Mediating spaces acting for the collaboration in the future school (original) (raw)
Related papers
Educational Architecture - Education, Heritage, Challenges, 2019
Over the past 20 years the world at large has undergone radical changes, in a pace never seen before in human history. A change mainly caused by digital technology and the 4 th industrial revolution. This paper argues, that schooling, especially primary schools, has not been able to adapt or keep up with that change. We currently see a learning-and assessment culture, a curriculum and a set of teaching methods in schools that no longer correspond with the skills students need in the future, nor correlates with what we know are the best methods for motivating pupils to actively engage and take ownership of their school work. In others words there seems to be a growing gap between what the current school systems are teaching and testing, and the skills students need to thrive individually, socially and professionally. Closing this gap, the physical environment of the school plays a significant role. We are shaped by the spaces we inhabit, and the 'affordance landscape' of a building, determines our possibilities and limits for thought and action. It is through the physical design of learning spaces that we can open up for new teaching practices and learning processes. So if we want to change the way kids learn, we need to change the spaces in which this learning is to take place. It is argued, that the basic problem of school architecture, are to be found in the fact, that decisions are first and foremost informed by hygienical standards, mere esthetics or personal opinions of policy-makers, architects and engineers. Easy-to-measure aspects like air-quality, amounts of daylight and square meter per student, seem to be the main concern. Far less often do we ask the question of how the layout and design of the school strengthens students' abilities for collaboration, their motivation for active engagement in school life, concentration and memory-processes. Through three corresponding architectural design-concepts Moving Architecture, Learning Architecture and Biomimetic Architecture, this paper aims to draw the outline of a decision-making tool that can help ensure, that schools are first and foremost build from a child-centred learning perspective. Keywords: School architecture, learning, Moving architecture, Learning Architecture, Biomimetic architecture, 21st century learning skills, creativity, future schools, learning spaces, learning space design
Makers at School, Educational Robotics and Innovative Learning Environments
This paper introduces the contributions to Track C1 of the symposium, which explored the link between architectural space and learning processes, while trying to outline their connection and mutual influence. The paper also aims to outline major trends and innovative approaches in the field of school design. Specifically, it refers to the relationship between the architecture of school, the users’ spatial perception, and the capacity to increase learning skills through the experience of comfort and quality spaces. Also, the relationship with the urban structure is investigated as a crucial aspect of school architecture.
Research for Development, 2019
Information and knowledge are not synonyms; rather they are quite distinct facts. As a form of knowing never separated from the critical processing of subjects, knowledge is sensitive to space. The city as a knowledge hub demands a dense exchange of context where urban morphologies cannot be replaced by dispersed relations allowed by ICT networks and smart efficiency. Symmetrically in school buildings, that is, the basis of knowledge infrastructures, learning architecture is not replaceable by an unstructured environment, mechanically derived from a new flexibility allowed by digital technologies and specific mainstream views on "innovative teaching". This paper critically explores the role of architectural space in the age of 2.0-3.0 schools, discussing the relationship between transformations introduced by the unstructured classroom upgraded by digital technologies and new necessary experimentations on architectural space, the third teacher. Architectural space is not only an active player in influencing learning and development but is also a constitutive element in the formation of thought and a specific tool of critical, cultural and imaginative knowledge of reality. Organising space means organising the metaphor of knowledge.
Proceedings of the 13th Space Syntax Symposium, 2022
The importance of school buildings is rooted in the vitality of education for societal development. Literature perceives learning as a social process, enriched by student interactions and self-directed activities, and the school design should afford those learning practices. The term afford refers to spatial affordances which are defined, in this paper, as the set of possibilities for activities offered by the spatial design to students. Therefore, research on school buildings requires a broad investigation of the spatial design, to uncover the design potentiality and explore the actuality of school operation, in terms of the occurring student interactions and self-directed activities (as representations of social learning). This investigation outlines the research scope, while more attention is drawn towards informal learning spaces outside classrooms, including corridors, open-plan studios and social spaces. This paper focuses on the affordances of the spatial design of secondary school buildings. It presents the outcome of quantitative spatial analysis (using Space Syntax tools) on eleven UK schools, designed by three architecture firms, supported by qualitative interviews with the architects of those schools. This data set explores the school design potentiality for possible learning practices. The paper, thereafter, presents quantitative recording of student interactions and self-directed activities in two of the eleven schools, supported by qualitative interviews with the school managements and teachers; and student questionnaires. This data set explains the actuality of student interactions and self-directed activities, relative to operational managerial schemes and student preferences. Findings discuss the influence of functionalities allocation and configurational accessibility on student interactions, activity types and distribution. This is portrayed through the example of school corridors which afford interactive learning if being highly accessible and connected to open learning spaces. Nevertheless, operational managerial schemes and student preferences still influence the occurring activities. The research outcome explains the school actual operations, and how they correspond to (or divert from) the original design potentiality. This outcome contributes to the existing knowledge on the student social life in schools, and how the spatial design and school rules impact activity types across informal spaces. This possibly links to future work on interactive design processes that include architects, teachers and school managements to reduce the gap between school design intentions and operation.
