A study of the feasibility of limited shelters for physical education

Abstract

The primary purpose of this thesis was to provide a background of information and reference sufficient to enable the designer to clearly understand the problems and the approach to the design of the limited shelter. The original study, prepared for Educational Facilities Laboratories, Incorporated, was designed to stimulate the interest of educators and architects in re-evaluating a portion of the school plant that has not changed appreciably since its inception in this country some one hundred and thirty years ago. It is hoped that this thesis will provide supplementary information and experience that will be of value to the designer in pursuing better solutions to the problem. There was one other motive in pursuing this particular subject. It is the conviction of the author that the creation of a desirable environment for man's activities should entail a recognition and understanding of many areas of knowledge, all related to human values. This was such a study, involving a wide variety of disciplines: education, physiology, bio-climatology, meteorology, mechanical engineering, physics and architecture, to name a few. This should not be considered an unusual undertaking, since the traditional role of the architect has been that of an interpreter and a coordinator. Recent years, however, have marked a subtle change in the attitude of the architectural profession, both in practice and in education. This change seems to parallel closely the tremendous increase of knowledge and literature in specialized fields of study, presently being produced at an accelerating rate. While the profession has paid lip service to the need for expanding its horizons, It has in fact tended to narrow its activities to the decoration of facades and preparation of drawings that play a decreasingly important role in controlling man's environment. If human values are recognized as being adversely affected by the residue of technology, it is coincidental. A remark of the architect, often overheard, is "...that's a technical subject. I'm an architect, not a scientist or technician. "Even as the surgeon is limited in value without the diagnostician, so will our physical environment be limited if technology is not related to the human being. The architect, by virtue of education and experience, is still best qualified to act an interpreter and coordinator---unless he forfeits this responsibility. This, then, is the reason for a broad approach to the problem. Possibly such a study would be more directly contributive if confined to an isolated, highly specialized part of the problem. In any case, the experiment has been more than rewarding. It is hoped that the results will have some value, if only to lead to further study.