Schools : eighth report from the Select Committee on Estimates together with the Minutes of Evidence taken before Sub-Committee E and Appendices, Session 1952-1953.

  • Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Select Committee on Estimates
Date:
1953
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Schools : eighth report from the Select Committee on Estimates together with the Minutes of Evidence taken before Sub-Committee E and Appendices, Session 1952-1953. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    18. Cost per place consists of two elements: the superficial area per place and the cost per square foot. Area per place has been reduced by about a third since 1949; this has been achieved not by whittling down standards but by thinking out afresh the fundamental educational requirements of each type of school. For example :— (a) the characteristic pattern of schools designed in 1947-49 was reminiscent of the army camp. This meant a high proportion of circulation space (often 25 to 30 per cent. of the total area of the School) with a consequent high cost of services. This pattern was not only expensive, but educationally undesirable ; (b) a number of early post-war schools were conceived as municipal monuments rather than on the simpler, more domestic scale which is not only less expensive, but educationally more suitable ; (c) a high proportion of the space in early post-war schools, often nearly 60 per cent. of the total, consisted of storage, sanitary accommodation, circulation, etc., none of which is directly usable for teaching purposes ; (d) more particularly in secondary schools, there were many highly specialised rooms which, because they were suitable for only one form of teaching, were in use for only part of the school day. 19. Various new arrangements of planning were therefore developed, and explained to local authorities in Building Bulletins, with the following aims :— (a) to achieve an economic balance between the areas not directly usable for teaching and those which are. Although the space available for teaching in schools now being approved is very little less than in 1949 (in primary schools, there is no reduction at all), the proportion of teaching area has risen from about 40 per cent. to about 60 per cent. of the total. Since this has meant building simpler, more compact schools, economy has been combined with educational advantage ; to secure the maximum use of the maximum number of spaces by designing and grouping rooms so that all, or nearly all, can be used for more than one form of teaching activity. This applies particularly to secondary schools where the average period of use for the teaching rooms has been increased from about 60 per cent. to about 80 per cent. of the schoo] day. The break which this implies with the traditional water-tight compartments of teaching is in keeping with modern educational practice. 20. Similar reductions have been made in the cost per square foot, in terms of constant prices. In Building Bulletin No. 4 the Ministry published guidance on a new method of costs analysis and “cost planning” designed to enable quantity surveyors to analyse the cost of a building, expressed in cost per square foot, by function (as, for example, an entire roof, including all the elements in it) rather than by trades. This information shows the architect, before he starts designing, the relationship between a function and its cost, and indicates where economies can most profitably be made without increasing future maintenance costs and how they can best be apportioned between the different elements. (b — 21. The Ministry use this technique in their own development work, and appreciable economies in various elements of school buildings have been achieved, without sacri- ficing standards. For example, while heating installations were costing on average 7s 1d. per square foot, a new system has been adopted in an increasing number of projects at a cost, including associated builders’ work, of 5s. per square foot. Similarly a new urinal unit has been developed costing £14 10s. Od. compared with £26 or more for the normal product manufactured in accordance with British Standard Specifications. These and many other similar items, though small in themselves, account for a good deal of money over the programme as a whole. _ 22. The most important application of the technique of cost analysis and planning is, however, in the development of prefabricated systems of construction. The Ministry’s work in this field is more fully described in paragraphs 32-36 below ; the point to be noted at this stage is that without cost planning it would have been difficult, if not impossible, to develop labour-saving systems of construction competitive in price with traditional forms of building. 23. The Building Regulations, mentioned in paragraph 14 above, have contributed to the reductions in both area per place and cost per square foot. Compared with those issued in 1945, the 1951 Regulations prescribe reduced standards affecting both