) to be certain that
illumination levels, thermal comfort standards and freedom from noise
have been achieved and, even if achieved initially, are maintained.
Consider a staircase which is a means of escape in case of fire. Unless

some major physical alteration is made to the building, that staircase
will always provide a means of escape. Similarly, if taps for drinking
water are installed in the numbers required by the standard, then,
as long as water is supplied, they will be there to provide it for the
students.
Consider, however, illumination levels. The calculation for window size

includes assumption as to light reflected from outside sources such as
walls and grass, as well as internal reflectance from decorations of a
pre-determined reflective quality. If the building is redecorated with
colours of lower reflectance or the outside environment changes and
trees and shrubs grow, then the internal illumination levels will change
too. All this presupposes the initial calculation was soundly based.
And thermal comfort is even more difficult. In countries in the

temperate zones, techniques for design have reached a high level of
predictive certainty. But where, as is the case in the humid tropics,
there is reliance on air movement as a contributory factor in achieving
comfort, prediction is almost impossible.
Module II: Section 2. Architectural Design - Checkpoint 5£
Finally, the achievement of freedom from noise may be attempted

initially by careful site selection and the internal arrangement of
the building so that noise sources are distanced from quiet areas. The
real situation may, however, turn out to be different initially and
other noise sources may develop during the relatively long life of the
building. Even the addition of a couple of machines to the school
workshop could cause problems.
These then represent one important difference between ergonomic

standards (except for furniture) and the standards for health and
safety. The apparently impossible picture presented here is, in fact,
capable of resolution through the use of experienced architects in
urban areas (this, after all, is what "experience" is all about) and
by encouraging rural communities not to copy urban models of design
but rather to use design features drawn from good, well-proven
traditional stereotypes of their own area.
2. Many of the standards suggested in this Section would

require considerable time and effort to develop to a
satisfactory and useful level. Some countries already
operate well developed standards. Which of these standards
could be "borrowed" by a country wishing to develop its
own regulations for facilities design and which could
not - and why not?
The "borrowing" of educational ideas - structures, contents and

methods - from other countries has as a practice, rightly, received
considerable attention over the past two or three decades and it is
generally agreed that it can lead to all sorts of difficulties -
political, social, cultural and simply educational.
Module II; Section 2. Architectural Design - Checkpoint 57^
In sharp contrast, if we want to light a room at night, then it is not

necessary to design a light bulb. In short, there are times when it is
unnecessary to "re-invent the wheel" and this discussion examines norms
and standards in this context.
Ergonomic-related standards
i) Illumination
Excellent techniques exist in temperate zones for design for

illumination by daylight. They are based on a "design sky" for
high latitudes which is quite different from the low latitude skies.
Therefore, the data cannot be shared. Within the belt of the
low latitudes there are differences in skies which are based on
;
climate -cloud cover, for example. So, in general, illumination
design is best developed strictly locally. If "borrowing" is
attempted, it should be, at most, from an adjacent country
having an almost similar climate.
ii) Thermal comfort
There are some common factors in design for thermal comfort which
are of universal experience. Light-weight, open buildings are
comfortable in the humid tropics while, in the hot-dry zones,
heavy, closed buildings are preferred. Hell insulated structures
provide thermal comfort in the temperate regions.
Rules concerning orientation to reduce solar load on buildings,

hold throughout the low latitudes and the geometry of sunshading
is universally applicable.
Beyond this, local ideas of how to achieve thermal comfort some-

times vary considerably. One can think of adjacent, hot-humid
areas, in the first of which closed buildings are thought of as
comfortable, while, in the second, openness is a valued
characteristic.
The schools in one country where cross ventilation is important,

logically solve the problem by omitting walls; in a similar
climate in the same region/ the schools have walls, windows and
iron grilles. Neither country (at a regional seminar)/ thought
the ideas of the other to be very clever means of achieving the
desired comfort objective.
In short, while some universal principles of design for thermal

comfort can be applied, the ways in which they are, can best be
left to strictly local initiative and practice. "Borrowing" is
totally inappropriate.
iii) Noise control
As with thermal comfort, there are some universally applicable

principles relating to noise control. For example, it makes
sense to turn the major axis of a classroom block at right
angles to a noisy road so that the sound can enter only by
difraction and may thus be somewhat reduced.
It is also always useful, where possible, to interpose some solid

material such as a wall or a space such as a store or a toilet,
between the noise source and the teaching area. Ideas like this
can well be borrowed. In classrooms, the methods of wholly or
partly partitioning the one room from the next, may have to
match the teachers' views on privacy etc.
iv) Space-related standards
These standards can never be "borrowed" for they are a function

of education as it is organized and practiced in the country.
In Module I, the per place areas in similar schools in similar
(socially, economically and culturally-related) countries were
listed and the differences were of the order of 300 per cent.
Every country must develop its own space standards to meet its
own, unique needs.
Module II: Section 2. Architectural Design - Checkpoint 59^
Health-related standards
Hot-wet, hot-dry, temperate countries have different needs for drinking

water; different social practices relating to toilet use; different
methods of preparing and eating food. It is thus essential that these
differing needs and practices are reflected in health-related standards
that are developed for the specific situation in each country.
Safety-related standards
Most safety-related standards affect planning and layout of school

buildings and good standards can thus reasonably be "borrowed" for they
have neither cultural nor educational implications.
3. The standards suggested in this Section represent, some

might think,, the minimum that are needed. Yet, collected
together, they would comprise a fairly formidable number
of, sometimes complicated, requirements. In a country
having few, if any, standards for facilities design, what
are likely to be the problems of introducing and
implementing so many new standards and how might these
problems be resolved?
There are basically four problems to be resolved:-
i) Commissioning, including paying for the research necessary to

provide data upon which standards can be based. These data would
include determination of a design sky for daylighting and the
development of design tools for the architect; determination of
a thermal comfort index and study of the design implications;
establishment of acceptable intrusive sound levels in relation to
articulation and design implications; determination of the rate
of toilet use and establishment of a scale of toilet provision.
ii) Drafting standards as part of legislation. This may meet with

difficulty from politicians and educational planners, worried that
standards which raise quality will also raise costs of per place
provision.
iii) The introduction of new standards requires:-
a) architects to be trained in their application and,

b) a special format to be designed for standards to be applied
in rural or other areas where there are no architects.
iv) There is a need to check standards are being properly applied,

both in government school designs and in schools provided by the
private sector.
The resolution of these problems is through a phased approach in which

priorities are assigned to the introduction of the various standards
and the introduction is programmed to go through each of the steps i)
to i v ) , above. There is no reason why some of the phases should not
overlap.
Most of the ergonomic-related standards will take years to develop,

whereas the safety-related and some of the health-related standards
can be developed relatively quickly and, thus, in parallel with the
longer projects..
Module II: Section 3. Construction Norms 61
SECTION 3 : CONSTRUCTION NORMS
INTRODUCTION
In most countries there are few aspects of the construction of

buildings - especially those in the public sector, such as schools -
that are not controlled by regulation. Many of these regulations have
very long histories and in not a few places/ rules that were enacted
in the 1930s remain unchanged. Although, as has been explained in
Module I, it may be a settled rule that government is not bound by
its own legislation, few architects or engineers in the public sector
would be willing to transgress the building regulations. Thus most
schools designed and constructed by a central or local government will
comply in their construction with current legal requirements.
There is also an understandable tendency among employees in the public

sector in some countiries, not to take risks in making decisions on
construction with the result that schools they design are sometimes
very solid and often, in consequence, unnecessarily expensive. One
such 2-classroom, single-storied, school is recalled. Its internal
dimensions were 15 metres long and 4.27 metres wide. The building
regulations required the ground floor walls of buildings in general,
to be not less than 38 cm. thick and concrete slabs, in general, to
be not less than 15 cm. thick. So this school had a 15 cm. thick roof
slab on walls which would have withstood heavy small arms fire or even
the effects of a light military rocket! In some countries, the
engineer who designed such a building would have been dismissed for
wasting public funds but, in this particular country, the engineer
might have suffered the same fate for ignoring some very antiquated
regulations.
From this, the educational planner may conclude that, in as far as

construction is in the hands of a government agency, it is most probable
that buildings will be sound structurally, water-proof, fire-resistant
and of fairly hard-wearing materials. In some cases, as discovered
above, the regulations may result in high costs because they do not
htodule II: Section 3. Construction Norms
allow the use of more modern methods of building. Many regulations,

however, are up-to-date and their application does not result in high,
per place expenditure.
While schools constructed by central or local government authorities

are satisfactorily constructed, the schools built by communities in
the rural areas often remain totally uncontrolled and are sometimes
dangerous. There is, thus, a case to be made for a separate and
special set of regulations for those building schools in unregulated
areas. These construction guides - for they can rarely be legally
enforced and cannot, therefore, be called regulations - will match
the "two standard" concept of Section 2. They should be simply
published, include many simple drawings and a minimum of quasi-legal
language. The main areas of construction that need to be dealt with
are those affecting the safety of the school building and include:-
structure
generally
to resist cyclonic winds
to resist earthquakes
fire resistance
Structure
a) General
For rural, community-built schools, the best advice that can be

given is not to attempt to copy the construction of urban schools,
which may have been visited during a trip to the nearest large
city. Instead, the standard set should be that of the
construction used for the best type of house in the village or
area round it. This will usually result, not only in a well-built
school, but also most probably in one that is thermally
comfortable and has a pleasant familiarity for the students. In
Module I, the possibility of establishing standards through
Module II: Section 3. Construction Norms 63_
participatory planning was discussed and the opportunity for

communities to develop their own construction standards is ideal
in this context.
One of the main problems likely to be encountered in many rural

communities is that of creating a single space large enough to
house from 30 to 40 students. The difficulty is not so much in
providing long spaces as it is in building wide spaces which
require wide roof spans. Of course, where timber is abundant -
as in much of the humid tropics - the problem is more tractable
than in drier and hilly areas where it is compounded by a
shortage of light-weight roofing material. Commonly in such
situations it is difficult to find a decent piece of wood longer
than 3m and the available covering may be either stone or mud,
both of which impose very heavy loads. There seems little point,
in such cases, in trying to force education into the urban mold
of 7m x 7m classroom spaces. The alternative, equivalent area
(49 sq. m.) could be matched by a roofable space of say 3.50 x
14.0m which would constitute more a tunnel than a classroom.
In one country, as was mentioned in Module I, urban administrators

