Page 26 - College Planning & Management, June 2018

WALLS THAT PROMOTE LEARNING
averaged 25 percent higher among students working under natural light. The study was conducted among elementary school children. Still, there seems to be no reason why the results should not be transferable to college students.
Electronic Walls
Today’s trend in moveable and trans- parent walls has drawn the interest of companies that specialize in electronically activated walls. For example, an Owens Corning company, Wall Technology, designs and manufactures acoustical wall and ceiling solutions. Products include custom as well as standard fabric/vinyl/ Tedlar-wrapped acoustical wall panels as well as lines of impact-resistant panels.
“Some of the most flexible learning environments rely on furnishings as well as moveable walls and ceilings,” Gaither says. “One of our moveable wall projects complet- ed a year or so ago is the Student Cultural Center at the University of Minnesota.
“Depending on enrollment during
a semester, the Cultural Center can be bursting at the seams with students. When that happens, the facilities department can move the walls to create more space. Next year, when there are fewer students, the walls can be moved again, this time to cre- ate a smaller space. So, the student union can add and subtract furnishings over time as the facility’s space grows and shrinks to
fit the needs of the student users.”
The same concept works for college classrooms in which the numbers of students
might ping up and down from semester to semester. Moving walls can grow to accom- modate a lecture class of 100 students and then shrink to ensure that a small class of 25 students don’t feel dwarfed by a huge lecture hall.
Advanced technology walls can also accommodate the newest video technologies such as LCD projection cubes; direct-view LED screens, which provide exceptionally clear video; and organic LED (OLED) screens, which improve clarity a notch about direct-view LED.
Getting to Active Classroom Walls
Of course, in most cases, the walls of particular rooms start out as fixed sheetrock walls, continues Gaither. When a school decides to move its walls for the first time, it will incur costs—to remove the permanent walls and to purchase flexible walls.
What kinds of campus buildings can employ moveable walls?
“Old as well as new,” Gaither says.
What about the design of new buildings? Would it be a good idea to design new build-
ings with moveable walls?
“That’s a big leap of thought,” says Gaither. “It’s difficult to think about what you will
need from a building in five or 10 years. A new sheetrock wall may cost only one-third of the cost of a moveable wall. And then, of course, what if you invest in moveable walls and then don’t move them?”
So then, perhaps it is better to construct new facilities with permanent walls. If a need arises, the permanent walls can be torn out and replaced with moveable walls. Certainly not all facilities will need moveable walls—nor will all rooms within individual facilities.
What is the availability of moveable wall products in the market?
“There is not a lot of moveable wall system product in the field today,” says Gaither. “Still there is some availability. I think it is important, at least, to familiarize yourself with moveable systems.”
What Do Moveable Walls Mean to Students?
“In college, our young men and women are learning about the workplace, where workspac- es change often,” Gaither says. “Work spaces are no longer cube farms with 60-inch-tall wall panels that you can’t see over. That’s what you see in the Dilbert comic strip, and that’s the past.
“Work spaces today feature low cubicles. People can easily see over low cubicle walls
26 COLLEGE PLANNING & MANAGEMENT / JUNE 2018 WEBCPM.COM
PHOTOS COURTESY OF DLR GROUP, © MICHAEL ROBINSON