黑洞社区

As a six-year-old, Mairi Johnson wanted to be a surgeon 鈥� but not, as you might assume, because of a childhood desire to make sick people better. Rather, Johnson explains somewhat macabrely, it was because she was 鈥渧ery keen to cut someone in half and sew them back together again鈥�.

The medical profession, thankfully, was spared her approach to research, but Johnson鈥檚 comment about dismantling and recreating has a certain resonance in relation to her recent career. Before joining Aecom as its education lead in January, Johnson was the design chief at the Education Funding Agency (EFA), where she led development of the baseline school designs that have become the basis of the current government鈥檚 controversial austerity-era schools. This involved her essentially tearing up the equally controversial, but much more lavish approach to school design that dominated under the scrapped 拢55bn黑洞社区 Schools for the Future programme - an approach that she also led, during four years as the design head at the EFA鈥檚 forerunner, Partnerships for Schools.

Although she could not say so publicly while still employed by the government, the process was a painful one for Johnson, a sparky, engaging woman who talks with enthusiastic rapidity about her passion for 鈥渢he power of design鈥�. But now, safely ensconced away from Whitehall in Aecom鈥檚 Holborn offices, she opens up in startling detail about her regret at the process that led to the new, scaled-back designs that underpin the nation鈥檚 new generation of school buildings. And, now on the private sector side delivering those schools, she explains Aecom鈥檚 ambitions to grow its presence in the education sector.

From public to private sector

Arriving at Aecom has been something of a culture shock for 44-year-old Johnson, despite the fact that she began her career as an architect in a private practice. The last 12 years of her career have been spent working in the public sector: first at design quango Cabe, where she spent six years and became known as an expert on school design, and then, from 2008, at PFS and its successor the EFA. 鈥淐entral government is very risk averse,鈥� she says, frowning slightly as she recalls the civil service鈥檚 infamous bureaucracy. 鈥淎ecom is much more entrepreneurial. There鈥檚 much more energy, and faster reaction.鈥�

The immediate factor behind Johnson鈥檚 switch from public to private sector was, she says, the completion of the EFA鈥檚 design work on the new cost-saving schools. 鈥淚 thought, actually, if I鈥檓 not careful, I鈥檓 going to be sitting here with an empty desk.鈥� Aecom appealed because of its international reach and large-scale programmes of work, particularly with overseas governments. 鈥淭he things I wanted to do to broaden my horizons were things Aecom seemed to be doing, but they weren鈥檛 necessarily doing them in education.鈥�

Johnson鈥檚 role as global lead for education is a newly created position - and it鈥檚 one she is clearly relishing. Aecom鈥檚 reach in education spans a wide range of regions - including the US, UK, Middle East, Africa and Asia - but Johnson says 鈥渢here was no-one pulling it together and making it more than the sum of its parts.鈥� She says that she brings a 鈥渃lient perspective鈥� to the role, and is drawing together Aecom鈥檚 multidisciplinary services to provide a more comprehensive offering across disciplines and - if required - across territories, in both schools and higher education.

As well as the immediate prompt of a reducing workload at the EFA, however, there was a longer-term factor involved in Johnson鈥檚 move. 鈥淥ne day, we鈥檒l get a government that is interested in design again,鈥� she says bluntly. 鈥淎nd the people that government likes to have around its table as advisers are people that have made it in business.鈥�

The best of a bad situation

The issue of the government鈥檚 attitude to design 鈥� specifically in education 鈥� is a thorny one for Johnson. As the public face of the EFA鈥檚 controversial move towards standardised design, she appeared on countless conference platforms to espouse the sense in Michael Gove鈥檚 drive for budget schools. But in reality, she says, she found the situation very difficult.

鈥淭he Labour government was really into design, and did everything they could to use it as a tool to improve people鈥檚 life chances. They believed the school environment was important, and gave children self esteem. The coalition came in and it did not think that. They think all that鈥檚 needed from school buildings is a basic minimum standard. And having lived through that change, I belong to the first camp. So it was really difficult to say 鈥榬ight, we鈥檝e got a whole new order here - we鈥檝e got to do this鈥�.鈥� She pauses. 鈥淚t was quite painful, to be honest.鈥�

Some may question why, if Johnson felt so strongly, she continued to lead the programme. But she says that she decided to make the best of the situation by using the creation of new design guidance as a chance to address some aspects of BSF she knew weren鈥檛 working - including overlong procurement and poor energy performance of buildings, which had been highlighted in PFS鈥� post-occupancy research. She says her attitude was: 鈥淚f the new regime wants to rewrite the rule book, let鈥檚 try to rewrite it in a way that it鈥檚 not all in ashes.鈥�

Johnson believes that the ensuing environmental engineering work, which is embedded in the output specification now being used by the EFA to detail the technical standards for new schools, will genuinely improve buildings鈥� suitability. 鈥淭he schools that come out of the Priority Schools 黑洞社区 Programme will be much plainer architecturally, but actually the ambient environment of individual classrooms will probably be better than the BSF era,鈥� she says.