attempted to force their ideas of an urban teaching space on rural
communities by supplying lightweight steel roof trusses and
aluminium sheet roofing to remote areas. Neither trusses nor
sheeting could easily be fixed and many of the sheets blew away.
How much more sensible to have sought local solutions to teaching
and learning within local buildings of good quality. This has been
successfully achieved in two or three countries where architects
have left the cities, lived with local people for a few weeks,
discussed the possibilities and, together, produced solutions in
which thousands of students are now studying in conditions not very
different from those found in their own homes. The solutions are,
in most cases, based upon the linking together of spaces roofed
by short timbers and the linking of them through openings such as
arches. This, of course, requires the teacher to adapt his or
methods to working with groups of different sizes within a series

of joined spaces. There is no difficulty in such an arrangement;
indeed ability grouping/activity grouping are helped in such
circumstances.
A standard which encourages such developments might thus be

stated as:-
The school building is to be constructed in a similar way

to a good village house, having rooms as large as is
possible. Where these rooms prove to be not large enough
they may be linked together by openings made as big as is
practicable.
b) Winds
Strong winds are a major problem in some parts of the world and
cause much damage. Often rural communities have not developed
methods of construction to resist wind damage and simply replace
roofs and other parts of the building that are blown away. While
in urban areas, there are usually good regulations for structural
and constructional design to resist wind, the smaller rural school
is not catered for. The need is for practical advice and
standards for design to resist strong winds in rural areas should
provide this, making the maximum use of simple drawings and
photographs of foundations, walls, windows and roofs and fixings.
The figures below suggest the sort of drawings which, with a short
explanation (in local language and script, of course) will be
useful.
MAIL JOISI 1O CM TEC
TOP PLATE
C-ALVANIILO STRAP »
C M U U . T I N G GOOF
FKAVKNG TO WALL
FCAMIN&
ROOF FRAMING CONNECTION TO WALL. FRAM1N6
CAHtES LASHtO
2I0CL POttS --M
1OCKTHU
LASHED COOP MEMBERS
AMLHOt &OL1
IN COUCXtM
FLOOR. S U B
BOLT TO THt T I M «
.v*LL FEAMM6
• OOTlUO
FOUNOATI ON A.NC HOR AGE

Module II: Section 3. Construction Norms 6£
c) Earthquakes
Much the same sort of recommendation can be made relating to

construction to resist earthquakes as have been made above for
wind. There are, however, two important distinctions between
wind and earthquake damage. The first is that wind, where it
occurs, is an annual occurrence, usually causing some sort of
damage at the same time every year. Its effects are thus well
known. Earthquakes, on the other hand, occur at infrequent
intervals and that they can occur at all is often not understood.
In Module I, it will be recalled, a village headman living in a
high risk zone, was reported as asking, "what is an earthquake?"
when earthquake-resisting construction was discussed with him.
A second distinction between wind and earthquake is that with wind,

there is warning of its arrival - sometimes wind forces increase
over a day or two and students will then not go to school. If
the school is damaged, it would thus be unusual for anyone to
be injured. Earthquakes occur instantaneously and a building
may collapse in a minute or less. Death and injury in an
earthquake are thus, much more common and the case for earthquake-
resisting construction thus, much stronger. As with suggestions
for construction to resist strong winds, earthquake-resistant
construction standards can best be introduced in rural areas using
the medium of simple drawings and descriptions, basing these,
whenever possible on adaptation of existing methods of construction,
rather than on the introduction of totally new methods and
materials. Thus, for example, if the local method of construction
is based on timber framing, the important message is not to
replace the timber structure with, say concrete, but rather to
put in timber braces that will better hold the timber frames
together when an earth tremor occurs. The figure illustrates this
point.
in eodi eomer
* so mm)
\*a piece, (looxjsmm) at |ecvs+ei/evy

\oo cm '
30'-60'
t>oh every [so cwv
1 per 3
lirtreJ o\ie.r
lir,+el sjw! li/vfc! cjep+V;
S ci^l
7.5T c m
IAO-I&O
2.
0. fimbcr M?ill ccv&rirt] securely fixed -to s+ifft/\ buildi

of
fixed -to
infill pwielacf bricks o in
•slnould be. AaciXrcd -to
3.
A. be. uJell connected crh -top

b - vvf +0 -to
- v>ct p
lurtt?
of -i'mbc-r
be wjell comocc-ted-ft? e^c-h
In the case of both wind and earthquake standards, there is a good case
for participatory development of standards on a district, provincial or
regional basis in the country. Local methods of construction and their
modification can really only be sensibly discussed by those fully
familiar with them. Outsiders from the major cities can do little
more than help by explaining the principles relating to wind and
earthquake forces and the principles relating to resistance.
Applications have to be locally developed.
Fire resistance
Rural schools are usually of one or two storied construction and, if

built as village houses, may sometimes be highly combustible in
character. There seems to be little point in attempting to fire-proof
materials such as timber, thatch, bamboo and the like (though this
can be done chemically).
The focus can thus best be on avoiding in as far as possible, the

risk of the school catching fire and, if it does burn, of providing
means for extinguishing the fire. This suggests a standard which
includes the following:-
Schools are to be built in such a way that the risk of fire

damage is reduced by:-
locating the building away from boundaries so that
the spread of fire from nearby buildings is prevented.
- providing kitchens and workshops in which fire is
used in the form of buildings separate from the main
structure and,
- providing a well-distributed number of fire buckets with
sand/water with which to fight fire if it occurs.
Module II: Section 3. Construction Norms - Checkpoint 69^
CHECKPOINT
As before, the Checkpoint can be used as a check of understanding or as

a gloss on the Section.
1. The fact that building regulations change much less frequently

than developments of new construction techniques occur, may
inhibit the use of the new techniques in school building. What
can be done about this by the educational planner?
2. Buildings designed by the national building authority often

(though not always) appear to be conservative in their construction
and more expensive than might be thought necessary. How can the
educational planner evaluate this and how, if necessary, can
change be brought about?
3. This Section suggests that, in the field of construction, there

is a very strong case for two standards the rural version of which
would involve participation of rural communities in decision-
making on the standards to be developed. What difficulties might
be anticipated in achieving this aim?
4. Fires and earthquakes affecting schools are of r.are occurrence

and in consequence, it is sometimes difficult to persuade rural
communities to reflect the risks in appropriate construction of
their schools. Discuss ways in which this problem can be
approached.
Module II: Section 3. Construction Norms - Checkpoint TO
1. The fact that building regulations change much less

frequently than developments of new construction techniques
occur, may inhibit the use of the new techniques in school
building. What can be done about this by the educational
planner?
The issue is not one which is of direct concern to the planner. As

long as the designer produces schools which are of suitable quality
in respect of the environment they provide for education, then the
planner has no cause for comment. Discussion on issues related to
this point are the subject of the following.
2. Buildings designed by the national building authority often

(though not always) appear to be conservative in their
construction and more expensive than might be thought
necessary. How can the educational planner evaluate this
and how, if necessary, can change be brought about?
The educational planner is concerned, among other things, with the

initial capital and recurrent maintenance costs of school buildings'.
As costs rise with the passage of time, the planner will want to
establish the extent to which this is due to conservatism in respect
of construction. An example will illustrate the point. It has been
well established by research and practice that a bed of well rammed
gravel on any firm soil, other than shrinkable clays, provides a
perfectly satisfactory foundation for the walls of single storied
buildings such as schools, houses and other relatively light-weight
structures. Yet most designers - architects and engineers - continue
to insist on a concrete foundation on rammed hardcore and above it,
quite frequently, stepped footings below the brick wall. The difference
in costs is considerable.
Module II: Section 3. Construction Norms - Checkpoint 71^
The reason for continued use of the old foundation is perhaps, first,
that outmoded regulations require it and, secondly, architects are
unwilling to "stick their necks out" and risk a foundation failure, and
this despite a research finding, backed by practice in the private
building sector. There are many other similar examples that could be
cited. The problem that faces the planner is that he or she is a
lay person, as far as construction is concerned and thus quite unlikely
to be aware of the constructional niceties.
Evaluation of costs can only be attempted through comparisons made with

the costs of buildings, similar to schools, designed and constructed
by the private sector. This the planner is not competent to undertake
and it would thus have to be the subject of work by a consultant cost
specialist, appointed by agreement with the national buildings
organization without whose concurrence, such an investigation might
prove impossible.
If the results of comparison that resulted from such an investigation

showed significant differences in the costs of private and public
building could be attributed to construction, then the reasons would
have to be elicited. The most likely reason for higher costs might
be adherence to outmoded regulations and failure to apply for waivers
of the rules. An element of conservatism might be detected too.
National Building Authorities tend to use standard details for various
constructional elements and these details sometimes remain unmodified
for years due to pressure of work.
Probably the best way of bringing about change is by 'limited1

publication of the cost consultant's report and discussion on change
with the National Building Authority which, usually as a 'service'
ministry, is charged with serving the 'line' ministries, such as
education, as efficiently as possible. Change of the regulations for
construction may also well be an important outcome.
Module II: Section 3. Construction Norms - Checkpoint 72
3. This Section suggests that, in the field of construction,

there is a very strong case for two standards the rural
version of which would involve participation of rural
communities in decision-making on the standards to be
developed. What difficulties might be anticipated in
achieving this aim?
The first difficulty could be political. The Minister might be

determined to have "modern" school buildings all over the country as a
demonstration of a general policy decision to "modernize" education.
Thus, there might be insistence on uniform, national regulations for
construction - even if it was manifestly impossible to implement them
in all the rural areas. A minister, discussing construction of
schools using local materials and construction methods, rejected the
argument that students liked familiar Building surroundings, saying,
"I was educated in a modern building - is there anything wrong with
me?" It does seem unlikely that if government has a policy on
construction of the sort described above, that a view making a case
for rural construction norms is unlikely to succeed.
In cases where there is political "blessing" for separate rural

construction norms, the remaining difficulty is likely to be in their
framing and satisfactory dissemination to those who have not
participated in their formulation. Module I in its discussion on
participatory planning of norms and standards, reviews the obvious
impediments but to these must be added the very real difficulty of,
first producing on a piece of paper, an explanation of a constructional
concept, sufficiently generally expressed to be of application in a
variety of constructional contexts and, secondly, of getting the paper
to the right person in the community. It has to be remembered that
many communities decide to build a school, do so and then ask for
teachers. So no one in authority can send the paper at the right time,
just when the community is about to build. Sent a year or two earlier,
the paper is apt to be lost in a ruderaentary village filing system.

