More About Walls

More About Walls

I recently ranted about walls. Well I’m going to do it again.

Today’s rant point: what are your walls made of?

Do they lend themselves to displays, or are they the equivalent of Teflon pans, where nothing sticks?

Check out the school wall pictured here, constructed with large rough stones, the kind that take your skin off if you’re not careful. There’s no way to attach as much as a strip of cork, let alone a bulletin board.
Take this into account when you design your walls. stonedeadwall

What type of displays do you want to encourage? Glass cases, bulletin boards, white boards or digital screens are all possibilities, each tailored to a different type of display. And does the hallway lighting lend itself to illuminating displays, or are they hidden in the gloom?

Some schools have resorted to using clotheslines to display kids’ artwork – you can’t get much lower tech than that, and it turned out pretty well!

Can you build a wall with enough flexibility to allow any of the above?

As schools evolve, so will your display needs. Eventually, power cords and plugs will become obsolete, but in the meantime it’s wise to include them. Murphy’s Law suggests that if you eliminate all outlets, somebody’s bound to show up with an old-fashioned device that absolutely needs one.

In any case, please don’t take those vast empty spaces for granted. Walls, I’m convinced, are a terrible thing to waste!

Tod Schneider
Written by Tod Schneider

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