ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses three contextual bodies of literature related to the School Construction Systems Development (SCSD) project. The first is a brief history of flexible schools leading up to the SCSD project; the second is a short description of the SCSD project; and the third provides the findings of previous research by others on the SCSD project. The SCSD emerged from a confluence of multiple forces in the 1960s—dramatic shifts in pedagogy; rapid American population growth after WWII; the increasing industrialization of building products; and a national search for ways to build better and cheaper schools faster. In 1962, the official objectives of the SCSD were: to create a system of standardized parts with which architects can design individual schools, to reduce the cost of school construction by obtaining volume production of standard parts, and to reduce the time needed for the construction of a school.