There is, regretably no universal solution to this problem. It is,
however, worthwhile looking beyond the education administration itself
and identifying other bodies working in the rural areas such as rural
development agencies, and acquainting them with the construction norms.
They may themselves be interested in using the norms for their own
buildings and could be encouraged to pass the information on whenever
news of the impending construction of a school is received.
4. Fires and earthquakes affecting schools are of rare

occurrence and in consequence, it is sometimes difficult
to persuade rural communities to reflect the risks in
appropriate construction of their schools. Discuss ways
in which this problem can be approached.
The discussion of the previous question is relevant to this problem.

Fires are most likely to be appreciated as a risk because almost every
village has one of its houses on fire from time to time. So the
simple suggestions for fire precautions made in this Section are likely
to be followed, if they can be successfully communicated. Earthquakes
are very much more difficult. Where the area is one of high risk ana
there has been no tremor within living memory. It can, of course, be
argued that the need for any measures is small because in the life of
the building the chances of tremors occurring are remote. This, however
is an arguement which has frequently been proved disastrously wrong.
"High risk" is a term which, when used by seismologists, is always to
be taken as implying need to be prepared at all times. Thus all
buildings in high risk zones should be strengthened - especially those
that house all the children of an entire village.
It is the author's experience, after working in two quite different

countries - the one of high risk but no earthquakes, the other
Module II: Section 3. Construction Norms
experiencing regular slight tremors - that rural communities, even when

firmly prompted by central government, either refuse or are unable to
take action to strengthen schools and continue to build in the same
traditional (and potentially dangerous) ways.
It does seem that the only approach to the problem likely to succeed
may be that of a committed, rural development agency, well informed of
the risks and using every opportunity that presents itself to
persuade rural communities to build in a safer manner.
Module II; Section 4. Cost Norms 75
SECTION 4 : COST NORMS - Introduction
The purpose of this Introduction is to explain some of the basic facts

about building costs and thus to provide a background against which the
subsequent discussion on norms can be set. The facts require no
particular expertise to understand them: many are either self-evident
or flow from the explanations provided in early Clusters of Modules
dealing with accommodation scheduling and maintenance.
The educational planner will be interested in two separate, but

related, norms for building costs. In the preparation of the Plan
Document, global figures will be required for each of the levels of
education such as:-
Facilities for early childhood education - 'A' dollars per place

Facilities for primary education - 'B1 dollars per place
Facilities for secondary education - 'C dollars per place
and so on.
Using these data, the Planner can design the Capital Expenditure section
of a budget by simply multiplying the rate per place by the number of
new places for which buildings are to be provided at the particular
education level.
The costs are, however, not the real costs of construction. The real
costs are those of actually constructing particular buildings on
specific sites and these may vary depending on:-
the number of places in the School

the numbers of stories in the building/land costs
the location of the building in relation to sources of
labour and material.
Costs related to school size
Module III of the Cluster on Accommodation and Space for Secondary

Schools, makes it clear that the larger enrolment is more economical
Module II: Section 4. Cost Norms 76
than the smaller. Depending on the curriculum and the teaching groups
the capital cost per place of schools having high enrolment may be
substantially lower than much smaller schools, though the decrease in
cost as size increases is not lineal, as shown by the following list
of costs for the secondary schools of a particular country.
Enrolment Area per place Cost per place

(sq. m.) (Currency units)
76O 2.78 128.3

880 2.42 112.3
1200 2.55 115.6
1400 ' 2.32 104.0
148O 2.4O 108.1
2040 2.36 106.3
2240 2.25 101.7
2360 2.32 103.4
276O 2.16 96.3
2860 2.26 101.0
2960 2.26 101.4
3520 2.15 95.8
3640- 2.28 102.3
An educational planner, deciding on enrolment policy for urban

schools in this country, would, on the basis of capital cost, opt for
an enrolment of either 2760 or 3520 places. The saving over a 760 place
unit would be of the order of 33 per cent, or another school for every
three such large schools built.
As, however, the question of norms is the present consideration, it will

be evident from the table that it is very difficult to determine a
reliable cost norm without a fairly clear idea of the enrolments of the
schools to be built.
Costs related to land costs and heights of buildings
Two facts are of interest here. First, it is more expensive to build

high schools than schools of one storey. The following table shows the
relative costs of constructJPQ schools of more than one storey. The
data are from three countries having quite different economies and
quite different types of labour and building materials, but all deliver
the same message.
Number Cost based on an index of 100 for single

storied construction
of
Stories
Country A Country B Country C
1 100 1OO 100

2 150 200
3 130 125
4 120
7 270
10 250
These data would have to be reconciled with the data given above
relating to enrolment. Obviously it would be unreasonable to expect
to find enough land in an urban area to build a single-storey school
with an enrolment of between two and three thousand students - nor
would such a school be desirable in a rural situation for it would
spread out over an impracticably large area of land. So, while
selecting a high enrolment to reduce the per place area and thus the
per place cost, some of the savings would be lost due to the need to
construct high buildings to which a storey index would have to be
applied. In country C, for example, if a 4-storey building was to be
decided upon, then the cost of accommodation at the fourth storey level
would be, say for a 2760 place school (96.3 currency units x 120)
= 115.20 currency units, which is the cost of a place in a school of
1200 students. Again, there would be a problem in deciding on a
general cost norm.
Secondly, land in urban areas usually has to be purchased (and even if

it is state land, it has value) and, being urban land, is usually very
expensive. Thus, there is another equation which relates land costs,
to building areas and thus building costs. The graph shows a relation-
ship of the sort that might be expected. One could plot similar graphs
for buildings of other storey heights and the graphs would obviously
have to be calibrated with the real land and building costs of the
country to which they referred.
1 1 1 1 i
3200
- —
3000
I
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
2500
s o*V
I 2000
Mil
1 1 II
5 1500
1 1 1 1 Mil
1000
' / E
500
-
300 1 1 1 ' i -
0 25 50 100 150 200 250 300325
UNIT COST LAND PER SQUARE METRE
Module I I : Section 4. Cost Norms 79_
From the graph it can b e seen, as might be expected, that when land is
very cheap, it is less expensive to build single storey, rather than
multi-storey schools. A s land costs increase, then multi-storey
schools are cheaper.
Costs in relation to building location
In many countries, the cost of a square metre of construction varies

from place to place due to the availability of labour, the cost of
transportation o f materials or their local availability. The practice
followed usually is to divide the country up into a number of areas in
each of which the costs are fairly similar and then to apply a
building cost index which is related to costs a t the capital. A n
example o f such an arrangement in one country is shown below:-
Cost at the capital, p e r square metre of single-storey construction

is 100
Northern Province
District A Cost Index 114
District B Cost Index 108
District C Cost Index 103
Southern Province
District A Cost Index 101
District B Cost Index 98
District C Cost Index 102
Thus, if one wanted to estimate the cost of one square metre of single-
storey building in Northern Province, District B, it would be given
by:
The rate per sq. m. in the capital x 108

1OO
The determination of a cost norm for school building would thus have
to take into account the locations in the country at which the school
is to be constructed.
Finally, it has to be remembered that prices of labour and material are

not constant and normally rise year by year. The costs of school
building rise accordingly and between 10 and 20 per cent increase per
annum is now common in many countries. It has been suggested earlier
in this Cluster of Modules that costs can be held down by innovation
in teaching method, leading to simpler and more economical design.
Even where this is possible, there is a limit beyond which second and
subsequent phases of increased costs become inevitable.
Data availability
It would be evident from the above that the determination of cost norms
and their effective impltnentation rely, first, on the availability of
a considerable quantity of good, reliable data and, secondly, on the
skills needed for analysis of these data and the synthesis of norms.
It has long appeared a paradox that the poorest countries seem to
exercise the weakest control over their capital expenditure. It is,
however, in such countries that data collection is often weakest and
that skilled, professional cost specialists are not available. This
need not prevent the education authority from attempting to exercise
control over expenditure.
NORMS - BASIC CONSIDERATIONS
The pupose of the Introduction to this Module was to draw attention to

some of the "facts of life" relating to educational building costs.
The Introduction shows that, for many countries, it is neither possible
to decide on a single cost norm of 'X' dollars per place for the
education system as a whole nor even a single cost norm per place for
each level of education within the system.
Norms are established to ensure that the quality of facilities is

controlled, that there is an equitable educational environment and
that resources are used sensibly and in a predictable manner. As has
been explained in Module I, the decision to establish a norm or standard
has a consequent financial implication. Thus, if resources are to be '
controlled, the first and most important consideration is that norms

and standards are enforced.
If/ for example, the gross space norm for secondary schools is
established at, say, 4.5 sq. m. per place, then there will be nothing
to be gained from the establishment of a cost norm for secondary
schools if architects are not to be required to provide not less than
4.5 sq. m. per place in their designs for the schools. In short, the
cost norm has to comprise a statement of the maximum money to be
made available per place, in return for the delivery of a school
having a range of minimum requirements. If the architect is skilled
enough to provide more than the minimum standards of accommodation
and amenity within the maximum allowed money per place then this is
most welcome!
The introduction and successful application of a per place cost

norm for an educational facility must be based on the
establishment cf a variety of other norms controlling the
standards of accommodation and amenity of the facility.
The second basic consideration in the establishment of cost norms is

that of homogeneity. A cost norm can only apply to schools that are
"the same" in respect of level of education, enrolment and location.
This much would have been concluded from the Introduction to this
Section. The educational planner has usually, thus, to consider the
parts rather than the whole.
It is, of course, true to say that either in a small city state or in

a larger country having uniformly regulated wages, a good building
materials distribution system and town and country planning laws that
result, effectively, in more or less uniform land costs, a universal
cost norm could be established for each level of education. In the
majority of countries, however, these conditions do not pertain and so
it is necessary to identify the parts of the system which are internally

of sufficient homogeneity to permit the establishment of cost norms.
These parts might include:-
- levels of education
province and/or district
within province/district/ urban or rural school
enrolment in schools
If examples are drawn from the material in the Introduction to this

Section, then the following sorts of norms might emerge.
1. Level of education
- secondary
2. General location of school

- Southern Province
3. Specific Location
- District A
4. Urban or rural
- Urban
5. Enrolment (less or more than 1200 places)

- 224O places
6. Norm - drawn from the above, 1 to 5 inclusive.

