Designing for health in school buildings: between research and practice

AIM: To investigate the kinds of knowledge practitioners use when planning and designing for health in school buildings.

METHODS: Twelve semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with architects, teachers and officials to investigate use of knowledge in the making of school buildings.

RESULTS: Practitioners drew on many kinds and sources of knowledge, but in particular they made use of concepts, examples or pictures or thought-provoking knowledge. However, the interviews indicate a number of hurdles for efficient knowledge sharing between research and practice: (1) a considerable discrepancy between kinds of knowledge used by practice and knowledge traditionally produced by research; (2) research-knowledge and practice-knowledge form two circuits and the flow from one circuit to the other is weak; (3) practitioners' knowledge was often based on experience and therefore person-dependent. It makes the knowledge vulnerable.

CONCLUSIONS: Special attention has to be paid by research to concepts and principles to guide the decision-making in practice. Further is recommended to consider new kinds of collaboration between researchers and practitioners.