Does Geneva’s Montbrillant lower secondary school, which has now been in use for one year, meet the objectives targeted when it was designed? Does the new school respond to the needs and expectations of staff and students? Questions such as these serve to evaluate the quality of a school...

The Intelligent Educational Training Station has been developed in Italy to meet emerging school building needs. The project, for schools from the primary to upper secondary level, proposes flexible architecture for an “intelligent school” network, and was developed by CISEM, the Centre for...

Since 1997 several ministries in Japan have collaborated on an eco-school programme, which applies to both newly constructed and renovated school buildings, in an effort to make its schools more environmentally friendly.

A former schoolhouse, more than 90 years old, is now what may be the world’s ‘smartest house’, a dwelling whose environment is controlled by a computer system that learns the occupant’s daily habits and preferences.

A seminar entitled "Designing Tomorrow's School" was organised by the OECD Decentralised Programme on Educational Building (PEB), the Irish Ministry of Education and Science and the National University of Ireland (NUI), Galway, and was held in Galway, Ireland, in September 2002. Certain...

Construction work is about to begin on a new “intelligent” primary school for 300 students (later to be expanded for 600) in the Municipality of Solaro in the province of Milan. This is the fi rst primary school building in Italy designed according to the principles of the “intelligent...

Case studies demonstrating energy-efficient renovation of educational buildings collected by the International Energy Agency (IEA) provide information on retrofit technologies, energy-saving approaches and ventilation strategies. Some general findings are presented here along with one case...

Australia’s New South Wales Education Facilities Research Group, a joint initiative between the Department of Education and Training and the Department of Public Works and Services, provides action research into issues which impact on school design. These issues include curriculum development,...

The Austrian Institute for School and Sport Facilities (ÖISS) is responsible for current issues and problems related to the country's educational buildings. Four recent concerns of ÖISS's work are summarised here: schools as low energy buildings, electromagnetic fields and school buildings,...

This paper examines the current academic and policy literatures concerning school evaluation in primary and secondary education within the OECD countries. First, it provides a typology of the existing systems of school evaluation across the OECD. It encompasses the diverse criteria and...