Abu Dhabi Education CouncilFuture Schools Program

100 new Kindergartens, Cycle I, Cycle II & Cycle III school building in the next 10 years

Emirate of Abu Dhabi, UAE Project of Distinction: New construction

2011 Exhibition of School Planning and Architecture

Future Schools ProgramThe Abu Dhabi Education Council has developed an ambitious

program to build 100 new schools in the next 10 years. The process initiated in early 2009, follows a very systematic approach that starts from understanding educational needs and community expectations,

goes through a review of the highest international standards, and produces new school designs that are not only safe, appropriate for

learning, sustainable, well built and easy to maintain, but also attractive school facilities, that stimulates students and teachers, and

welcomes parents and community participation in every aspect of school life and after hours. The first 15 of Cycle I, II & III schools and 5

Kindergarten schools are scheduled to open in September 2011.

Future Schools Program

UAE Population 8,200,000

UAE Nationals 1,000,000

Area in km2 73,300

Urban 85%

Phase I 18 CI, CII & III

Deliver 2011

Phase II 6 KGs Deliver 2011

Phase III 15 CI, CII & CIII

In tender Deliver 2012

Phase IV 13 CI, CII & CIII

In design Deliver 2013

The United Arab Emirates

Future Schools Program

Yearly updates

Yearly adjustments

PROCESS, STEP ONE:Education Transformation

The recently approved Abu Dhabi Education Council’s Strategic Plan for P-12 Education, is a bold blueprint to transform the current education system in Abu Dhabi into one of the best in the world. This comprehensive and long-term strategic plan includes essential aspirations for all students such as: student performance to be at international levels; provision of universal access and choice for students; preparation of students to enter higher education immediately after graduation from secondary schools; and strengthening cultural engagement and active citizenry for all. As part of the effort to achieve such results, educational facilities are to be designed to support modern pedagogy, to provide a flexible, safe and supportive learning environment for a highly effective and improved teaching and learning process. These schools will have to offer a framework to support child-centered, technologically and resource rich learning across all curricular areas and, by the very nature of the physical space, will become a teaching and learning resource themselves.

PROCESS, STEP ONE:Consultation process

What? Where? How? Modern or traditional? Large or small? Single or mixed gender? and a thousand more questions were asked and answered during a comprehensive consultation process that included the whole educational community, school administrators, community stakeholders and students of different levels.Major decisions were made during that process that included a strong desire for educational effectiveness, sound construction practices and a school building that is physically and aesthetically incorporated into the communities that they serve, and at the same time, a clear representation of ADEC’s forward looking vision which is also in sync with the Abu Dhabi 2030 policy framework. As part of the consultation process, a student design competition was also carried out to get their view of a school of the future and a video was produced to present the new school designs to the community.

PROCESS, STEP TWO: The Transformation of the Learning Environment

As a result of all new initiatives taken by ADEC in curriculum improvement, teacher training, and school management, an urgent need was felt to come up with new educational facility designs that reflected all these new learning and teaching. The Infrastructure and Facilities Division had a vision of radically break away from the old designs that had long and dark corridors, misused spaces, poor light and ventilation, energy inefficiency, and a scheme that had students passively receiving instruction form a teacher in front of the classroom, with no adequate facilities for art, music, information and communication technology, no room for students with special needs and all of this in a unattractive building behind high walls.To support the design of the transformed learning environment, a Design Manual had to be produced.

PROCESS, STEP THREE: Design Manual

This Design Manual is intended to guide the professionals who are ultimately commissioned to create the architectural designs for a new generation of schools in Abu Dhabi. It touches on issues ranging from planning for the location of new schools, recommending the type of schools to build, to a very detailed description of ADEC’s functional, construction, operational and aesthetical expectations. The language used herein is highly prescriptive and represents values that have to be met or exceeded within a pre‐determined budget.The standards and criteria presented in this Manual serve also as a “yard stick” against which the adequacy of existing school buildings can be assessed on how they materially support and compliment the ADEC mission.

PROCESS, STEP THREE: Design Manual: An IntroductionAfter we explain the content and the process of the Design Manual we define our concept of Learning Communities for 100 to 125 students each, as a space where:• Every student is well known by one or more teachers and their learning needs are treated individually.• The core disciplines are combined into an integrated learning program.• Students and teachers spend most of each day working within their learning community and go into the larger school for specialized studies such as physical education, the library and food services.• Teachers draw on their individual expertise/skills while collaborating across disciplines. • The teachers in each community collectively define how classroom space and time are to be used. Instructional methods, including technology, the sizes and nature of ever-changing student groups, and how the disciplines within the community are to be integrated.

PROCESS, STEP THREE: Design Manual: B School sites

We provide recommendations on site selection, building setting, student safety, landscape, parking etc

We establish site dimensions in m2 per Cycle and typical number of students, which includes options for the school building to be developed on ground plus one or two floors. Parking and sport facilities and on the ground, except for high density urban areas.

