Adrian Swain, Studio Director, and Carys Fisher, Architect, IBI Group
Summary
What works for schools? Not necessarily what you might think. A learning environment is a complex place with the ability to support or conversely undermine a student’s capacity for learning. Through our work with the University of Salford and the ‘Clever Classrooms’ report, we are one step closer to understanding the impacts that the learning environment can and will have on student outcomes.
Biography
Adrian Swain is a practising Architect based in Liverpool, UK, specialising in the Education sector for the IBI Group (UK) and has in addition worked internationally with the IBI Education Group. For the last twenty years Adrian has specialised in the Education, Sports and Conservation Sectors during which time he has worked across all sectors of Education from Nursery Schools through to Higher Education.
Most notably Adrian has been involved in Special Education Needs working for a number of years with the Royal School for the Blind in Liverpool UK as they have developed a number of specialist teaching and residential units for children with profound learning difficulties.
Adrian has been working with the IBI research team, IBI THiNK and Professor Peter Barrett of Salford University on the HEAD Research programme. The aim of this programme was to investigate and determine the impact of the holistic learning environment on the pupil’s progress and from that to determine an optimal learning environment. Since the successful conclusion of this research and the publication of its results, Adrian has been developing a standard classroom design which incorporates the findings of this study.
Carys Fisher is an Architect and Education Lead for the Cardiff Studio of IBI. She has effectively supported the delivery of a number of education projects, including primary, secondary and further education colleges.
Carys has worked closely with the IBI THiNK team and the education HEAD research programme with Professor Peter Barrett of University of Salford, and has since developed a Schools Assessment Toolkit which aids designers to work with schools on improving existing classrooms whilst maximising the pupils potential. This has been trialled in a number of schools across south wales.
Adding to Carys’ experience, she has recently been part of a working group for Constructing Excellence in Wales and 21st Century Schools Wales, which was instrumental in the development of a Post Occupancy Evaluation process entitled ‘Brighter Spaces, Engaging Schools’.