While relocatable, prefabricated learning environments have formed an important component of school infrastructure in Australia, prefabrication for permanent school buildings is a new and emerging field. This review of prefabrication for schools is timely. In 2017, Australia's two largest state education departments committed to prefabrication programs for permanent school infrastructure. In this paper we examine the recent history of prefabrication for Australian school buildings in the context of prefabrication internationally. We explore the range of prefabrication methods used locally and internationally and introduce evaluation indicators for school infrastructure. Traditional post-occupancy evaluation (POE) tools measure indicators such as indoor environment quality (IEQ), cost benefit, life cycle performance, and speed of delivery. In response to a shift towards more student-centred learning in a digitally rich environment, recently developed POE tools now investigate the ability of new generation learning environments (NGLEs) to support optimum pedagogical encounters. We conclude with an argument for departments of education to consider how prefabrication provides opportunities for step changes in the delivery, life-cycle management and occupation of smart green schools rather than a program of simply building new schools quicker, better, and cheaper.

Architectural competitions are powerful strategies for generating visual ideas for new futures. Academic research generates new knowledge based on rigorous investigations of informed propositions. This paper describes an unusual merging of a research process with a competition process using crowdsourcing to leverage knowledge. The Australian Research Council (ARC) is the pre-eminent funding body of academic research for universities across Australia. In 2010 a multidisciplinary academic team, with twelve industry partners including six education departments, successfully sought ARC research funding.  The application proposed an unprecedented strategy to include an open Ideas Competition in the middle year of a three-year research program as a form of crowdsourcing to leverage knowledge between academia and industry. The research project, entitled Future Proofing Schools, was focused on Australia’s relocatable school buildings.