Dr. Jeff Lackney has been leading the design effort for a project that could set a new standard for “world class”. The Duke School has set itself the goal of being the first 10-10 in the world (“10” for education supported by a “10”-level educational campus). Lackney is FNI’s managing principal for the Greater Good Academy project in Indianapolis and also working as a key design principal on several other FNI projects including Horizons Learning Center in Phuket, Scotch Oakburn College and Wesley College in Australia and the Broward County Career and Adult Education project.

In February and March 2006, Prakash Nair set sail for distant shores once again. This time, his Australia sojourn included visits to New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia. Nair conducted workshops (including one with the Director General of Education in NSW, a session with the Education 2020 group in Victoria, work with the Future Provisions group in South Australia and meetings with senior officials in the Director General’s office in WA. He also started work on an exciting new project in Tasmania – The Sustainable Futures Inquiry Center. His trip also included stops in Phuket, Thailand to work on a new planned community and Singapore to advise the Raffles Girls School about the development of a new campus.

Prakash Nair spent most of October and early November in Tasmania, Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and Singapore working closely with government departments and private school clients on the development of new paradigm school facilities. During the trip, Nair conducted numerous workshops for government officials, community groups, educators, private school councils, and professional organizations. He will be returning to Australia and Singapore in February and March 2006 to continue the important work of progressive educational reform in many different communities in the two countries.

Prakash Nair presented the keynote address and facilitated a school planning workshop at the Annual Conference of the Australian/Asian Region of the Council of Educational Facilities Planners International from April 20th to April 22nd 2005. The conference, titled Architects and Educators Working Together, was held in Hobart, Tasmania.

Randy Fielding recently completed a highly successful two-week speaking tour of Singapore and Australia in September 2004. Randy was invited to present new ideas for 21st century school planning and design by the Singapore Ministry of Education, The LETA Organization and the Government of South Australia in Adelaide, the Association of Independent Schools in Brisbane, the University of Queensland and the Department of Education in Western Australia, Perth.

Prakash Nair and Dr. Jeff Lackney applied the innovative “Open Space” conferencing technique to conduct their Educational Transformations workshop at the Pacific Northwest Regional conference of the Council of Educational Facility Planners International. This highly interactive session was very well received by all conference attendees. The CEFPI event was held at the Alyeska Resort near Anchorage in July 2004. For more information about Open Space, contact prakash@designshare.com.

FNI has a special relationship with the National Academy Foundation with principals Fielding and Nair speaking at several NAF events over the past few years. This year, Randy Fielding presented key connections between academy programs and the spaces they occupy at his well-attended presentation held at the NAF National Conference in New York City in July 2004.

At the invitation of the Ohio School Facilities Commission, FNI principal Prakash Nair conducted a staff training workshop and prepared a detailed design review for three schools to be built in Cleveland, Cincinnati and Columbus. The design reviews were done utilizing FNI’s trademark “Evaluation Instrument” which was developed in partnership with Dr. Jeff Lackney at the University of Wisconsin under a grant provided by the Rockefeller Foundation.

FNI principal Prakash Nair received the prestigious MacConnell Award for 2003 for planning the Reece Community High School in Tasmania, Australia. In a tough field for this coveted prize, the Reece project was ranked above 49 others from around the world for planning and design excellence. Click here for more information.