Paula Cardellino

Evidence of systematic approaches to innovation in facilities management

Purpose – This paper seeks to examine the nature of “service innovation” in the facilities management (FM) context. It reviews recent thinking on “service innovation” as distinct from “product innovation”. Applying these contemporary perspectives it describes UK case studies of 11 innovations in different FM organisations. These include both in‐house client‐based innovations and third‐party innovations.Design/methodology/approach – The study described in the paper encompasses 11 different innovations that constitute a mix of process, product and practice innovations. All of the innovations stem from UK‐based organisations that were subject to in‐depth interviews regarding the identification, screening, commitment of resources and implementation of the selected innovations.Findings – The research suggested that service innovation is highly active in the UK FM sector. However, the process of innovation rarely followed a common formalized path. Generally, the innovations were one‐shot commitments at the earl...

Schools for the twenty-first century: school design and educational transformation

The Building Schools for the Future programme has been established to ensure that English secondary schools are designed or redesigned to allow for educational transformation. The programme represents the biggest single UK government investment in school buildings for over 50 years. For this reason, it poses a major challenge to those involved in the design of educational buildings. Inspiration is in part sought from exemplar schools around the world. The paper draws on a multiple case study of four such exemplar schools in Scandinavia that have been designed to address changes in the educational curriculum. The analysis depicts the degree to which the building design in each case supports the school approach to teaching and learning. The disjuncture between commercial and educational issues inherent in designing ‘good’ schools is highlighted. The findings show how it is important to find a balance between good design, commercial realities and educational approaches.

Tales of the expected: investigating the rhetorical strategies of innovation champions

Innovation continues to be high on the agenda in construction. It is widely considered to be an essential prerequisite of improved performance both for the sector at large and for individual firms. Success stories dominate the parts of the academic literature that rely heavily on the recollections of key individuals. A complementary interpretation focuses on the way innovation champions in hindsight interpret, justify and legitimize the diffusion of innovations. Emphasis is put on the temporal dimension of interpretation and how this links to rhetorical strategies and impression management tactics. Rhetorical theories are drawn upon to analyse the accounts given by innovation champions in seven facilities management organizations. In particular, the three persuasive appeals in classic rhetoric are used to highlight the rhetorical justifications mobilized in the descriptions of what took place. The findings demonstrate the usefulness of rhetorical theories in complementing studies of innovation.

Exploring the Role of Design Quality in the Building Schools for the Future Programme

Abstract The Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme represents the biggest single UK government investment in school buildings for more than 50 years. A key goal for BSF is to ensure that pupils learn in 21st-century facilities that are designed or redesigned to allow for educational transformation. This represents a major challenge to those involved in the design of schools. The paper explores the conceptualizations of design quality within the BSF programme. It draws on content analysis of influential reports on design published between 2000 and 2007 and interviews with key actors in the provision of schools. The means by which design quality has become defined and given importance within the programme through official documents is described and compared with the multiple understandings of design quality among key stakeholders. The findings portray the many challenges that practitioners face when operationalizing design quality in practice. The paper concludes with reflections on the inconsistencies between how design quality has been appropriated in the BSF programme and how it is interpreted and adopted in practice.

Learning by Design: Visual Practices and Organizational Transformation in Schools

Introduction Design of an organization usually takes place through incremental and ongoing processes of re-design,1 however occasionally there are moments when more radical changes and re-framings become possible. From a ”practice-based” perspective, we investigate the crucial roles that visual practices play in these moments of organizational transformation, observing how people manipulate, combine, and use visual representations as part of their discussions about the future of organizations. In particular, we draw attention to the circulation of images and to how icons and exemplars are used in the design of both physical environments and organizational forms. Our empirical study is located within the UK’s Building Schools for the Future (BSF) program—a deliberate attempt to transform organizational practices across the publicly funded (state) schools in the UK by re-building the physical environments that house those schools. In this setting, Gil2 notes the tension between the rhetoric of innovation, with strong commitments to design features such as rationalized science labs, open spaces, and community clusters; and the participatory intentions, with a focus on inputs from users, head-teachers, staff, pupils, and other stakeholders. Acting as consultants, architects are central to the negotiation of the tension between innovation and participation and have significant input into the design quality of new schools. Starting from our theoretical interests in design, we approach the data with the research question: what are the roles that visual representations play in organizational transformation? In the next section, we discuss visual practices and design and further articulate the rationale for this research question. The subsequent sections describe the Building Schools for the Future program and the methods used in the study. We then describe two vignettes from practice in this context: 1) the enrollment of the user-brief in an architect-bid; and 2) the presentation to a school entering the program. These vignettes are discussed in the following section, which highlights the circulation of visual representations and the salience of iconic exemplars in the discussion of organizational design and its physical forms. The paper concludes by suggesting directions for further research.

Facilitating change in primary education: the role of existing school facilities in ICT initiatives

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to illuminate the impact that the implementation of the Plan Ceibal imposes on the existing school infrastructure and how the use and upkeep of available facilities might need to be altered and changed to accommodate the new technology. Uruguay is, through the Plan Ceibal, the first country to provide every public primary school child with a laptop free of charge. The Plan represents a major investment to promote digital literacy and improve the quality of education. Design/methodology/approach – Empirical data are drawn from a multiple case study of five public primary schools. Particular attention is given to how school facilities and their immediate surroundings mediate the successful introduction and adoption of individual laptops. Findings – Plan Ceibal has the potential to change traditional teaching methods and behavioural patterns, which will in turn have an impact on how facilities and spaces are used. Questions are raised regarding the ultimate effectiveness of...

The Design of Learning Spaces

tion, and ventilation equipment as well as form visualization. Whether the workings of Michelangelo, Borromini, Wright, Rodgers, and other designers before and since have been more or less efficient and effective is also researchable, but ultimately moot. Research by design——applied to design itself as well as to building materials, computer software, and medical technology——may be largely a modern phenomenon; design innovation is not. As a reminder that design research was once considered a new field, Hensel’s collection of essays is a source of nostalgia for an older reader. As an introduction for those students or other readers not yet exposed to the ideas that research advances design practice and that research on design is a worthy and still exciting endeavour, Hensel’s collection may be a helpful introduction. For an explanation of how current research may be renovating design practice——if indeed it is——I find in the book not much to recommend.