Design investigation of primary schools in Saudi Arabia

Evidence suggests the importance of the physical school environment in helping children fulfil their academic potential, and providing appropriate working conditions for staff. However, few tools enable post occupancy, multistakeholder consultation. In Saudi Arabia, despite large scale investment in education, few guidelines exist to guide primary school design. Using design checklists and existing Post Occupancy Evaluation methods, a mixed methods, multistakeholder approach was developed to evaluate three international primary schools. The method successfully identified weaknesses in the schools, and highlighted differences in stakeholder perceptions.