Learning from Richard Neutra’s Biorealistic UCLA Lab School

Our K-12 Education practice is always aspiring to enhance our ability to create seamless indoor and outdoor environments that inspire wonder, joy, and insight through inquiry and agency. We are constantly investigating ways to better foster the health and well-being of students, families, and their communities. That’s why our research team jumped at the chance to collaborate with the innovative UCLA Lab School, which has been at the forefront of progressive education since 1882.

The buildings on its current campus were designed in phases by Robert Alexander and Richard Neutra during the 1950s. Lab School Principal Corrine A. Seeds, known as a pioneer of progressive education, had asked them to design an elementary school campus with strong connections to nature and flexible learning environments.

The school is nestled into a bucolic setting, straddling a ravine with a stream running through it, where the building’s architecture reaches out to embrace its environment. The design personifies Neutra’s philosophy of biorealism, which he first described in his seminal book, Survival Through Design, as “the inherent and inseparable relationship between man and nature.”

While the school continues to advance our understanding of how children learn, the environmental changes wrought by our warming climate are posing challenges to Neutra’s vision for a learning “landscape” that makes Lab School so special.

Working closely with our research partners at UCLA and Lab School’s teachers and students, we set out to find a way to sustain Neutra’s vision into the future, while providing new insights to help other schools weather these same changes and thrive.

The UCLA Lab School campus, which opened in phases during the 1950s, is noted for fostering a seamless indoor-outdoor flow of learning. Photograph © Julius Shulman photography archive, 1935–2009, Research Library, Getty Research Institute, Accession No. 2004.R.10

Neutra’s approach remains relevant generations after Seeds described her initial vision. The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the importance of increasing fresh-air circulation by strengthening classrooms’ indoor-outdoor connections.

Our research team investigated Lab School’s interrelationship between inquiry-based learning (a model grounded in children’s own experience and exploration), the indoor–outdoor settings in which it unfolds, and indoor environmental quality (IEQ). This integrated approach revealed how Neutra’s biorealistic design philosophy continues to support student success amid changing climate conditions and evolving educational practices.

Our mixed-method research involved digital modeling, climate projections, occupant surveys, classroom observations, and sensor-based measures of IEQ. We were especially interested in how design and occupant behavior affected IEQ and perceived comfort in the classrooms.

The air-quality testing showed that the school’s mechanically ventilated classrooms saw higher CO2 levels than naturally ventilated spaces, likely due to a reduced fresh-air exchange compared to classrooms with operable windows and doors. But we also discovered that the school’s overall CO2 levels were lower than those in typical, mechanically ventilated schools, even in high-performing facilities.

UCLA Lab School’s CO2 levels beat two of the highest-performing contemporary schools in the nation—the Perkins Eastman-designed John Lewis Elementary School and Benjamin Banneker Academic High School in Washington, DC.

While the design’s natural ventilation strategies play a role, we identified a key factor contributing to improved indoor air quality for any space: fresh-air breaks.

The design of John Lewis Elementary School, bottom row, adopts some of the strategies apparent at UCLA Lab School, top row, including the provision of diverse settings for students and classes to leverage for learning such as extensive landscape and play areas. Lab School photographs: © Christine Lee; John Lewis classroom: © Joseph Romeo; John Lewis exterior photograph by Andrew Rugge © Perkins Eastman

When occupants leave the classroom for short breaks, CO2 levels can decrease, restoring the space to healthier levels, which in turn support cognitive function and provide a better learning experience. This effect illustrates how aligning activity, pedagogy, and the environment through seemingly simple behavioral strategies can enhance IEQ. Additional recommendations, which are offered in the report as a printable guide for teachers, include:

• conducting activities requiring the most movement, such as playtime, first thing in the morning, when CO2 levels are at their lowest;
• designing activities and projects that use the full classroom space, such as dispersing students throughout the room in small groups to support better airflow;
•  holding collaborative activities that bring students close together on a rug or in a tighter space right after a fresh-air break, when the room’s CO2 levels are lower; and
• strategically designing activities based on the time of day, open and closed windows, and natural light can help balance the temperature, create better airflow, promote exposure to sunlight, and limit CO2 levels.

Our findings underscore the importance of collaboration among architects, educators, and researchers to integrate architectural and pedagogical strategies for optimal learning and instruction.

More importantly, our findings challenge the overreliance on mechanical systems to achieve environmental comfort, and they promote alternative approaches that move school design toward long-term adaptability.

Biorealism Today: Lessons from Richard Neutra’s UCLA Lab School provides teachers, designers, and school building operators with practical, evidence-based guidance for adapting both new and existing facilities to evolving design and climate needs. With this report, we aim to foster effective teaching and learning for generations to come.