Several years ago, KenKeegan organized a gathering in Las Vegas, with a group of architects involved, who were asked what it would take to design a public school which used 50 percent less energy, cost much less to build and obviously improved students learning. "I think half of them fell off their chairs," Keegan says.
Keegan is in charge of the management school facilities for Clark County, Nevada, a district roughly the size of Massachusetts. By 2028, 143,000 additional students will enter the already crowded public-education system. Keegan needs 73 new schools to house them. Four architecture teams have nearly finished designing primary school prototypes. With the intention of constructing their schools in 2019, the district will assess how well the schools perform before allowing the winners to conduct their designs in 50 to 70 new buildings.
Green schools keep emerging all over, but in Clark County, which stands out for its vastness, such aggressive targets are difficult because design requirements like more natural light for students go against the realities of a desert climate. "One of the biggest obstacles is getting the right site orientation," Mark. Mc, a director at SH Architecture, says. His team recently completed a high school in Las Vegas. "You have the same building, same set of windows, but if its orientation is incorrect and it faces the sun, it will be really expensive to cool."
Surprisingly, the man responsible for one of the most progressive green-design competitions has doubts about ideas of eco-friendly buildings. "I don't believe in the new green religion," Keegan says, "Some of the building technologies that you put forward are impractical. I'm only interested in those that work." But he doesn't mind if some green features inspire students. He says he hopes to set up green energy systems that allow them to learn about the process of harvesting wind and solar power. "You never know what's going to start the interest of a child to study math and science," he says.
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