NEW NET ZERO ENERGY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL.
LITCHFIELD SCHOOL DISTRICT.

Currently in pre-bond design, the proposed new Litchfield Elementary School will serve 500 K-4 and 50 Pre-K students. The current Litchfield Elementary School is beyond end of life or repair and sits in the floodplain with a water table less than a foot below the surface. The reimagining of the school in Litchfield, New Hampshire has employed a participatory, results driven, co-creative process, working with District stakeholders and community stakeholders to determine project goals and shape the future project outcomes.

Community Engagement & Visioning

The project approach has included a robust community engagement process with community wide workshops, surveys, and social media strategies, as well as targeted student and staff activities. The framework of engagement was developed to specifically provide the following:

• Facilitate collaboration and engagement between the stakeholders and the design team to co-create and right-fit the design for the users and ensure that we have full buy-in and a mutual definition of project success.

• Establish a “purpose statement” and guiding principles which will articulate the findings of these exercises as the foundation for the design and documentation process to ensure that our team is on track with all user and client goals.

• Provide a framework for working closely with your District stakeholders to gather and analyze detailed program data, identifying the key spaces, performance requirements, adjacencies, and relationships required for the educational initiatives and support elements to function in the facilities.

• Build off the design team’s experience with and understanding of aspects building operations, educational environment needs and trends, and high-performance building principles and inform a synthesis for a holistic design.

Ultimately, the process produced the following project goals which embody the cultural and contextual identity of Litchfield in a way that resonates and is authentic to the Litchfield community:

To… Reimagine Griffin Memorial School,

In a way…That unearths potential and realizes the opportunities for learning, community, and operational and energy performance,

So that…The current and future aspirations of the Litchfield Students and the School District can take root, grow, and thrive.

Design Intent

There are a few key elements that were established as the main building blocks for the design concepts. First, the learning neighborhoods provide the learning environment and grade groupings that will foster and enrich the educational delivery aspirations of the District. Secondly, safety and security requirements inform the relationship of the building itself to a road, as well as which program spaces may be positioned closest to the entry, and the configuration of the entry. Also, the design must provide an approach to the building that is welcoming, prominent, and appropriately relates to the scale and context of the community it is in. Additionally, orientation of the overall building and position of program within it is to optimize passive strategies for solar energy efficiency, as well as provide primary educational and occupied spaces with effective daylighting and views to the exterior to support wellbeing and learning.

The planning process also determined that community access is vital for project success. This includes spaces available for community events after school hours with infrastructure and amenities to support various activities, as well as providing or preserving space for play fields, playgrounds, and outdoor community space.