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Prakash Nair

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Prakash Nair
OccupationSchool architect
Known forAdvocate for open classrooms in schools

Prakash Nair is an American school architect, entrepreneur, writer and public speaker who advocates for open classrooms in schools.

Nair is the founding president of Education Design International (EDI) and a former founding president of Fielding Nair International (FNI), now known as Fielding International. Fielding International, under new leadership, continues to design public and private schools and colleges across the globe.[1][2] Fielding International's projects have won industry design awards for excellence, including the James D. MacConnell Award — the highest award conferred by the Association for Learning Environments, A4LE — for Dr. Phinnize J. Fisher Middle School in Greenville, South Carolina (2015)[3][4] and for the Reece High School in Tasmania, Australia (2003).[5]

Nair has written about school design and co-authored three books, Blueprint for Tomorrow: Redesigning Schools for Student-Centered Learning, Learning by Design: Live Play Engage Create, and The Language of School Design: Design Patterns for 21st Century Schools. His opinion on educational design issues has been sought by news media[6] and by boards of education.[7]

References

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  1. ^ Gilpin, Donald (March 14, 2018). "Architects Present Preliminary Designs For New 5/6 School, PHS Renovation". Town Topics Newspaper. Witherspoon Media Group. Archived from the original on 6 August 2020. Architects from Fielding Nair International and Spiezle Architectural Group presented their preliminary designs for a 5/6 school and the transformation of the Princeton High School (PHS) building at a special meeting of the Princeton Board of Education at the Valley Road administrative building last night.
  2. ^ Greenberg, Thomas (March 1, 2018). "Input sought on school building plan". Cranston Herald. Beacon Communications. Archived from the original on 9 August 2020. Cranston's school department, in its quest to eventually renovate or rebuild schools, which are in some cases almost 100 years old (Briggs Building), has hired an outside company, Fielding Nair International (FNI), to come up with a long-term plan to do so.
  3. ^ Cary, Nathaniel (October 27, 2015). "Fisher Middle wins international design award". The Greenville News. Retrieved 2 November 2020. A team assembled to plan the curriculum, design, technology and energy-efficiency. That team included school district representatives, education architecture firm Fielding Nair International and Greenville-based architectural firm McMillan Pazdan Smith. The $30-million school was split into learning communities with flexible spaces for each separate community. Classrooms, or design labs, have movable walls and large windows to let in sunlight. Most have garage-style doors that roll up and down and can open classrooms into larger collaborative spaces.
  4. ^ "2015 James D. MacConnell Award Winner Selected". School Construction News. December 18, 2015. Archived from the original on 31 December 2019. Dr. Phinnize J. Fisher Middle School in Greenville was recently honored with the 2015 James D. MacConnell Award, presented at the Association for Learning Environments (A4LE) LearningSCAPES conference in San Diego. ... The team included school district representatives, the design team of Greenville-based McMillan Pazdan Smith and educational programming consultant Fielding Nair International with offices throughout the U.S.
  5. ^ "Past MacConnell Award Winners". Association for Learning Environments. Archived from the original on 6 October 2019. Retrieved 8 December 2019.
  6. ^ Ryu, Jenna (Jul 29, 2020). "Round 2 of online school: How to get your remote learning act together for fall". USA TODAY. Archived from the original on 31 July 2020. You don't want your kid to take a class from bed. Prakash Nair, an expert in the design of modern learning spaces, suggests setting up a desk with room for a laptop, writing area and comfortable ergonomic chair. Parents can also help kids decorate their space with their favorite photos and posters.
  7. ^ Newhouse, Kara (Dec 22, 2014). "Classroom makeover: how schools are rethinking what learning looks like". LancasterOnline. Archived from the original on 9 July 2018. A 21st-century education, school leaders say, should be "student-centered," meaning teachers bring questions and problems to class, and students are given autonomy to find answers and solutions. In a school like that, "Students seem to want to be there," Nair said. "At the end of the day, students are not looking to go home. There's not a rush to the door."

Works

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  • Nair, Prakash (October 1, 2014). Blueprint for Tomorrow: Redesigning Schools for Student-Centered Learning. Harvard Education Press. ISBN 978-1612507040.
  • Prakash Nair; Roni Zimmer Doctori; Richard F. Elmore (April 15, 2019). Learning by Design: Live Play Engage Create. Education Design Architects. ISBN 978-0976267065.
  • Prakash Nair; Randall Fielding (September 30, 2009). The Language of School Design: Design Patterns for 21st Century Schools (3rd ed.). Designshare, Inc. ISBN 978-0976267003.
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