She also says that although she doesn鈥檛 鈥渢hink we should have baseline designs forever鈥�, she doesn鈥檛 think that they were 鈥渁 huge disaster鈥�. She says: 鈥淭he baseline design aspect was quite hard, as BSF had really celebrated a school community鈥檚 decisions about its uniqueness. But [in creating the baseline designs] we did go back through the back catalogue of BSF, and the schools we thought were good were quite similar. So in that respect I still think it was as good a job as we could have done at the time. And those designs are not compulsory.鈥�

However, there is one alarmingly fundamental aspect in which Johnson believes the government has got its new school standards wrong: their size. Johnson describes area allocations, which are roughly 5% below previous guidelines for primary and 15% for secondary, as 鈥渢he big flaw鈥� in the baseline designs.

She says: 鈥淢y big regret of that period is that we took the area down as much as we did. It鈥檚 taken flexibility out of the design. Even though every curriculum subject can be taught safely, the circulation is tight, and if the school has any other thing it needs to do, or just a quirk of the building that needs a bit more space to be dealt with, it鈥檚 really difficult.鈥�

Alarmingly, given the potential impact on pupils, Johnson claims that the reduction in area was not even properly thought through. 鈥淲e had 黑洞社区 Bulletins [the previous standards for schools], and my colleagues and I were doing a testing exercise to say 鈥榳hat if you set everything at the minimum, what does that give you as an area?鈥� And that got snatched off the desk and implemented, without any real testing of it.鈥� She pauses, before adding quietly: 鈥淚 really wish that piece of paper didn鈥檛 exist. I wish we鈥檇 done a different calculation that got snatched.鈥�

Having realised the problems 鈥渜uite early on鈥�, but too late to stop the changes, Johnson says her team then tried to build in specific post-occupancy requirements on contractors that could eventually highlight any problems with the size of buildings. These include a walk-around after a year for design-and-build schools, to give 鈥渁 snapshot of how the school is functioning鈥�, and requiring contractors to report on maintenance costs on PFI contracts (鈥淚f a school is used more intensively, maybe it needs painting more often鈥�).

She says: 鈥淭his feels like a problem to us, but nothing happens in government without evidence. So we tried to stitch in as much as we could that would evidence whether the schools are too small.鈥�

Opportunities in education

Whether or not time proves Johnson鈥檚 concern correct, she is, as you would expect, acutely conscious that the tight funding environment for school building is a big challenge for a country which needs to respond to the fact that, according to the Local Government Association, almost half of school districts will have more primary pupils than places within two years.

However, she also firmly believes that, despite spending constraints, education holds a wealth of opportunities for construction firms, including her own. She identifies higher education as a major area of focus for Aecom: 鈥淯niversities have really raised their game - as clients they鈥檙e now demanding much better quality buildings.鈥� She says this trend is being driven by pressure from students. 鈥淭he student body is really being asked about the kind of experience they鈥檙e having, and that鈥檚 a very powerful group鈥�.

Johnson is also among the growing number of advocates of education building projects鈥� potential to be a linchpin for wider city development. Aecom is working on a large-scale example of this strategy in Cambridge - the university-led NW Cambridge scheme, which includes not just university buildings but 3,000 homes and retail and office space. But she also believes a similar effect can be achieved on a smaller scale. 鈥淓ducation institutions are like anchor tenants in a shopping mall,鈥� she says. 鈥淵ou get footfall throughout the day. If you鈥檝e got a windswept town centre and you get an FE college in it, that鈥檚 great, because you鈥檝e suddenly got energy in it all day.鈥�

Johnson believes that expertise in this area is one skill UK companies can export abroad. 鈥淲e鈥檝e got quite tight cities, so we鈥檙e used to weaving between buildings and integrating a campus into a larger city. I think we can take that elsewhere - I hope to, anyway.鈥� She also says that the UK鈥檚 technical rigour on school buildings is in growing demand overseas, pointing in particular to standards on acoustics. 鈥淚 know they鈥檙e the bane of everyone鈥檚 life here, but these are important things.鈥�

In fact, Johnson believes, education is becoming much more of a global market, with universities in particular setting up networks of campuses across different countries. It鈥檚 a trend she wants to capitalise on, but to do that there is one private sector trait she still needs to master.

鈥淚鈥檓 amazed by the ability of people here to get off a plane and just carry on working,鈥� she confides. 鈥淲hen I arrive back in England, I just want to go home, but they hurtle forward. It鈥檚 awesome. I鈥檓 looking forward to gaining that capability.鈥