EENET asia Newsletters : Fourth issue June 2007 Contents

Inclusive School Design: Lombok, Indonesia

Ian Kaplan

Space, light, materials, and even colour affect the way we experience education. Schools can make excellent use of these elements in creating buildings and grounds which reflect the needs and desires of their students and staff, but unfortunately, schools are often designed and built without fully considering the needs of the community who use them.

Many people have experienced schools which are too hot (or too cold), dark, inaccessible, or otherwise poorly designed. One way of addressing these issues is to more actively involve the school community in designing (or re-designing) their schools.

It may seem difficult to involve teachers and students in the process of school design as they often lack experience in planning and building schools. However, there are practical ways of consulting teachers, students and other members of a school community in designing school buildings and grounds by asking what kind of school they want and also by considering their needs and the way they use existing schools. A process of inclusive school design not only gives members of a school community a feeling of pride and ownership of their school, but can also lead to the creation of school spaces which are appropriate, accessible and pleasant, enhancing learning and participation. This can provide an opportunity to better fit a school to its community, for example by incorporating elements of local culture and art into a school’s buildings and grounds. Tools, such as simple open source design software, can help make this process fun and accessible.

Yusep Trimulyana is the head teacher of SLB Pembina NTB, a special school and inclusive education resource centre on the island of Lombok, Indonesia. When Yusep’s school needed a new library, instead of asking the government to build it for them, Yusep believed the school could take charge of the design and create a building which was accessible and took account of the needs of both students and teachers. Yusep consulted with teachers and students to design a space which fit the needs of the school community. He used open source design software to create a basic model of the ideal building and has recently convinced the government to provide the funding to build it. In the following interview with Ian Kaplan, Yusep explains how he worked with his school community to design and build a new library.

Yusep can you tell me a little bit about the reasons for building this new library?
We are trying to build a new library in the local style where we use a ‘beruga’…a kind of traditional gazebo which is very common in Lombok. A ‘beruga’ provides a raised and shaded platform on which the local people like to sit and chat and do a lot of things. Many people would prefer to spend their time in the ‘beruga‘ rather than indoors in rooms. So we thought why not? We can try to combine the modern building with a traditional building. We hope a design like this will help make it easier for children to enjoy to read and learn in the library.

So the building is a hybrid of a new, modern building with the traditional ‘beruga’ style gazebo.
Yes, of course it is not the traditional ‘beruga’, but is a little bit modified to fit with the modern building. We can put all of the basic library equipment and supplies like bookshelves and typewriters, inside the modern part of the building, but we will be able to read or do activities both inside and also outside in the ‘beruga’. We will not put many chairs in the library, but we will have carpet because many of the children, particularly the younger children, prefer reading and writing while sitting on the floor.

How did you come up with the design for this building?
Children and adults in Lombok like doing things outside more than inside. So we wanted to make some covered space outside for activities. To make the design, I used an open source software programme by Google. The software is called Sketch Up (http://www.sketchup.com/) and is freely available to anyone with internet access. The software is not very difficult to use … its very practical. I discussed the design with the teachers and incorporated their ideas about the colour, the size and other things about the design. We have also consulted with some of the children about the design. We haven’t asked all of the children directly, but we have tried to take account of their needs in the planning of the building. Many of our students have disabilities which make communication difficult. It wasn’t possible to involve all of the children directly in the planning because of the difficulties of communication, but we have tried to understand what they need and what they do … for example so many of them like spending time in the ‘beruga’, we thought ‘Why don’t we build a ‘beruga’ onto the library so they can sit outside, but also be connected to the inside space.’

We discussed the placement of the building on the school grounds. Some teachers thought it would be nice to have the building at the front of the school, because it would look nice there, but after we discussed it we decided it would be better to place the building further inside the school grounds so there would be less chance that the students would be distracted by the noisy road outside the school.

Also, most of our children have disabilities and accessibility is a big issue for them and so I consulted with the teachers who know the children best about ways to make the building accessible for the children. Although the basic plans are finished, we need to consider how to make the building even more accessible by adding a ramp for wheelchair users. Even things like the colour of the walls and flooring affect accessibility and so, for example, we have considered what colours and patterns will make the library more accessible for children with low vision.

After I made a basic plan of the building using Sketch Up, I gave the design to an architect who helped turn it into a usable building plan. The new library is now under construction.

Obviously the project will cost some money to develop the plan into an actual building. How have you managed to convince the government to fund this project?
Usually the government has a building plan for schools such as ours, but this year the government asked ‘Do you want to build this yourself, or do you want the government to build it for you?’ I told them we would try to design it ourselves if we can have an idea how much money we can get to design and build it. We have tried to design this as ideally as possible, but some of our plans haven’t matched the funds we’ve been offered, so we have had to make compromises as well.

Sometimes in the past, the government has made decisions about the planning and design of school buildings which have not always been appropriate for the school, but I think they are changing for the better and not working like that anymore. They are trying to get the ideas from the school community and working in a more inclusive way.

Would you use this way of working again to design future school buildings?
Yes, I think we will try and use this kind of working in the future.

Mr. Ian Kaplan is a researcher and lecturer at the University of Manchester and works with EENET in Manchester. He can be contacted via email: ian.kaplan@manchester.ac.uk or you can send a letter to:
University of Manchester
School of Education
Educational Support & Inclusion
Oxford Road
Manchester
M13 9 PL
UK

EENET asia Newsletters : Fourth issue June 2007 Contents