PROCESS, STEP THREE: Design Manual: C School design

Functional analysis and sample solutions

PROCESS, STEP THREE: Design Manual: D Performance standards

The performance standards we wrote are meant to provide school designers targets to meet or exceed in providing the materials and systems for school design projects, within the project budget. Design decisions will be made by taking into consideration the information in this Design Manual and, when necessary, through computer simulation models, as well as a life-cycle cost analysis for each project and site specific conditions. In addition to these requirements, all school building designs will have to meet or exceed the latest version of:• The sustainability requirements for achieving 3 Pearls in the Estidama grading system, and specific ADEC’s sustainability requirements• The International Building Code and specific Municipal and local regulations.

PROCESS, STEP THREE: Design Manual: E Design Strategies and Processes

We provide design strategies and we establish ADEC’s goals in:

Sustainability Accessibility Construction and durability Aesthetic design quality Integrated design approach Building information modeling Process description and deliverables by design phase.

Guidelines for furniture, fittings and equipment that are congruent with our kind of teaching-learning process were prepared for our newly designed buildings. We established the specific performance that we anticipate, dimensions that we need, materials and construction requirements that we expect.Room data sheets describe the need per each space in the school building and product data sheets specify some products available in the market today that meet our requirements.

PROCESS, STEP THREE: Design Manual: F FF&E Design Guidelines and Specifications

PROCESS, STEP FOUR: Design modelsIn order to capture fresh ideas and the most advanced design concepts, we conducted a design competition to which we invited architectural design firms from Europe, Asia and the USA. As a result we have different design models that cover all the ranges from cycle one, two and three and kindergarten with custom solutions for different sites and number of students.

Kindergarten

Cycle I with Kindergarten

Cycle II and III

PROCESS, STEP FIVE: Site adaptation and sustainability

Site selection starts with the analysis of several possible options that are to be graded in consideration of safety, suitability and convenience. The cost of land is not be a consideration for site selection. If no suitable sites are found in a given community that needs a school, a change of land use and/or the demolition of existing structures in an appropriate location is addressed with the pertinent authorities.The Abu Dhabi land and cityscape is transforming rapidly from rural configurations and low profiles, to vibrant cities where the school becomes the center of the community and in many cases the most prevalent civic building.

PROCESS, STEP FIVE: Site adaptation and sustainability

Once through the planning process the sites are identified and the type and size of school is determined, the site adaptation process starts. Parking, pick-up and drop-off are developed in a manner that allows convenient access without the need for pedestrians to cross major flows of traffic, or to travel significant distances from the parking lot to the school entrance without a shade.Our design models are meant to be viable form the orientation point of view, with different site conditions requiring only minimal adaptations.Particular emphasis is given to the design of shaded outdoor learning spaces so to increase social, recreational and educational opportunities to teach about the environment, natural science, as well as to provide a safe place in which to do research, and conduct experiments.

PROCESS, STEP FIVE: Site adaptation and sustainability

Estidama, which means ‘sustainability’ in Arabic, is the credits based system created by the Urban Planning Council, that ADEC has adopted to measure the level of sustainability achieved by its school buildings. On a scale of one to five pearls we decided to design our building to reach the three pearl rating In addition to that we have set specific targets with greater emphasis on energy and water conservation, healthy indoor environments, outdoor comfort and material and waste reduction.The sustainability goals for ADEC buildings are achieved through an Integrated Design Process and disseminated to the students and the community through Sustainability Communication.

PROCESS, STEP FIVE: Site adaptation and sustainability, goals and process to which all ADEC schools have been designed to meet.

Outcomes and DetailsThe result of ADEC’s Future Schools Program is a yearly program of school planning, design and construction that is consistently based on the goals and strategies set out by the Design Manual and continuous improvement process through various phases. In order to illustrate the outcomes of our Program to the CEFPI Awards Committee, we have included three of the projects as Kindergartens, Cycle I Schools and Cycle II & III Schools under separate packages. The Awards Committee, at its discretion, may consider the comprehensive Future Schools Program for an overall award, or might wish to consider the four different project packages with our design models for individual awards.

Exhibition of School Planning and Architecture 2010 Project Data

Submitting Firm : Abu Dhabi Education CouncilProject Role OwnerProject Contact Alberto TrevesTitle Section Manager, Design SectionAddress PO Box 36005City, State or Province, Country Abu Dhabi, UAEPhone 971-2-6150266

Design Manual Consultants FNI and SHW ConsultantsProject Role Educational Facility PlannersProject Contact Prakash Nair and Frank KellyTitleAddressCity, State or Province, Country New York and DallasPhone c/o Owner

Other Firm: N/AProject RoleProject ContactTitleAddressCity, State or Province, CountryPhone

Construction Firm:Project RoleProject ContactTitleAddressCity, State or Province, CountryPhone

Exhibition of School Planning and Architecture 2010 Project Details

Project Name   Future Schools Program

City   Various cities and rural areas

State   Emirate of Abu Dhabi - UAE

District Name   Abu Dhabi Education Council

Supt/President   Dr. Mugheer Al Khamis Khalili

Occupancy Date  Varies by Phases

Grades Housed KG through 12

 

Capacity(Students)  

Site Size (acres)  

Gross Area (sq. ft.)  

Per Occupant(pupil)  

gross/net please indicate  

 

Design and Build?  

If yes, Total Cost:  

Includes:  

 

If no,  

Site Development:  

Building Construction:  

Fixed Equipment:  

Other:  

 

Total:  

Please see individual

projects for these details in

the three additional power

points contained in the CD.