‘Adapt classrooms to climate change’

MANILA, Philippines — To make public school classrooms more conducive for learning, a Pinoy inventor urged the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to update and innovate on school rooms and buildings design to make them adapted to climate change.

Edgardo Vazquez, an internationally recognized prefabricated construction technology inventor, said it is high time for the government to adopt the latest technologies in construction and engineering to improve on public school classrooms at no added cost to the Department of Education (DepEd).

Vazquez, who was conferred two gold medals by the World Intellectual Property Organization in 1995, said an innovation to the classroom building would allow the DPWH to easily hit its classroom and schoolbuilding targets.

He cited the Vazbuilt insulated school classroom – a one-classroom school building design – that would allow the DPWH to build a classroom with a cooling system in one month.

“These innovation aims to enhance efficiency, sustainability and affordability in the construction industry,” Vasquez said.

According to Vasquez, the new school building design uses “deep pile micropile” for its foundation, light gauge steel frame and polywall lightweight concrete panels for its cooling system.

In a letter to Secretaries Manuel Bonoan of DPWH and Sonny Angara of DepEd, Vasquez said the design is adapted to climate change and would allow a faster construction time at no extra cost to the government.

He added that the design is compliant with government standards.