- 'X' dollars per place
How can these variables be arranged in usable form? The norms will have
to be presented in a series of tables, one for each level of education.
Thus, if the structure of education is, say, pre-school, primary, lower
secondary and upper secondary, then there would be a table for each,
of which an example is given for lower secondary, below:-
Lower secondary schools - cost per place for construction and site
works. - date
>y Location Northern Province Southern Province

District District
Enrolments. A B C A B C
\soo \ etc
1200 and
less etc\ \
R4Oo\ \
V 4 5O \ etc
2040 to
1201 et\
\ \ \
V400 \ etc
over
2400 \ etc\
\
\
Note: U = urban; R = rural

No norms need be stated for rural schools having enrolment over
12O0 as they are not found in rural areas.
The number and complexity of such tables will obviously vary from
country to country and be related to the modalities of organizing
education administration. The construction of the tables will rely
on the availability and analysis of data on costs for existing,
recently completed schools and on the cost implications of introducing
accommodation and amenity norms.
Module II: Section 4. Cost Norms
In constructing tables of this type, the educational planner will soon

enough realise that the norms initially established are of a
probabilistic character. There is bound to be some measure of
uncertainty due, in part, to the fact that each new facility may have
a different quality from those from which the norms have been derived.
Thus, in the early years of establishment of cost norms, there will be
a frequent need to up-date the tables as experience is gained, data
collection extends and methods of data analysis improve.
It will be noted from the table that the cost of land is excluded.
This is for the very good reason that land costs have no direct effect
on building contracts and are of no direct significance for the
architect. Land does, however, have a most important indirect effect
in that, if its costs are high, there is usually little of it and the
architect has to build multi-storey schools. So the planner, in
dealing with urban schools, may have to base the construction cost
norm on the assumption of multi-storey construction.
It goes, almost without saying, that the determination of cost norms

requires inputs from specialists. It is not a task for planners alone.
Architects, structural engineers, services engineers and cost
specialists all have important roles to play. True, the planner can
make some very rough guesses on costs from the gross costs of completed
schools and to do so is worth while in order to get background
information, but good norms rely on technical input if they are to
relate to real situations.
In Module III, some of the ways that cost norms are presented in
various countries will be examined. It will be found that they are
more or less complicated but most follow the principles described above.
One to hand for a rather large country, runs to 140 pages; another to
a few lines on a single sheet.
Reference is made in the Introduction to this Module to "global" cost

norms. The educational planner can obviously not cost all the schools
in the next Plan Document using complicated data of the type described
above. What are needed are simple data such as "'X1 dollars per place
for construction for primary education", so that a decision can be
made as to how many new places should be provided in primary schools
during the next plan period. The educational planner, knowing the
likely available resource for the period, will need to cost teachers
salaries, equipment, recurrent expenditure on materials, land and so
on. There may be several calculations involving different alternatives
before an answer is arrived at, so simple, reliable, basic data
inputs are essential. The problem thus is, how to develop a single
"global" norm for primary education facilities out of the various data
from the real and extensive variety of cost nonnr for the country as
a whole?
One of the most practical solutions to this problem is to average the

enrolments for both urban and rural schools during the last plan period.
Thus, for example, it might be found that the average urban school had
an enrolment of 1700 places and the average rural school, 26O places.
The architects and cost specialists should then be asked to estimate
the costs of two schools having these enrolments, assuming the location
to be at the median cost point having regard to location in the country.
From this the global costs per place for urban and rural school
construction can be obtained. To this can be added a percentage for
site development and additional works and, if necessary for fees.
This done, the planner will have a table of global costs per place
somewhat as follows:
Urban Rural
Primary per place A $ B $
Lower secondary per place C $ D $
Upper secondary per place E $ F&
Separate estimates will have to be made of land costs as well as of

furniture and equipment costs. These "global" norms, it is emphasized,
are purely internal data for the planner to use in planning. They
should, under no circumstances, be used as norms to be applied to the
costing of individual schools as the plan is implemented.
Module II; Section 4. Cost Norms 86
APPLICATION OF COST NORMS
It would be inappropriate to conclude this section without drawing

attention again to the problems of establishing cost norms. That a
problem exists is evident from the number of countries where cost
norms are not applied. The difficulties seem to include:-
the technical - data availability and analytical skills

- organizational
political
The technical difficulties of establishing norms have been outlined in

this Section and require no further amplification.
Organizational difficulties are sometimes even greater. Legal imposition

of a cost norm places the burden of the substantial effort needed to
comply with the norm on the shoulders of those who, often, already
have heavy work loads. If the responsibility for .design and
construction is that of the education authority, then it is possible to
increase staff or make internal adjustments so that the desired skills
can be applied to costing. Where, as is so commonly the case, school
building is the responsibility of a service ministry, such as public
works and housing, then that ministry may simply be unable to cope
with the additional problems of costing which the establishment of the
cost norm requires. This suggests the principle of introducing cost
norms should be discussed at the political level and, if it is agreed,
then changes to the establishment of the implementing ministry should
form a clear outcome.
The need for political decision may also be important where it is the
practice for elected representatives to have, "a say" in the sort of
school to be provided in their electorate. Cost norms impose a
discipline which permits very little latitude for the exercise of
personal preference in school building.
Module II: Section 4. Cost Norms - Checkpoint 87
CHECKPOINT
1. In global planning for the next plan period, the costs of

construction of new schools for each level of education will be
calculated, using global cost norms. What is an important
component in the calculation which has implications for the
timing of the construction programme?
2. The architect for the new school programme wants to exceed the
cost norm arguing that if more money is spent, maintenance can
be reduced in future years. What response might be made to
this proposal?
3. It is noted that schools far from the capital are much more
expensive than those in the capital due to the costs of
transporting materials.. What can be done about this?
4. Even when cost norms are established and applied, costs are
such that construction programmes have to be limited, despite
the pressing need to enrol more children. What other options
are open to the planner?
1. In global planning for the next plan period, the costs of

construction of new schools for each level of education
will be calculated, using global cost norms. What is an
important component in the calculation which has
implications for the timing of the construction programme?
An important component of cost planning for an educational plan is the

inflation factor. If, for example, it was proposed to spend one
million units of currency per year for a five-year plan period, then
the costs would be - if inflation was at, say, 15% per annum:-
Year 1 1,150,000
Year 2 1,322,500
Year 3 1,520,875
Year 4 1,749,006
Year 5 2,011,357
7,753,738 not 5,000,000
The implication in general terms is, quite clearly, to complete the

construction programme as soon as possible. If this could be done in,
say, three instead of five years, then over 20% of the expenditure
would have been saved. There are, of course, problems in early
completion. First, if the funds are from the Treasurery, then it may
not be possible to release more than one million a year. If, on the
other hand, the money is being borrowed from a regional or
international lending agency, then the construction programme could
be shortened to three years. Secondly, construction rates depend on
the capacity of the construction organization as a whole - architects,
engineers and building contractors. Whether or not the industry
could manage a shortened programme would be a matter for careful
investigation.
2. The architect for the new school programme wants to exceed

the cost norm arguing that if more money is spent,
maintenance can be reduced in future years. What response
might be made to this proposal?
If the cost norm had been carefully formulated in the first place, the
issue of maintenance would have already been considered. The answer
to the architect would thus be, "no". Secondly, if the country is
struggling to provide new schools for out-of-school children, then it
has to do so now and cannot keep children now out of school so that
its building budget for maintenance is reduced at some time in the
future - probably several years hence. Finally, if for no other
reason, the proposal would, in most countries, be politically
unacceptable to politicians who have made election promises concerning
education which both they and the public wish to see fullfillea.
To reiterate the first point; the cost norm should, when it is

established, provide enough money to build in a manner which meets
quality requirements in the context of the country in which it is
framed and quality is taken to refer, among other things, to the
quality of materials and finishes.
3. It is noted that schools far from the capital are much

more expensive than those in the capital due to the costs
of transporting materials. What can be done about this?
Whereever there are people and thus, children to be enrolled in

school, there are houses, farm buildings, sometimes police stations
and so on. In short, there is always local building in local materials,
built by local craftsmen. By definition, local building is cheaper
than imported building. So the solution is not to import materials

and labour, but to build in the local idiom, using good local
stereotypes as a guide. This will, of course, not please those who
expect to see "city-type" schools all over the country, but it will
provide for the enclosing space for educational activity which is
architecture. Good education is provided in tented schools for nomads!
4. Even when cost norms are established and applied, costs

are such that construction programmes have to be limited,
despite the pressing need to enrol more children. What
other options are open to the planner?
At the second level of education, the well-proven method of using

buildings in shifts is to be recommended. A school used from 9 a.m.
to 4 p.m. is an empty shell for 17 hours of the day and when children
are out of school because money cannot be found for new buildings,
such waste of existing accommodation is not tolerable. Secondly,
schools are closed usually for two or three months every.year for
holidays. The continuous programme school is a possibility worth
examining. Finally, at the second level, combined face-to-face and
distance learning programmes with the student studying at home for some
of the time may, depending on home conditions, be a way of enrolling
more students without constructing additional buildings. Custom,
prejudice, political will - all impinge on decisions in matters such
as these.
Early childhood care and education (ECCE) programmes require per place
areas matching those for third-level education. A preferred solution
to ECCE may be home-based programmes where the capital input is in
supplying simple kits to surrogate mothers caring for small groups of
children in their own homes.
Module II: Section 4. cost Norms - Checkpoint
Finally, In areas having clement climates - mainly In the sub-tropics.

