If you find yourself having to give a short speech about the importance of good school design, you could do worse than to pilfer a few goodies from Stephen Bayley’s short talk at our launch a few weeks ago, taking what he calls ‘the utilitarianism of school design’ to task with a range of quotes:

Here are a few quotes from Stephen:

“… imagine how very different a character Harry Potter would have been if Hogwarts looked as deadening and depressing as Tesco.”

“… a building is good if it makes you feel better.”

There’s a quote from Nicholas Nickelby in there as well – a classic description of 19th Century educational horror

‘at the delightful village of Dotheboys near Greta Bridge in Yorkshire, youth are boarded, clothed, booked, washed, furnished with pocket-money, provided with all necessaries, instructed in all languages living and dead, mathematics, orthography, geometry, astronomy, trigonometry….”

(Sadly, he didn’t quote from is favourite description – Waugh’s Llanabba from Decline and Fall).

Then a quote very much of his own: “It’s not that we lack great architects, we lack great clients.”

Mark Twain: “In the first place God made idiots. This was for practice. Then he made School Boards.”

He quotes Simon Henley:

“The government want schools to look like shops with graphics and bright colours. They’re frightened of tradition,  and frightened of the idea that children should even be a little intimidated by school. I’m not afraid of ethics and institutions. Institutions are good.”

(Stephen’s feature on Simon Henley’s work at St Benedicts in Ealing can be seen here).

He finally quotes Stephen Johnson’s ‘Everything bad is good for you’ making the case for non-traditional educational dynamics – striking a balance between tradition and the possibilities that technology offers in education. And while these short tweetable quotes will help to get the message out / get picked up by search engines / give you something to cut-and-paste into your next speech, you’ll probably find it easier to just ….. watch the video. Stephen doesn’t represent the views of the Centre for School Design – but like most journalists he’s eminently quotable!

Related posts:

1. The Centre for School Design launch
2. New ‘post bureaucratic age’ think tank puts school design centre stage
3. Why we established The Centre for School Design

70 people attended Monday’s launch of The Centre for School Design at 1 London Bridge.

The speakers included Baroness Estelle Morris, Stephen Bayley and Steve Moore as well as introductions from myself and my colleague, Ty Goddard. We also got hold of a few key people to share their views on video.

Tweet highlights from the night include:

Your tweets:

• SuButcher Ty Goddard speaking: Really been getting to grips with what social media can do for education policy – thus #c4sd /via @c4sd
• carbonoutreach Smart design=priceless! RT @EEPaul @SteveMoore4Good talking on tech encouraging interaction on school design http://twitpic.com/zq5sk #c4sd
• UKConstruction Stephen Bayley talking at #c4sd says Pevsner overlooked school design http://twitpic.com/zq42q /via @EEPaul
• SENSE_Media @ianfordham Afterglow from #c4sd launch <- Agreed, great night! Looking forward to a conversation sometime soon!
• kateandrews @ianfordham @c4sd @JeremiahAlex @EEPaul Great to meet you all last night. @stevemoore4good @sense_media Great to see you too!

For completeness, our own tweets at the time included these:

• Estelle Morris “really important that when we finish a project that the information that we pick up doesn’t go nowhere’
• Stephen Bayley – schools are ‘a memory palace’ – imagine if Harry Potter had been set in a modern school?
• Bayley: ‘very little formalised thinking about school design’ – classic school boards built to a cost rather than a principle
• Stephen Bayley – talking about Dotheboys Hall http://www.historyhome.co.uk/readings/dotheboy.htm
• Bayley: “Most schools architects think current govt approach is wrong”
• Bayley quoting ‘Everything that is bad is good for you’ http://tinyurl.com/yhng2u8
• Bayley: “great architecture needs great clients” and “God first made idiots as practice before he made school boards”
• @stevemoore4good “shift in focus from schools to understanding what a great teachers is.” (quoting ‘great teacher’ article-Atlantic Monthly)
• Ty Goddard: “Schools are getting more right than ever before and it’s widely acknowledged that school design matters”
• Ty Goddard: “Welsh approach to schools capital investment is exciting – England could learn from them.”
• Ty Goddard: “Key thing is to funnel everyone’s ideas into the next govt – whoever it is.”

Thanks to everyone who came along – we look forward to involving as many people as possible in the new project – but in the meantime, please follow us on Twitter and join the LinkedIn group?

Related posts:

1. Why we established The Centre for School Design
2. New ‘post bureaucratic age’ think tank puts school design centre stage