Key activity 2: Schematic design
Following pre-design community consultation, design
teams should develop preliminary design alternatives
based on budget, performance objectives and community
preferences.
The design team should develop feasible alternative
designs that leave room for modifications. They should
then communicate these alternatives to the school
management committee and other stakeholders through
culturally appropriate means. For some communities, artistic
renderings may be appropriate. For others, simplified plan
drawings may be closer to the way people discuss new
construction. For some communities, oral descriptions and
on-site visits allow stakeholders to visualise themselves in
the new school better than drawings. Paper models of the
building and their layout also help people understand the
configurations.
The program manager should not forget community
capacity-building during this process. As the design team
describes feasible design alternatives, they should highlight
how each design incorporates hazard-resistant design
practices. Communities should understand how each
design choice ensures their children’s safety and access to
education. Even when a community’s aspirations for a school
design do not initially align with hazard-resistant design
decisions, conversations about schematic designs provide
an opport unity to continue raising community awareness
about hazards and the importance of prioritising safety.
Discussing how the design achieves ‘life safety’ or higher
performance objectives helps communities understand
that schools and other buildings can be built to protect
them. Although the approach may require several iterations
of schematic design, the educational component of the
process helps build a culture of safety within and beyond the
school community.
Safer school design principles
Community members can learn to identify some key hazard-resistant design choices, such as those shown here. Local
builders will need more detailed guidance provided by well-qualified engineers (see Resources for safer design in the
Community Design Stage).
High winds and earthquakes: Buildings with irregular plans
– long and narrow buildings, buildings with complex layouts –
tend to be more damaged. Buildings with regular plans – square
layouts or with gaps left between different wings of a building
with complex layout – tend to be less damaged.
SECTION III: DESIGN
High winds: Designing buildings to have ‘hipped’ or flat roofs
without overhangs and providing window coverings helps prevent
high winds from blowing roofs off. Strong connectors between
the roof and columns or walls are also necessary.
Earthquakes: Small window and door openings, placed at least
a 1.2m from building corners reduce the likelihood that cracks
forming at doors and windows will reach and weaken building
corners. Buttresses or cross-walls reduces support walls so
they do not fall over. Earthquake ‘ring beams’ that wrap around
masonry buildings also help hold the masonry building together.
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