It is very common indeed to see school conducted in the open. One
country has encouraged this by constructing outdoor, permanent
chalkboards at strategic points in the school grounds. Where climate
permits, is a large, conventional building really needed. Might not
the architect design something simpler to match the true requirements?
The building has, unfortunately, become the symbol of education?
TRAINING MATERIALS IN EDUCATIONAL PLANNING.
MODULE III : ALTERNATIVES IN PRACTICE
Introduction
Section 1 : Physical Planning Practices
Section 2 : Architectural Design
Section 3 : Construction Norms in Practice
Section t : Resource Allocation
Section 5 : Summary and Conclusions
Policy and Planning
UNESCO

Module III: Alternatives In Practice
LIST OF CONTENTS
Page
Introduction to Module III
Section 1: Physical Planning Practices
Section 2: Architectural Design 1O
Section 3: Construction Norms In Practice 20
Section 4: Resource Allocation 23
Section 5: Summary and Conclusions 28
Checkpoint 30
Module III: Introduction
INTRODUCTION
The two previous Modules have provided an opportunity to examine the

reasons for the establishment of norms and standards, the ways in which
they can be formulated and the problems associated with their
expression and application. This Module is concerned with norms and
standards, as they exist in practice and are applied in real situations.
In practice, there are three types of agency which issue norms and
standards. The first is the most common and is within the country of
application - usually the education or national building authority.
Secondly, there are the development banks, and bilateral lending or
aid-giving agencies whose loans or assistance are contingent on the
acceptance of norms and standards agreed with the agency. Finally, in
some countries there is recourse to the standards proposed by national
or international research institutions which help to improve quality
and lay the foundation for the subsequent development of national
norms.
Of the three alternatives, only the first has legal effect, although
the pressures of the loan and aid-giving agencies often result in their
standards assuming quasi-legal status.
«
It is, of course, impossible to review in this Module all of the norms
and standards for educational facilities for all of the countries in
the world. Indeed, some countries have several sets of standards,
especially when there is a federal structure of government with every
state in the federation making its own laws on internal matters such
as education. So the norms and standards reviewed here represent a
selection which will enable some of the main approaches to be
discussed and understood.
The secondary sources of information on norms and standards are several.

Perhaps the easiest to obtain are from:-
Regional School Building Centre for Latin America and the

Caribbean Region (CONESCAL)
CONESCAL
Audltorlo Nacional, Mexico 5, D.F.
Apartado Postal 41-518, Mexico 1O, D.F.
Unesco Regional Office for Education In Asia and the Pacific,

P.O. Box 1425,
Bankok,
Thailand.
Unesco Regional Office for Education In Africa,

P. 0. Box 3311,
Dakar,
Senegal.
Overseas Division,
Building Research Establishment,
Garston,
Watford WD2 7JR
England.
Of these sources, the first three provide Information about educational

facilities standards In their respective regions while the last source,
In a single document entitled, "Accommodation standards for educational
buildings" (1977) provides selected, world-wide information, part of
which is drawn from material from the first three sources.
In one region (Asia) the results of a survey of the standards for

educational facilities of all the countries of the region have been
published in the Bulletin of the Unesco Regional Office, No. 17, June
1976, in an issue entitled, "Education building and facilities in the
Asian region."
While secondary source material of the type discussed above is useful

in obtaining an overview of norms and standards and in enabling
comparisons to be made, the concern of the individual will be

ultimately with the standards (or lack of them) in his or her own
country. These will be found in a variety of places - the education
ministry, the works, health and home ministries and in the national
standards and national building research institutions.
A study of published standards may take several forms. The first (and
that adopted in the BRE, U.K. document) may be based on a review of
the standards that are published for each level of education. This is
valuable in a variety of ways. Areas, per place, for example, can be
compared, both for different enrolments and between one country and the
next. Secondly, a comparison is possible between ways of expressing
standards as, for example, the area per place in classrooms in one
country and the area of a classroom in another. The difficulty with
such an analysis is, however, not so much with what it does say as
with what is omitted. Quality, it may be thought to suggest, is solely
the result of adequate provision of space for teaching and learning,
storage, for washing and toilet accommodation, staff rooms and
catering.
The presumption may be that all those other aspects of quality such as
illumination, furniture, thermal comfort, acoustics and so on, are
properly the concern of the architect and thus have no place in an
international comparison of standards. In principle, it can be argued
that a discussion of classroom area without a reference to the need to
light the space such that it is possible to read without eye strain
is meaningless. The question of what should and what should not be
regulated is one which draws different answers in different parts of
the world and there are, as is discussed at the end of this
introduction, a fundamental difference in approach between countries
that are exceptionally well served by architects and those that are
not.
Of course, the omissions of reference to ergonomic and cost norms and

standards in the BRE, U.K. study is not simply a matter of policy,
but also because, as will be shown in subsequent sections, such norms
are not commonly the subject of regulations.
It would, In fact, not be an undue simplification of the situation to

say that in countries where education is compulsory and there is a
well-developed architectural profession, standards exist relating to
most of the important design components discussed in Module II, except,
perhaps, costs. In countries having lower enrolment ratios, where a
major effort is still being made to finance the construction of new
schools, education authorities appear to be content, for the time being,
to insist on minimum standards for such basic components of facilities
as space and sanitary accommodation. Much, thus, remains to be done
in such countries to improve the total built environment for
education.
As to the regulatory mechanisms for educational facilities, they are

variously described and issued. Some examples from the Asian region
are given here to illustrate the variations:
Indonesia: Primary school building code.

Hong Kong: Education ordinance
India: Federal Capital, Delhi. Building Bye-laws.
Kerala State: The Kerala Education Act.
Japan: Laws and regulations for public school building.
Laos: Regulations for public primary education.
Singapore: The schools regulations.
Thailand: Control of the construction of buildings act.
Most of these laws either contain direct references to norms and

standards to be applied in facilities construction while some enable
such norms and standards to be controlled through subsidiary regula-
tions. In Thailand, for example, the Act enables the City of Bangok
to make bye-laws which, among other things, specify the design live
loads for schools and the provision of toilet accommodation. In
Singapore, the Schools Regulations are made under the authority of
the Education Ordinance and control, among other things roof play-
grounds, classroom accommodation and equipment, school workshops,
science laboratories, health facilities and requirements for boarding
accommodation.
In Latin America the situation seems somewhat more fluid than in Asia.
The far-reaching educational reforms that took place in many Latin
American countries in the 196O's resulted, among other things, in a

thorough review of the design of educational facilities and the new
approaches drew heavily, for norms and standards, on the work of the
Regional Centre for School Building in Latin America (CONESCAL). In
Chile, for example, the Educational Facilities Construction
Institute adjusted the old norms to meet the requirements of
educational reform and to match the planned introduction of system
building. Ecuador is another example of a country where new norms
have been Introduced and tested against the requirements of a reformed
education system.
There has been considerable attention paid in some Latin American

countries to the establishment of norms for siting schools. The norm
frequently assumes the character of a methodology. Uruguay is a
typical example of a country which has undertaken development in this
area of regulation. Venezuela has concentrated some of its efforts
in the field of norms and standards on costs and the establishment of
cost norms. In conclusion, it may be observed that the relatively
large architectural profession in most Latin American countries,
coupled with the very extensive educational reforms that have taken
and continue to take place, has led to an attiude to school building
design the results of which have been the development, untrammelled by
regulations of long-standing, of buildings of good quality. The
moral may be that where there is a competent and numerous architectural
profession, rigorous regulation of all aspects of design could be
counter-productive in a developing situation? A review of the Latin
American technical literature on school building design shows a heavy
emphasis on design methodology, the inference being that if architects
are appraised of methods then, coupled with a sound educational brief,
as good or better a school building is likely to result as from a
situation where the architect is informed solely by a (restrictive)
regulation. The point is one which might provoke considerable
discussion.
The approach adopted in the four sections that follow is to examine

norms and standards from various countries under the section headings
of Module II, namely, physical planning, architectural design,
construction and resource allocation.
Module III: Section 1. Physical Planning Practices 7
SECTION 1 : PHYSICAL PLANNING PRACTICES
Location
Only In Latin America are there agreed methods for locating schools In
relation to populations and to each other. The methodologies are
often complex and, in fact, "normalise" otherwise more or less rule
of thumb methods for school location, used in other parts of the
world. The most common standard affecting the location of schools
is, of course, the distance the student can be expected to travel to
school. Older children can walk longer distances than the younger.
Regulations from eleven countries in Latin America and Asia limit
the distance a student of primary school age can be expected to travel
to between 1.5 and 4.8 kilometres.
There is a common preoccupation with the location of the school site

in relation to other buildings and sites, the variations depending
on cultural norms. Thus, in one country sites are to be not less
than a prescribed distance from places of burial and cremation. In
another, the concern is with houses of ill-repute while there is a
common objection to locating schools near to shops that sell
intoxicating drinks. Strangely, the regulations of two countries,
many thousands of miles apart and having different languages and
cultures, both specify 183 metres as the minimum distance between a
school site and a shop selling alcoholic drinks!
Site Area
The only norms and standards relating to educational facilities which

recognize a difference between urban and rural areas are those that
prescribe site areas. Strangely, the standards are usually crude in
their expression, especially having regard to the fact that in some
urban areas one square metre of prime land can cost more than a square
metre of building. The most crude expression of the standard for area
is exemplified by the following:-
Module III; Section 1. Physical Planning Practices 8
"Every school should normally have a minimum site area as

specified In the following schedule:-
Lower primary schools

Upper primary schools with or 0.4 to 0.8 ha."
without lower primary section
Such a regulation assumes all schools to be of the same enrolment In

both urban and rural areas and prescribes the same land areas In both
cases.
An Improvement on this Is provided In the regulations of another

country where primary enrolment Is seen as a factor In deciding on
site size, thus:-
for primary schools:-
- up to 25 places O.2 ha.

