LOS ANGELES—The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged educators to reimagine and be creative with outdoor space as a way to support the safe return to in-person instruction given the lower risk of virus transmission.

To help schools and facilities professionals create equitable everyday outdoor learning experiences on their campuses, the Los Angeles County Office of Education has published design guidelines through the support of HMC Architects and engineering and construction experts.

After spending the last year mostly indoors, isolated, and in front of a screen, it’s more evident now than ever that young students crave connectedness with the natural world, which offers a unique opportunity for cognitive and physical development.

In March of 2020 — during the advent of COVID-19 — HMC began a long and ongoing research effort to better understand the long-term effects of COVID-19 and develop solutions for the safer reopening of PreK-12 schools. One common solution was the need for more open-air spaces.

LACOE and HMC also found that while the pandemic has forced educators to innovate and be creative with outdoor space to lower the risk of virus transmission, there are numerous benefits — pandemic or not — that outdoor education provides.

“Outdoor learning offers students a range of benefits, from enhancing engagement to reducing stress and promoting physical and psychological wellbeing,” said Debra Duardo, Los Angeles County Superintendent of Schools. “Yet far too many of our young people, particularly those in inner-city and low-income communities, have not had access to outdoor learning environments and green space — not before nor during the pandemic. Increasing opportunities for outdoor learning is essential to advancing educational equity.”

Just as COVID-19 has disproportionately affected some populations more than others, this inequity is another educational injustice that the pandemic has exposed. According to LACOE and HMC, this inequity is an opportunity to seize the moment with strategies that place priority on meeting the needs of the whole child.

“The aim is not just to facilitate short-term COVID-19 solutions,” said HMC PreK-12 Practice Leader Brian Meyers. “We want to support the academic, social-emotional, and physical well-being of students and provide them with hands-on outdoor experiences during their school day long after the pandemic is over.”

Added Duardo, “When we take lessons outside classroom walls, we teach our children that learning can happen anywhere and anytime, promoting lifelong curiosity.”

It’s that curiosity that LACOE and HMC want to restore, as subjects like science either stopped or became limited for students through distance learning. Eighty-eight percent of teachers said that kids were learning less science during the pandemic. Pre-COVID, elementary teachers in California, on average, spent less than 60 minutes per week teaching science. According to LACOE, when students are surrounded by the outdoors, they become first-hand witnesses to natural processes. This direct observation is the first step in becoming a ‘natural scientist.’

With easy-to-use tools that can be customized for schools and districts, the guide covers everything from seating, sun shading, space definition, and landscaping to funding and professional development. LACOE and HMC see this as a chance to create new learning models. For example, schools can stagger classroom instruction with outdoor learning instead of the COVID-inspired hybrid model where students spend half the day in class and the other half at home.

To help reinforce the momentum toward safe, resilient learning environments that enhance student success, wellness, and community well beyond this current crisis, it’s clear that the benefits of making outdoor learning part of the normal routine are proven and can be the performance boost that our kids need right now.

The new Outdoor Learning Guide is available for free download at HMC’s website here: https://hmcarchitects.com/news/new-design-guidelines-for-outdoor-learning/

In addition to the Outdoor Learning Guide, HMC has also created a Campus Reboot Guide, and is committed to sharing all of its research findings in a series of white papers that focus on five main areas of Technology, Adaptability and Flexibility, Regulatory/Budgetary/Institutional Impacts, Space Needs/Reduction and Restructuring, and Impact to Wellness/Mental Health as they relate to the PreK-12 education sector.

These whitepapers can be downloaded here: https://hmcarchitects.com/research/

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COVID-19 has affected educational systems worldwide, leading to near-total closures of K-12 schools as well as universities and colleges. These school shutdowns, which were mandated by the government to help lower the spread of the coronavirus, heavily interrupted and comprised students’ learning and interaction with peers.

While infection rates continue to fluctuate, U.S. educational facilities have been challenged with reopening safely amid the COVID-19 pandemic. With social distancing guidelines in place, most facilities did not succeed at finding solutions for in-person learning at full capacity. While many institutions have focused on short-term solutions such as a hybrid learning method, other school officials and administrators turned to online learning as a critical lifeline for education, using technology to enable students, teachers, and faculties to connect and resume their academic studies.

