New Research into Teaching Health & Safety

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Chris Achilles
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New Research into Teaching Health & Safety

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New Research Unveiled into the Teaching of Health and Safety Concepts to Undergraduate Architecture Students

New research is published today taking a fresh look at the way health and safety is taught to students of architecture.

Perhaps seen as difficult to teach and challenging to students’ creativity, the research has found that by introducing undergraduates to the concepts rather than the detail of health and safety legislation, students understand the impact that their buildings can have on society.

Daniel Jary, who led the research team from Sheffield University said: “Working on live projects, building their designs at full size using real materials, students learn to appreciate the consequences of their design decisions and the practical difficulties involved in construction. Working in the public realm the students gain a real understanding of their responsibilities in terms of public safety.”

The research identifies innovative teaching approaches and promotes the sharing of ideas and teaching materials between schools of architecture. It also recognises the problems associated with providing students with practical construction experience.

Leo Care, of the research team at the University of Sheffield added: “It has become increasingly difficult to organise meaningful site experience for our students. With the numbers involved in a typical year group, the requirements for site induction and protective clothing become problematic.

“We need to work creatively with the construction industry to find ways to make site visits more accessible. Ultimately it is to the advantage of everyone that we have a design profession equipped with a deeper understanding of their responsibilities, both to those within the industry and to the public at large”

The research was commissioned by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and administered by the Royal Institution of British Architects (RIBA).

Philip White, HSE’s Chief Construction Inspector said, “This report identifies that there are many positive things schools of architecture are doing to include health and safety as part of their students’ education, and this is heartening. Some very sensible approaches are being taken, and the report provides a useful framework for how this work can be developed.

“While the research looked at how the teaching of health and safety to architecture students can be developed in innovative ways, these approaches are just as relevant to the teaching of other construction professional disciplines”

Dr Sebastian Macmillan, from the University of Cambridge and former Chair of the RIBA Research Committee, said: “This is a commendable report with the potential to influence architectural education for the better. I greatly hope it will be a wake-up call to those involved in architectural education encouraging them to reinstate regular site visits. As the report makes clear, visits raise issues about risk assessment, about insurance, about method statements, about temporary works, about the sequence of trades, and about many other factors that need to be appreciated by young architects in their design work.

“The RIBA is grateful to the Health and Safety Executive for having funded the research, and the two organisations need now to ensure its recommendations receive the attention they deserve.”


Notes to editors

1. The research report Healthy Design, Creative Safety – Approaches to health and safety teaching and learning in undergraduate schools of architecture (RR925) is published in HSE’s Research Report series: http://www.hse.gov.uk/research/rrhtm/index.htm . The report is also available on the RIBA website ………..

2. The key findings and recommendations in the report are:

FINDINGS
• This research has found evidence of innovative and creative ways of teaching health and safety. It has also revealed that such good practice often addresses health and safety in indirect ways and knowledge is rarely shared between institutions, resulting in variability of approach and delivery of the subject.
• University teachers interviewed during this study agreed that health and safety is an appropriate subject to cover in undergraduate schools of architecture, that there is an academic imperative to the subject, and that it was not just something that should be dealt with in practice. Many interviewees recognised the need for the subject to be creatively addressed.
• It has been highlighted by interviewees in academia and practice that ‘health and safety’ is sometimes perceived negatively by students and staff. This is largely due to a misconception that the subject is purely concerned with applying a set of rules in practice.
• Symposium delegates and academics interviewed were in agreement that Live Projects offer an effective context to learn about risk management and issues of health and safety. Students benefit from working with real clients and scenarios, and from an active engagement with the process of making.

RECOMMENDATIONS
• At undergraduate level, students need to understand the principles of health and safety thinking, rather than the details of legislation. Students need to understand that as designers they are responsible for the safety of others, both during construction and in use.
• A consideration of ‘buildability, maintainability and usability’ at all stages of the design process is likely to be more engaging and better understood than using the term ‘health and safety’.
• Visits to construction sites play an important role in contextualising the students’ understanding of health and safety issues. The potential exists for architecture schools to form partnerships with major contractors in order to make site visits more viable. University Estates Departments can also potentially help with this.
• Health and safety should be integrated into design projects where possible, rather than being an abstracted subject.
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