- 26 to 50 places 0.25 ha.
- 51 to 80 places 0.30 ha.
and so on.
Of the countries which acknowledge through their regulations, that land

In urban areas is more difficult to acquire than in the countryside,
the ratio of rural to urban areas ranges from 1.32:1 to 2:1. In one
country having rugged rural terrain, the urban site area prescribed
is greater than the rural. This well reflects the difficulties of
site selection in mountainous country.
As to the areas prescribed, there is, as may be expected/ a wide range

of standards. Although, as is mentioned above, many countries
indicate a site area "per school", if the enrolment of a standard
school is known, this can be reduced to an area per place. For
primary schools, the urban range for five selected countries is from
5 to 125 square metres per place and the rural range for three
countries having separate regulations for rural sites, from 35 to
258 square metres per place. Secondary schools have requirements
Module ill: Section 1. Physical Planned Practices 9.
for larger sites. The standard in one African country is 29 sq. m. per
place in urban and 44 sq. m. per place in rural areas.
Obviously the topography, type of agriculture and general landownership

and land values have a great influence on the amount of land that can
be assigned for educational activities.
Site qualities
Sites are so difficult to acquire and, when available, their merits

and disadvantages are usually so obvious to the architect or engineer,
that few authorities seem to think it worth while specifying more
than the desired minimum areas in the regulations. There are, however,
some exceptions of which the following is a good example:-
"Sites for school buildings should be on an elevated level

and they should be well-drained and in clean and healthy
surroundings. Land under wet cultivation or with made soil
or soil retentive of moisture should be avoided ...."
The example is interesting as it typifies the problems facing a legal

draftsman, advized by educators whose main concern is with only one
area of their country, namely the littoral, rice-growing strip which
is where most of the people and, thus, most of the schools are
located. Hence the emphasis on "drainage" and "wet-cultivation"
(paddy farming) which have no relevance to the hills and mountains
which comprise a substantial area of the hinterland.
It was concluded in Module II that school sites are an area of

uncertainty in the general regulation of educational facilities and
this conclusion is strongly reinforced by a study of national norms and
standards which are, in most cases, inadequate in relation to the
clearly definable needs.
Module III: Section 2. Architectural Design 10
SECTION 2 : ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN
Ergonomlc-related norms
1. General
Whilst there are some twenty countries having highly effective,

ergonomlc-related norms, the rest are notable for an almost total
lack of control In this area of architectural design.
2. Illumination
Illumination by daylight is usually dealt with by regulations or

advisory documents which specify the ratio of amount of light in
the hemisphere to that required in the teaching space. In the
northern hemisphere the requirement is for 2 per cent of a
5380 lux, design sky - or 108 lux. This is regarded as a minimum
standard and an average of 325 lux is recommended as a norm. The
geometry of window design in relation to the precise achievement
of 2 per cent of the notional hemisphere (coupled with allowances
for external and internal reflected components) is complex and
architects in countries where this standard is enforced use
commercially available daylight factor protractors designed
specially for determining window sizes. These protractors
unfortunately relate specifically to the skies of the high
latitudes and cannot be used in low latitude countries where the
distribution of light in the hemisphere differs fundamentally.
One or two low latitude countries now have data for the production
of protractors but they are not generally available and thus the
regulation of illumination by reference to daylight factor has
not yet become standardized.
Nonetheless, efforts have been made to ensure adequate lighting

by regulations as, for example:-
Module III: Section 2. Architectural Design
"Window-sills should be not more than 1.22 metres

from the ground. Windows for subsidiary lighting
may have their sills more than 1.22 metres from the
floor.
The window area should not be less than one fifth
of the floor area and wherever possible the
principal lighting should be from the north."
This regulation, from an Education Act/ results, in the tropical

country to which it applies, in very well lit teaching spaces.
It illustrates the point that sensible use of experience can be
a good practical alternative to a scientifically derived
solution.
3. Thermal comfort
As with illumination, there is a limited number of countries in

which thermal comfort is controlled by regulation and in such
cases the standard is not of specific application to school
buildings but relates to all construction. The method involves
control of wall, floor and roof qualities such that, as appropriate
to the latitudes, heat losses or heat gains are minimised. There
are no quantitative standards for shcools in most countries in
the humid tropics and such regulations as exist, frequently
incorporate a ventilation concept from the end of the last century
which has little if any effect on those using the building. This
is the idea that, if ventilators are put near the tops of walls,
the hot air in the room will rise and exit through the ventilators,
being replaced by cooler air at floor level. Of course, in the
humid tropics, air inside and outside is more or less at the same
temperature so cooling is not achieved. In cold countries (from
which the idea has been borrowed) air circulation could be
achieved by this means as a good temperature gradient would
exist. What is needed to achieve a sensation of coolness is, of
course, air movement across the room at the body level of the
students and this can be achieved by the cross-ventilation
Module III: Section 2. Architectural Design 12_
resulting from windows, at the normal, low level in opposite

walls. Thus, the regulation from an education regulation,
typical of many in the humid tropics and cited here, is of
little use:-
"Unless there are windows reaching to the top of the

wall and capable of being opened/ ventilators are
necessary near the top of the wall. The ventilators
should be regularly distributed .... For each pupil
O.3 square metre of ventilator should be provided."
The same sort of concept is also embodied, in some countries in

a requirement that every student should have a minimum volume
of air (space) in which to sit. This derives from ideas
developed in Europe in the 1850s where space and ventilation
were regarded as important in assisting in the reduction of
consumption and tuberculosis among the poor. The regulations,
still in force in several tropical countries in the 1980s, seem
to have little relevance.
4. Freedom from noise
There appear to be few standards relating to sound in schools, it

being left to the designer to ensure that noise and quiet
activities are located at suitable distances from each other and
that walls and floors have reasonably low sound transmission
characteristics. A major nuisance in the humid tropics and one
which frequently brings teaching to a halt, is noise from heavy
rain drumming on galvanized iron roofs. This is nowhere
reflected in standards.
Partitions between classrooms in one older regulation are

required to be not less that 2.4 metres high to reduce sound
transmission and, once again, the value of experience applied to
substitute for scientifically derived standard, is demonstrated
for, long after the regulation was enacted, an acoustics
specialist, after measurement and analysis, determined 2.3 metres
as a minimum partition height for the same purpose.
5. Furniture
While in a majority of countries, illumination, thermal comfort

and sound levels find virtually no place in the norms and
standards prescribed for educational buildings, it is encouraging
to note that there is an increasing trend towards the introduction
of standards for furniture.
The standards take two forms. First, in some countries, there

is a prescription for furniture dimensions, which leaves the
design of the furniture an open problem to be solved in a
variety of ways. An example of this sort of standardization,
drawn from the regulations of one country is as follows:-
Student standing height in metres

Furniture dimension
in metres
1.22 1.32 2.72
less than 1.22
to to etc. - and
1.3 1.4 above
Floor to chair seat 0.32 0.36 0.38 etc. 0.51
Seat width 0.23 0.24 0.27 etc. 0.30
Floor to desk top 0.55 0.60 0.63 etc. 0.73
etc.
Interestingly, this old regulation, based on experience, is still

in force and the dimensions are not far wrong in the light of
modern studies of body sizes. In the same country, the national
standards institution has recently published a standard on the
body sizes of school children which will, in due course, lead to
minor modifications of the regulation.
The second form taken by standards for furniture is that of the

prescription of furniture design for schools. Typically the
education ministry publishes such standards in the form of

dimensioned drawings. It has to be said, however, that furniture
design skills are rarely to be found in government ministries
and, of the three standards that are well known, all leave much
to be desired from the point of view of design which is a business
much better left to the furniture designers.
Thus, of the two types of standard, that which gives key

dimensions for furniture is much to be preferred and, fortunately,
is that now most commonly being introduced in an increasing
number of countries.
Education-related norms
1. General
Almost every country has norms for spaces in schools. The norms
most commonly relate to teaching accommodation, storage, staff
rooms and dining and cooking facilities.
2. Teaching accommodation
The standards for teaching accommodation are commonly expressed in

one of three ways. In countries where open-plan schools have
become common, then a typical standard is in the following form:-
Number Minimum teaching area in

of sg. m.
Students
240 602
28O 703
etc. etc.
This arrangement leaves the architect in consultation with the

educators totally free to divide the space as desired.
Where countries are firmly wedded to the use of separate teaching

spaces, then the most common standard is one which prescribes the
area to be provided, per place. Thus:-
Area per place in sq. m.

Type of
School. Class Laboratories Arts & Etc.
rooms Crafts
Primary l.OO O.2O etc.

Lower Secondary 1.55 0.70 O.5O etc.
Etc.
In one or two countries there is a variation in this method of

standardization. These countries have standardized school
enrolments and have schools with specific numbers of classrooms.
Thus a 36 classroom standard primary school has a standard
2948 sq. metres for classrooms. This allows some variation in
size between one classroom and another, within the overall area
constraint.
Finally some standards still prescribe teaching spaces by giving

their exact dimensions. Thus, from one such regulation:-
"The dimensions of every classroom in secondary schools

should be 6m x 6m x 3.7m."
The same regulation also says that every student should have a
minimum of 0.74 sq. m. of floor space which suggests a class of
48 students in the prescribed space. In the same count~y,
application of a similar regulation for 6 x 5.5 m. primary school
classrooms indicates class sizes of 44 students.
The evident disadvantage of fixing the dimensions of teaching

spaces in such countries where coincidentally retention through
the system Is often low, is that the spaces are usually over-
crowded with the younger children and more often than not, half
empty in the upper grades.
3. Storage areas
For primary schools, the standards are usually simple, comprising

either a bold statement to the effect that storage space is to be
provided or sometimes giving a minimum area. The choice of
alternative depends on the extent to which furniture is used to
store primary school equipment. Noticeably in countries having
highly developed ranges of furniture, much of it on wheels or
castors, standards for storage in separate spaces are not commonly
prescribed. In countries where primary school furniture comprises
desks and chairs, then separate storage areas are important. The
interesting question that this raises is whether it is better to
spend capital on useful furniture which also acts as a store for
equipment rather than on bricks and mortar for a separate storage
space which has no other function.
For secondary schools, it seems a more common practice is to

prescribe area standards for storage to match the different types
of teaching space. Thus, for example:-
For 920-place secondary schools in one country, the following

are prescribed:-
Needleworkroom 74 sq. m.
Store 11 sq. m.
Wood/metalworkroom 111 sq. m.
Store 11 sq. m.
Art room 111 sq. m.
Store 19 sq. m.
In some space standards for special rooms a store roughly equal to

20 per cent of the area of the room is thought adequate. In
science a rule of thumb is that preparation rooms and stores should
equal 50 per cent of the laboratory area. In the end, of course,

it all depends on what is to be stored and how it is to be stored,
and this is the best reason for not attempting to standardize
storage areas.
4. Staff rooms
It remains a paradox that the heaviest investment in education is

that of teachers' salaries which commonly account for over 80 per
cent of annual recurrent expenditure and that facilities for
teachers are treated in such a cavalier manner. Some countries
do specify in their standards, the areas of staff accommodation
as, for example:-
For a 1,350 place primary school 2 staff rooms each