Creative strategies for the learning spaces of the future
Academia Press eBooks, 2022
The paper discusses the role of learning spaces as an integral part of the larger educational ecosystem. Covid-19 pandemic accelerated the trends of digital transformation in education by liberating educational content in time and space and radically reformulating the process of teaching and learning. However, the current spatial archetype of the learning environment still features traditional plans with segregated classrooms and auditoriums. This model is obsolete and does not meet the new requirements of the 21 century education which is student-centred, knowledge and skill-oriented, technology-enabled, collaboration-based and personalized. The role of the teacher is also profoundly changed from transmitting knowledge towards facilitating the educational process that predetermines the wide variety of activities performed in the classroom. The main objective of the paper is to explore how interior design can be aligned to the new learning theories and technological advances, and to propose strategies for the re-design of the traditional learning spaces. Based on the data obtained in a survey conducted with students to gain insight on their specific learning styles and needs, and a survey conducted with university lecturers to understand their teaching approaches and spatial necessities, six types of spaces were proposed. The study followed the principles of grounded theory to construct a hypothesis on the spatial qualities of each space and relate it to the pedagogical and technological requirements.
The Design of School Buildings: Potentiality of Informal Learning Spaces for Self-directed Learning.
Proceedings of the 12th Space Syntax Symposium, 2019
Schooling systems could be perceived through three main dimensions: students, the learning process and the built environment portrayed in the school building. Each dimension comprises different parameters. This research has chosen to focus on the spatial affordances of the school buildings specifically the affordances of ‘informal learning spaces’ for students’ activities including ‘self-directed learning’. Informal learning spaces are continuously overlooked within existing research. They are the spaces outside classrooms: assembly spaces, dining areas and circulation corridors, where students take initiatives to construct their own knowledge through different activities: reading a book, doing homework, revising for exams. These activities are defined as self-directed learning. The theoretical framing of this paper brings together the Gibsonian concept of spatial affordances i.e. possible actions that occur in the built environment with the systematic study of potentialities arising from configuration according to Space Syntax. Informal learning spaces will be evaluated through Bernstein’s concept of classification and framing. Classification is the degree of boundary, which applies to the curriculum, school system and more importantly the space itself. Framing is the locus of control, i.e. who controls the process of learning and its material, which also applies to spatial control. The paper investigates the design of two school buildings in London to explore the key design features that could impact the students’ learning. Using interviews with architects and a detailed space syntax analysis, it highlights the potential of various school spaces to afford the students’ activity patterns. The design process and the configurational analysis indicate that both schools show differential potentialities for self-directed learning. The degree of classification and framing influences the spread of activities, especially the ones initiated by the students: self-directed learning. School A seems to afford a horizontal grid distribution of activities along the main spine and the central arcade (lowest Visual Mean Depth spaces). School B has an overall vertical organisation scheme around five circulation networks and five house assembly spaces. The spatial configuration seems to afford the spread of students’ activities within the assembly spaces. The design of school A is argued to represent weak classification (boundaries) and strong framing (control). There are weak boundaries within the open plan arcade space and spine. Accordingly, self-directed learning would potentially spread organically along the building within low VMD spaces, when students need to be seen, mix and study together: assembly spaces, wide corridors and arcade; and within high VMD spaces when students need to concentrate: multi-use lab and study rooms. Still, the school communicates strong framing, due to the high degree of control within the classical design of the closed classrooms and studios. The design of school B is the opposite case of strong classification but weak framing. The school maintains strong boundaries between the five houses and their assembly spaces. Activities could flourish within each house boundaries and its dining area according to the management’s rules of dividing the building (strong classification). The open large learning platforms called ‘super-studios’ maintain low degrees of control over the learning activities, thus communicate weak framing. Insights presented in this paper lay the foundation for understanding the potentiality of the main design components inside the schools Proceedings of the 12th Space Syntax Symposium (assembly spaces, dining rooms, circulation spaces) to induce and accommodate students’ self- directed learning, thus to be considered by architects in future school building design.
2021
The school, that institution that was born with and contributed to the formation of the modern world, closed its doors to contain the spread of Covid-19. Very shortly before we met, a disciplinarily plural group, formed mainly by historians, pedagogues, sociologists, anthropologists, architects and communicologists from Brazil, Mexico, Colombia and Argentina. First in Mexico City (Mexico) in June 2018 and then in August 2019 in Cordoba (Argentina). We were brought together by an interest in reflecting on spaces and architectures in schools, without imagining that in 2020 a pandemic would disrupt the world order. At that time, online classes, remote education and home schooling were strategies adopted by most governments as a safe way to continue with the processes of school-based education. Although they had already been tested and implemented at different educational levels, and could even remind us of past forms of distance education through the postal service and radio broadcasti...
Framing School Space: Notes for a Taxonomy of Representation of Educational Spaces
Transformacje 3-4, 2013
I Transformacje (Transformations) is an interdisciplinary refereed, reviewed journal, published since 1992. The journal is devoted to i.a.: civilizational and cultural transformations, information (knowledge) societies, global problematique, sustainable development, political philosophy and values, future studies.
Atlas of Invisible Spaces: mapping in school environments
Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Urban Design and Planning, 2017
Contemporary city planning frequently involves participation processes which are based on the ability to communicate about architectural and urban cultures. This raises the issue of whether and how all members of a diverse society can be empowered to address matters concerning urban quality and atmospheric values. Consciousness of a place develops intensively in adolescence, a period in which young people spend an increasing amount of time at school. Therefore, the influence of the school surroundings on the urban knowledge of young citizens is essential. This paper discusses the question which spatial image young adults produce of their school environment and how this knowledge can be improved through architectural education. The goal of this research project is to develop a set of transferable mapping strategies, which allow to collect urban knowledge and to communicate urban qualities among heterogeneous groups in educational settings. A case study set in Vienna focuses on a scho...