capacity building starts with learning

Design & Construction of Sustainable Schools

Client: None

The participants recognised the importance of the lessons emerging from the study trips and felt that there would be benefit in sharing the case studies with a much wider audience. The highly successful tour was followed by a further Gaia initiated study tour to Germany in 2004.

This led to a request for the tours to be documented with a view to informing the development of the school estates in Scotland, and support from The Scottish Executive followed.

A publication in two volumes was authored by Gaia Group and published in support of the Building Our Future: Scotland's School Estate. The first volume describes each of the schools visited. The second volume picks up on the themes featured in the first looking and looks at them in more depth. The issues extend well beyond the buildings themselves to procurement, community participation, the nature of play and the role of diet. The tours have left a substantial legacy, seeding very many initiatives to benefit Scottish children.

Related publications...

Copies of the publications can be downloaded here: Design of Sustainable Schools Construction of Sustainable Schools