The Design of Learning Spaces: Architecture as a Teaching Tool

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 here is that design can contribute to forming critical thinking, encouraging autonomy, responsibility and help 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 the accumulation of 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.