Strategic Planning Applied to Educational Facilities Design

Abstract

This article is comprised of three main parts. It begins with
a comparison of the processes of strategic planning and the master planning of
educational facilities, concluding that educational facilities master planning is
in reality strategic planning applied in a very specific and practical way. Then,
secondly, the processes and products of master planning and master plans are
described and discussed. What a master plan is, and what it is not is followed by
an outline of a typical institutional facilities master plan.
In the last part of the article is an example of the significance or importance
of the master planning process; the relationship between educational philosophy,
and educational facilities and buildings is examined. On-going reveals a number
of ways in which institutional facilities may actually teach principles contrary to
the principles espoused in the educational philosophy of that institution. The
concept that facilities are in fact teachers, not simply tools in the hands of
teachers, is in its infancy in educational literature; but the findings presented
herein do support the notion that facilities do teach.