68 sq. m. 2 head teachers rooms each 13 sq. m.
obviously a two-shift school.
In other countries a head teacher is provided with a room only if

the enrolment is greater than 120 places. Worse, in a review of
standards from eight selected countries, only two expressly
included staff rooms in their accommodation standards.
Amenity-related norms
1. Dining areas
Accommodation for dining is found only in a limited number of

standards and this is to be expected for in many countries it is
not the practice to take meals at school. Where standards are
prescribed they usually specify the area per place in the dining
room for one sitting or two, as the case may be, together with
a statement of the proportion of the enrolment to be
accommodated. Thus:-
"1.0 sq. m. per person planned for 5O per cent of the

enrolment in one sitting or 0.5 sq. m. per person if
two sittings."
Module III; Section 2. Architectural Design 18,
Kitchen areas are rarely specified but a lending agencies'

standard applied to an African secondary school set 0.35 to 0.55
sq.m. of kitchen for every meal served. It may be noted in
passing that it is the common practice to make the kitchen, its
stores and toilets some 5O per cent of the area allocated for
dining.
2. Health facilities
The most remarkable feature of norms for health facilities is

that nowhere has it been possible to find standards which
distinguish between the requirements for rural and urban areas
and which recognize the often greatly differing personal habits
of rural and urban children. A common format adopted in many
countries is a standard as follows:-
Closets Urinals Wash basins

Male 1 per 48 1 per 32 1 per 32
Female 1 per 24 1 per 48
The example cited here happens to be for a place with very few
architects/ very little piped water and the majority of the
population living in remote, mountainous terrain where closets
are virtually unknown. The standard is not significantly
different from the following which is from a country, not too far
away, with a population having total access to piped water and
main sewage, with 100 per cent of its children in school.
Closets Urinals Wash basins

Male 1 per 70 18 m. 1 per 70
Female 1 per 35 1 per 70
In some ways, less specific standards may be thought to have the

advantage of allowing the designer to use initiative and reflect
local practices. The following standard from a country with
different conditions in the plains and in the hills allows for
such initiatives:-
"Latrines and urinals, of approved design and in

sufficient number shall be provided in every school.
There should be separate latrines and urinals for
students and staff. In mixed schools, separate
latrines should be provided for the girls with
sufficient privacy and away from the latrines
intended for the boys."
The same standard includes an injunction not to place the

latrines to the windward side of the school so that smells are
not carried to the school building. This may be thought an
effective way of preventing the latrines from being regularly
cleaned! The cleanest latrine that has been noted in many school
visits was one located next to the head teacher's room!
Finally, many countries included medical rooms in their standards

for accommodation, although the area is rarely specified.
Safety-related norms
Very few countries have prescribed standards of safety, specifically

for educational buildings. Where the education authority has concern
in the matter, it is dealt with usually in an advisory document. For
the rest, aspects of safety such as those relating to fire and
laboratory and workshop safety are dealt with in the national buildings
regulations which, experience shows, is often not an adequate net in
which to catch even the most obviously defective designs. The reason
is that where governments build there is no obligation on the part of
the government architect to consult the fire services or factory
safety authorities and the tendency is to use one's own judgement.
The suggestions for safety-related norms and standards made in Module
II provide a way of filling this evident gap in the control of the
architectural design of educational facilities - a matter which will
assume increasing importance as the number of multi-storied schools
sharply increases during the next decade or two.
Module III: Section 3. Construction Norms In Practice 2O_
SECTION 3 : CONSTRUCTION NORMS IN PRACTICE
1. General
This section is brief for the number of countries that directly

attempt to standardize the construction of schools is limited to
one or two in Europe, to Japan and to several in Latin America.
For the rest, the national standards and regulations affecting
buildings at large are applied to schools as well and thus call
for no special mention here.
2. Construction norms
One country prescribes in its national standards:
Design standards for wooden construction of school

buildings and,
- Design standards for steel construction of schools.
One or two other countries have published more or less detailed

constructional details for standard schools, the designs for
which are mandatory for government buildings.
Where system building is in use, standard details are published

and the constraints of the system explained, but the designer is
left free, within these constraints, to design freely.
In the urban areas, as is mentioned in 1., General, construction

norms are those of the general building laws affecting schools
and all other buildings. The main issue to be faced is thus,
that of norms for the construction of rural schools. Construction
norms are essential to ensure that buildings are functionally
effective - that is, they are safe, water-proof, provide an
equable thermal environment and are maintainable. One major
lending agency has addressed the problem and its conclusions are
that such buildings need to be developed but not that they need
to be or could be, the subject of norms in the conventional sense.
Module III: Section 3. Construction Norms In Practice 21^
3. Construction Norms and Natural Disasters
Some 73 countries in the world are at risk from earthquakes: of

them just over thirty have building codes which control the
construction of buildings to resist earthquakes. Many of the
countries with Codes are unable to enforce them and the codes
thus remain advisory. One of the drawbacks to codes for
earthquake resistant construction is their complexity which
makes them totally unsuitable for application in rural areas
where local communities build their own schools.
Earthquake codes or regulations which are not socio-cultural in

their content can safely be "borrowed" from other countries and
this has been done with some success. Some years ago,
Afghanistan borrowed and has since made good use of codes from
the USSR. Trinidad and Tobago, it was suggested, could use the
SEAOC code from California. Another way out of the difficulty
is use of the U.K. Building Research Establishment, "Model
regulations for small buildings in earthquake and hurricane areas."
Similarly, schools in areas subject to strong tropical cyclones

are usually built without the guidance provided by good
structural norms and standards. And similarly, some countries
have borrowed standards from others. Both the United Kingdom
and the U.S.A. have published work on cyclone codes suitable for
use in vulnerable countries. That of the U.K. is cited above;
that of the U.S.A. is:- "Progress report on design criteria and
methodology for construction of low-rise buildings to resist
typhoons and hurricanes: Office of Science and Technology,
Washington D.C., AID, 1974.
Because of experience with disastrous cyclones, both the Phillipines

and Australia have now published building codes to deal with the
situations in their own countries.
High priority should, it seems, be assigned to filling the gap

in norms and standards affecting disaster-resistant construction
Module III: Section 3. Construction Norms In Practice 22
by the production of especially simple codes for rural builders

and of simple drawings to Illustrate the most Important
constructional features required of schools built In local
materials.
Module III: Section 4. Resource Allocation 23.
SECTION 4 : RESOURCE ALLOCATION
1. General
The process of resource allocation for educational facilities

continues to undergo change. At one end of the spectrum, the
country that initiated and for some 20 years, operated a
rigorous system of cost control, has abandoned it in favour of
what is described as a "value for money" approach in which costs
in use can be considered in approving the initial investment of
capital in buildings and equipment. At the other end of the
spectrum are countries in which the architect tells the authority
what a school will cost and the authority finds as much money
as it can to pay the cost. Somewhere between these extremes are
countries in which educational planners are trying to reconcile
the needs for new places with the requirements of educators for
quality and the unit costs of construction and thus to arrive at
a cost norm. That success is still not within the grasp of the
best of planners is evident from data collected from various
countries for similar schools built in the same year. The
variations in per place costs are considerable:-
Country A. Secondary schools

Costs 100 to 169 cost units/place
Areas 3.51 to 2.32 sq. m./place
Note: The cheapest school had almost the highest
per place area (3.50 sq. m.)
Country B. Secondary schools

Costs 1OO to 188 cost units/place
Areas 5.91 to 8.45 sq. m. /place
Note: The cheapest school had the lowest per
place area; the most expensive, the highest.
Country C. Secondary schools

Costs ICO to 118 cost units/place
Areas 3.35 to 4.53 sq. m./place
Module III; Section 4. Resource Allocation
The comment has, strangely, to be on the total absence of norms

in all three cases. In the first place, one can note that the
architects were not controlled as to the area to be provided.
In Country A the highest per place area is 51 per cent more than
the lowest; in Country B it is 42 per cent and in Country C, 35
per cent. As the educational requirements for each school are
identical within the Country, it seems obvious that the architects
responsible differed sharply in design competencies. The point
that has been made in Module II to the effect that norms are of
no value unless their application is effectively controlled, is
self-evident. If, at the stage of checking and approving the
drawings, the architects exceeding the norms had been sent back
to the drawing boards then, in Countries B and C, costs would
have been more or less uniform and a cost norm have been achieved.
Country A well demonstrates that it is possible, with skill, to

produce more area than the norm for a cost which does not exceed
the norm.
One form of cost control adopted by a few countries is that of

deciding annually on the sums payable for a construction project,
budgetting for these sums, calling tenders and negotiating so
that the price matches the initial estimated cost. The cost
data are published in advance by the national building organization
in the form of a complex series of tables in which all
conceivable contingencies are taken into account. The advantage
of publication is that not only the planners and designers have
the tables, but also the contractors. Thus a contractor knows
when tendering, the maximum acceptable figure and thus, if in
competition with other contractors, will endeavour to keep below
it.
One such set of tables is organized in the following manner:-

Module III: Section 4. Resource Allocation 25
Table 1.
Total Constr- Site Super- Constr- Admin- Consultant

Project uction Works vision uction istration services
Cost of manage- (technical)
building ment
a b c d e f 9
total
b to g
10,000 8,7OO 700 4OO 0 130 7O
by Increments of 10,000 to 20 million In a continuous, one hundreds-page

Table.
Table 2
In this Table, buildings are classified Into general types and the
price for construction per square metre (column 6, above) Is given
per square metre for each district In the country as follows:-
District , Government buildings . House House Warehouse-Workshop etc

type type
A B
Urban Rural Urban Rural
A B C A . B C A B C A B C
I 300 225 180 275 225 170 130 140 46 46 39 3; 33 33
II etc etc. tc.
III
Etc
Module III: Section 4. Resource Allocation 26_
The three columns, A, B and C indicate the type of building for

which the per square cost is given below. Thus, type A buildings
are major government offices of all sorts, type B are so-called
"service buildings" such as provincial offices, universities,
police stations and hospitals, while type C are schools, district
offices, clinics and other smaller government buildings. For
each of these three classes of building the permissible materials
and type of construction is detailed in a subsequent Table.
Finally, a Table allows adjustments for the number of floors in

the building as follows:-
Ground floor - l.oo x unit price from Table 2.

