Development of design quality indicators for public school facilities

Purpose: This study aims to develop a set of design quality indicators (DQIs) suitable for the design and evaluation of public schools in terms of their technical, functional and behavioral performance. Design/methodology/approach: The methodology entailed the review of literature on the design quality of school buildings to identify potential DQIs. Subsequently, the eighty four DQIs were validated through a three-round Delphi evaluation process, with 35 participants in the first round and 28 participants in the second and third rounds. The participants consisted of architects, facility managers, administrators, teachers and students. The results of the Delphi survey were analyzed based on the relative importance index, which was further rated according to the levels of importance. Findings: The findings from this process revealed that most of the DQIs were categorized as extremely important and very important. Originality/value: The design quality of school buildings is crucial to the success of a community’s social life and educational process. However, the lack of a set of DQIs has hindered the potential to benchmark similar facilities and derived lesson learned. The value of the DQIs is in its potential application as a design tool for proposed school buildings, as well as for facility audit of existing school buildings.