One school that saw this challenge as an opportunity to create revolutionary solutions to bring its students and staff together is The Linden Waldorf School in Nashville, Tennessee. Working alongside school officials, we developed and designed a long-term initiative to move classes outdoors, providing a safe space for students to learn. We oversaw the design, development, and construction of eight outdoor learning pavilions spread across their 12-acre campus. The new structure is COVID-19 safe and aligns with the school’s curriculum of fostering a connection to nature, which includes outdoor activities such as gardening, woodworking, orienteering, botany, and movement classes. Therefore, the Linden Waldorf School decided to allocate more of their resources on viable materials, instead of investing in technology methods and supplies that would typically be used for indoor learning.

Designing Long-Term Solutions

Within just six weeks, our firm completed the design, obtained the permits, and constructed the outdoor structures needed to fulfill the goals for outdoor learning. The new learning environment was built just in time for the Linden Waldorf School’s 120 students to return for the Fall 2020 semester.

To start, we looked at the campus as a whole – how the curriculum, teachers, and students interacted, which greatly played a part in the design of the pavilions in order to develop a permanent and efficient solution. We sought to use a more passive approach that utilizes nature and air, compared to the mechanical approach that requires air handling units and duct filters. The strategy of using specific, pressure-treated lumber structures and its natural finishes, allows for the outdoor pavilions to be used year-round, regardless of inclement weather, including rain or snow.

In choosing a location, we wanted the pavilions to be tucked away into nature without encumbering a lot of the school’s open green space. We therefore decided to place these on the perimeter edges of some of the other functional play areas. Mulch patches were carefully laid out as walking paths to encourage students to learn about wayfinding. For the placement, we also took into consideration the solar path of the sun throughout the day that will be most ideal for usability. Flexible shading structures made of wood, such as pinboards and dividers were incorporated to block sunlight throughout the day. We’re also working with the school to implement natural hay bale moveable walls to block strong winds, to further support year-round use.

Prioritizing Sustainability

Long before COVID-19, the mission and vision of the Linden Waldorf School has focused on being stewards of the earth and caretakers of a sustainable future. The Nashville school already had a curriculum that was taught outside as the faculty always wanted their students to be in nature, learning from it first-hand. This way of learning served as a driving force for our designs – continuing the school’s outdoor learning methods. Adding to their core values and commitment to enhancing education through nature, our firm made new discoveries related to sustainability for the Linden Waldorf School. The eight structures have roofs and partitions to block the reflection of the sun while providing open-air classrooms for the school’s 120 students in pre-k through 8th grade. Each structure has tree stump chairs, mulch flooring, hand-cleansing stations, and nearby portable sinks. The canopy overhead is built with a tongue-and-groove wood ceiling system that is both structural and beautiful to see when you look up. The wood structures allow students to reflect on such topics as geometry, physics, and statics. By using natural wood materials and no electricity, the students are able to understand how you can reclaim, recycle, and reuse things found on the earth. Outdoor learning also presents unique health benefits, such as increased air ventilation which dilute airborne viruses and lowers the risk of infection.

A School Designed for the Future

The new pavilions consist of forward-thinking spaces that empower teachers to advance their professional skills and motivates students to develop critical competencies through deeper learning. By gaining this outdoor learning experience in the pavilions, students at the Linden Waldorf School are more engaged, focused, and happy. The project became about marrying the school’s curriculum with the outdoor shelter, creating a space that would help students reach and exceed their learning potential, while emphasizing responsible stewardship for the environment. We wanted to best incorporate the school’s unique natural environments to be able to help teachers and faculty better prepare their students for innovative, nature-focused learning.

By limiting technology in the classroom, our team supports the students’ being one with nature. It allows them to use their intuition and creative senses—something they cannot get from an iPad or computer. This experience is a lesson in resilience, patience, and perseverance. These new pavilions will help support cognitive development and learning for students of all ages, to be more cutting edge and draw their own conclusions with hands-on learning in the great outdoors.

Jared Bradley, AIA, NCARB, is president and founder of The Bradley Projects.

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