For the past eight years, I've been participating on a jury of Design Share's annual awards program that has included some of the most respected educators and architects in the field of school design in the world. We have been fond of calling it more of a Collaboration rather than a Competition as we are looking for the innovative design thinking. The 2008 award winners are posted on School Construction News.
Design Share I think is THE leading source of innovative school design case studies on the planet. The site now has over 400 case studies from 30 different countries.
I wrote a commentary on the very first Design Share Awards Program in 2000 that I think still holds today. As I stated then, "The Awards 2000 Program focused less on aesthetics and more on the creation of effective learning environments, making it unique among awards programs that traditionally recognize outstanding design. Our jurors rewarded schools that demonstrate thoughtful and rigorous evaluation of educational facility planning, management, and use. They looked for innovative design solutions that responded to current educational reforms, including small schools, learning communities, urban community schools, and charter schools."
If you have a project you'd like to have submitted, no matter who you are, planner, architect, parent, teacher or student (that would be cool), look forward to the 2010 awards. I would enjoy reviewing them!
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