With spaces for children, “you have the opportunity to create architecture that in many ways is unformulated architecture. Children react to spaces completely spontaneously. It is almost an enhanced architecture”, says Dorte Mandrup. The implication is that design can contribute to forming critical thinking, encouraging autonomy, and responsibility, and helping forge future citizens. For the most part, the educational system and its spatial expression haven’t changed significantly in the last hundred years. Nonetheless, with access to information becoming ubiquitous, the focus is slowly moving from accumulating information to nurturing critical thinking, and new teaching methods open up a new area of architectural experimentation. The following explores the impact of space on learning, specifically in primary and secondary education, discussing how architecture could aid the educational process, becoming a teaching tool.
The pandemic undoubtedly proved the importance of collectivity and in-person learning, but another important and often overlooked factor influencing education is space. Design decisions have implications for the outcome of the educational process, as shown by a 2015 study from the University of Salford which concluded that well-designed classrooms could boost learning progress by up to 16% in a single year. The factors evaluated were light, sound, temperature, air quality, and links to nature, together forming the parameters of physical comfort, ownership, flexibility, and connection, defined together as individualization and complexity, and color described as stimulation. The study found that connection with nature improves mental plasticity, and when children feel ownership of their space, it helps them develop feelings of responsibility. Moreover, the array of factors making up physical comfort has the most significant impact on learning.
Surprisingly, the design of hallways and other common areas matters less in the learning outcome, as is the classroom, where children spend most of the time at school, which has the most significant impact on educational progress. This is also the space often overlooked in architectural experimentation. Other research suggests that children exposed to low visual distraction perform better academically than those in high visual distraction spaces, thus highlighting the need for moderation in the design of learning spaces. Similarly, high levels of spatial complexity impair the learning process, becoming a distraction; however, differentiated spaces support collaboration. Hands-on learning, through sensory experiences, improves retention of information and increases the children’s engagement with the topic; therefore, spaces that encourage experimentation, particularly in outdoor settings, are an aid to the educational process.
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Interior Wellbeing: The Design Of Educational SpacesAs the educational model is shifting toward more diverse teaching methods, architecture has a significant opportunity to create learning environments conducive to collaboration, problem-solving, and deep understanding. Educational buildings that have a positive impact on learning carefully consider functional distribution, incorporate multipurpose spaces, and maximize each area’s potential to contribute to learning, be it by widening hallways to become extensions of the classrooms, using stairs as amphitheaters or using roofs as gardens and playgrounds. Adaptability and spatial flexibility are paramount for contemporary educational buildings, as they need to keep up with societal changes, facilitating the implementation of multiple teaching approaches along their lifespan.
There is a new understanding that design for children and that of learning spaces, in particular, should allow the young to experience the space unguided, an action that promotes autonomy and responsibility. Outdoor spaces are also a feature of learning-conducive design, with some projects incorporating teaching moments in the landscape adjacent to the school, like in the case of LINK Arkitektur’ yet unbuilt design for a rain-friendly school near Gothenburg, and others becoming an essential part of the educational vision as is the case of the award-winning Fuji Kindergarten by Tezuka Architects. The architecture of educational spaces has the potential to positively impact the learning process and the subject is constantly drawing the interest of psychologists, teaching experts, and architects alike. The topic deserves further exploration and review of the existent body of research, to pinpoint more design strategies that encourage learning.
Editor's Note: This article was originally published on November 19, 2021.