First floor - 1.09 x unit price from Table 2.
Second floor - 1.120 x unit price from Table 2.
Third floor - 1.135 x unit price from table 2.
Etc.
The rules also permit allowances to be made for a variety of other

contingencies.
To summarise, the operation of this system of cost control:-
Assume a 2-storied school of area 3OOO sq. m. in a town in

district I.
The school is a class C building for which the cost per square
metre is 180 units of currency. Thus:-
ground floor 1500 sq. m. x 180 = 270,000
first floor 15OO sq. m. x 1.09 x 180 = 294,300
Total construction cost (column b,

Table I) 564,300
One would then run down column b of Table I until the figure of
5700,000 was reached. That line of the Table will then give, in
column a, the total project cost and in columns c, d, etc. all
the attendant costs.
Module III: Section 4. Resource Allocation 27^
It may be observed that the total cost obtained is an estimate

of cost of whatever the architect designs and if the design is
wasteful in area, then this will be reflected in a higher
estimate than necessary. The point has been made earlier
that cost control without rigorous enforcement of architectural
design and construction norms is pointless. The government
that operates this particular cost system overcomes this
difficulty very simply by using a variety of standard school
building designs. It could, of course, equally well achieve the
same result by the use of a set of design norms and standards.
While at the national level, many countries have difficulty in

establishing and enforcing cost norms, no such problems are
experienced when internationally raised loans are applied to the
construction of educational facilities. All lending agencies are
extremely well informed about the costs of construction in the
countries in which they operate and require as a condition of a
loan, rigorous project planning, both in respect of areas and
costs. Failure to meet targets results in reappraisal and
sometimes redesign and recosting until the targets are met.
It has to be concluded that the lacunae in cost norms in most

countries is one of the most important that remains to be filled.
Module lilt Section 5. Summary and Conclusions 28
SECTION 5 : SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
The reader will be struck by the sharp differences in the statements of

need for norms and standards for educational facilities made in Modules
I and II and the paucity of norms and standards that actually exist
and affect school building. Even allowing for the fact that in this
Module, it is not possible to review all existing standards, it is
evident that the needs are not met by legislation in the majority of
countries. At most, between 2O and 30 countries effectively control
their educational facilities through norms and standards issued in
various forms - laws, regulations, advisory documents, national
standards and the like.
One writer has observed in a wide-ranging review of general building

regulations that to insist on standards in some areas will have the
effect of preventing the construction of much-needed buildings. This
is a view which finds ready acceptance with those who are reluctant
to insist on the control of educational facilities design and
construction. Unfortunately a common misapprehension of standards
is that the blessings of the town can, through norms and standards,
be brought to the countryside. This has often resulted in extremely
expensive urban buildings being built in country districts and,
because of this experience, norms and standards have become regarded
as a hindrance to development. The lending agencies have often
(though not always) been the culprits in such activity.
The educational planner can overcome any conceptual difficulties in

this matter once it is understood that a standard is a measure of
quality in a context. Thus, for example, if a given area is required
for an activity, then the enclosure of that area is not of significance
as long as it is waterproof, admits light, and is structurally safe.
Indeed mud bricks in mud mortar will serve as well as burned bricks
in cement as long as they provide the desired environment. There is
too great a concern in facilities construction with means rather than
with ends. The comment of Martin from Module I is recalled,
Module III: Section 5. Summary and Conclusions 29_
"attention should be diverted to building as a place, as opposed to

building as a material system, a process or a science." How well this
is reflected in The Education Rules, 1959, section 3,(4) -
"The Manager and Bead of every school should put forth their
best efforts for laying out gardens in the premises. Efforts
should also be made for planting suitable trees in the school
compound so that pupils may play and rest under them during
leisure hours. Care should be taken to see that trees are so
planted as not to (a) reduce unduly the space available for
play, and <b) obstruct the entry of light into the class
rooms or in course of time cause damage to the structure."
It may be noted that this clause is an integral part of the norms for
educational building.
Module III: Alternatives J,n Practice - Checkpoint 30
CHECKPOINT
1. The architectural design norms for areas of schools such as for

classrooms, laboratories, etc. published by almost all countries
suffer from one major omission. What is it and why is it so
important?
2. Norms and standards for educational facilities constrain educa-

tional development. Discuss this statement.
3. One method of cost control is discussed in detail. What factors

would have to be considered by a country wishing to introduce a
similar system? Could it be borrowed if suitable adjustments were
to be made in the costs?
Module III: Alternatives In Practice - Checkpoint 31
1. The architectural design norms for areas of schools such

as for classrooms, laboratories, etc. published by almost
all countries suffer from one major omission. What is it
and why is it so important?
Most standards specify, and with some precisioruthe areas - either

gross or per place - all of the usable spaces in a school; that is,
classrooms, laboratories, etc. But the sum of all such areas is not
the area of the finished building because it is necessary for the
designer also to provide circulation areas such as corridors,
staircases, entrance spaces, etc. One of the unsung skills in school
architecture is the linking together of the functional spaces like
classrooms, in such a way that a minimum area of circulation space is
required. It is very common to find that circulation space (which
costs as much as teaching space) amounts to 3O% of the gross area of
the school. There are many examples of 40 and 45 per cent circulation
area. Some 20 per cent would be regarded as a reasonable figure.
Skilled designers may reduce this to 15 per cent.
The point to be made, however, is that, having so carefully controlled

the areas of teaching and non-teaching spaces in the school, the
planner may still find considerable variations in gross areas and
thus gross per place areas, due to the fact that no control is
exercised over circulation. This ommission from almost all norms
and standards is one of the reasons for the considerable variations
in costs, reported in three countries in Section 4 of this Module.
Module III: Alternatives in Practice - Checkpoint 32
2. Norms and standards for educational facilities constrain

educational development. Discuss this statement.
In general, the statement is correct. Almost anything that is the

subject of a legislative enactment is difficult to change unless the
enactment is so framed as to encourage or facilitate change. One
regulation attempts to deal with change as follows:-
"The construction of buildings for Secondary Schools in

future should be so designed that it may be possible to
adjust the design in course of time without much change
in the original building so as to provide for additional
accommodation for two or more types of new course."
This is a pious expression of hope - well intended but/ as it is

matched by very precise standards for all spaces, it has, in fact,
proved ineffective.
A better approach is that adopted by some countries, and described in

Section 2, of providing standards for the gross area of teaching space
and not attempting to specify the area of each individual space.
This, of course, requires close collaboration with educators at the
design stage if the architect is not to misjudge the needs.
A further constraint to change is the regulation of construction.

This is often extremely rigid. What is required in many countries is
an additional clause to the building bye-laws allowing applications to
be made for either modification or waiver of regulations in cases
where it is wished to match new educational, with new constructional
developments.
Module III: Alternatives in Practice - Checkpoint
3. One method of cost control is discussed in detail. What

factors would have to be considered by a country wishing
to introduce a similar system? Could it be borrowed if
suitable adjustments were to be made in the costs?
The document through which control is exercised (most effectively) in

the country cited in Section 4, comprises 140 printed pages. It is
changed and re-issued annually, obviously the preparation of the
document involves a highly organized system of cost data collection
which has taken many years to develop to its present high level. In
this time too, both planners, architects and contractors have
become familiar with it, its intricacies and its application in
practice. The document in detail (though not in principle) fits the
administrative and socio-political ambience in which it is used.
These are all strong reasons for not attempting to borrow it as it
stands. The principles the document is based on do, however, seem
to be of possible wide application and each are worth separate
examination for relevance in one's own situation.

Design Standards

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Design Standards

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Training materials

Norms and standards

This Series is made up of the following components:

Module I : QUALITY, RESOURCES AND EQUITY

Module II : DESIGN, CONSTRUCTION AND COSTS

Module III : ALTERNATIVES IN PRACTICE

The Division of Educational Policy and Planning (EPP) is in the process of

The transformation of technical texts into pedagogical lesson units in order

Ministries of Education and national training institutions are encouraged

The present trainins cluster entitled "Norms and Standards of Educational

ADMINISTRATION AND FACILITIES

NORMS AND STANDARDS OP EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES

MODULE I : QUALITY. RESOURCES AND EQUITY

Section 1 : Quality and resources

Section 2 : Quality resource control : the components

Section 3 : Establishment of quality and cost controls

Section 4 : Expressing and using norms and standards

Section 5 : Norms, standards, the educator and the architect

This Series is made up of the following components:

Module I : QUALITY, RESOURCES AND EQUITY

Module II : DESIGN, CONSTRUCTION AND COSTS

Module III : ALTERNATIVES IN PRACTICE

LIST OF CONTENTS page

SECTION 1: Quality and Resources 7

SECTION 2: Quality and Resource Control: The Components 13

SECTION 3: Establishment of Quality and Cost Controls 20

SECTION 4: Expressing and using Norms and Standards 48

SECTION 5: Norms, Standards, Educators and Architects 57

These Modules about Norms for Educational Buildings provide, In a sense,

In the Accommodation and Space Modules a methodological approach to the

1) choice of area per place which is dependent on function;

Opinions on what is required vary surprisingly. There appears rarely

Discussion of norms for educational buildings has, inevitably, to

Amenity norms and standards often result in the eventual crowding of

Much unsatisfactory school building is directly due to the dichotomy

(quantitative) norms are established, they cannot, of themselves,

Thus, throughout this and subsequent Modules, it is necessary to remember

It has to be recognised that the built-environment limits, to a greater

The failure of many regulations to include norms affecting amenity are

While the illumination problem is of universal relevance, sanitation

contamination of the ground and sources of water supply. This, in turn,

It is the combination of these minimum requirements which give the

The values which contribute to quality are of two sorts - transitory

available skills and the resources, there is a minimum quality required

Of a transitory nature are the qualities related to the educational

It may be concluded that it is possible to define the minimum

Quality, in the context of these Modules, refers to attributes

SECTION 1 : QUALITY AND RESOURCES

The quality of educational facilities in a particular country has to

So it is essential in defining quality in a national context, to bear

The illumination levels, discussed in the Introduction to this Module

A norm, for the purpose of this Cluster of Modules, is thus

Standards may thus be expected to change with time as the resource

A good illustration (Figure 1) of the changes in this particular

¥**"*m<\ teaching area

41.2% 61% 58.3% 60%

1953-68 1973-76 1976-on

CHANGES IN AREA NORMS 1949-85

An important point relates to changing standards and resources. An

The effect of introducing a new standard for school premises

This is not, of course, to suggest that improvements should never be

In practice, this may result in a budget looking something like the

Year New Schools Minor Works to up- Other Works

N X Dollars Y Dollars Z Dollars