The Design Quality Indicator empowers a school community by providing them with a structured way to talk about their new school building. By encouraging effective communication between suppliers and the eventual users of the building the process helps to ensure that suppliers deliver excellent buildings that meet users’ needs.
The DQI process establishes a firm platform from which the school community can agree common goals, interrogate school designs, and demand excellence from suppliers. It is in this way that the DQI for schools can really help people work together to achieve the best building they can.
Case studies of the DQI for schools show that using the tool can help school buildings pass environmental assessments such as the BREEAM assessment. The DQI provides an opportunity for issues of sustainability to be raised with designers and architects. This can have an important bearing on the materials used and the overall environmental considerations of the building’s design.
