Spaces and Learning - A Pedagogical and Architectural Analysis of Threshold Spaces in Primary and Elementary Schools in South Tyrol.

Author(s):

Beate Weyland(presenting / submitting)Sandy Attia(presenting)

Conference:

ECER 2012

Network:

19. Ethnography

Format:

Paper

Session Information

19 SES 13, Parallel Paper Session

Parallel Paper Session

Time:

2012-09-21

11:00-12:30

Room:

ESI 2 - Aula 3

Chair:

Marianne Dovemark

Contribution

Historically, innovation in school planning and design has had at its epicenter the classroom. Pioneers of child-centered, experience-based styles of learning have worked within the confines of the classroom to systematically re-think the child’s environment and all of its contingent objects, furnishings, and activities. Others, in critique of the inherent spatial and programmatic limitations of the classroom, have focused on finding alternative sites of “progressive pedagogies” within the school’s grounds. Although the classroom remains a precursory litmus test of learning styles, this continual revisiting of, and departure from the classroom within pedagogical discourse has paradoxically taken the pressure off of the classroom. Splintering tendencies towards a more informal education with an emphasis on individual learning has stimulated educators and architects alike to look afresh at the constituent programs of the school.

As such, this paper collates the two intertwining positions of the educator and the architect to identify a series of generically labeled "non-classroom" spaces that have inflected upon the life of the school in unexpected or significant ways. Drawing upon a number of case studies of new school buildings constructed over the past decade, many of the most basic functions and elements of the school project are continually scrutinized for their architectural and pedagogical potential. The facade, the entrance, the corridor, the changing areas, the staircases, the terraces and the courtyards have become testing grounds for both fields. For those schools pursuing paths of more "progressive pedagogies" this is of course common practice. However, the peculiar nature of these ordinary functions lies in their transitional nature.

Indeed the research defines these transitional functions as "threshold spaces" and cobbles them together to create a heterogeneous landscape of pedagogical and architectural ideas of "threshold" for each space. These readings are a catalogue of different perspectives ranging from straight-forward functional concerns, to more sensorial or experiential considerations, and also include more abstract and conceptual frameworks. Together, this research strives to create a “bridge-making” body of work useful alike to both architects and educators during the design and development phases of school planning.

Method

The research uses the following qualitative methods for data collection: • Case studies of primary and elementary schools completed within the past 10 years in South Tyrol. Through interviews, focus groups, and organized school visits, these case studies give voice to the main stakeholders involved in the design and planning of school facilities—namely the architects, the educators, the head teachers and the parents of the schoolchildren. Complete architectural documentation for each case study is collected and catalogued, and together with a professional photographer, each project is subject of a photographic reportage. • Focus group with the project managers representing the client (province/township), and responsible for the supervision of the design and building phases of the project. • Interviews with key-policy makers and politicians with respective competencies in education, urban planning, and school facility planning and financing. • Interviews with the key players active within the South Tyrol territories on the advisory and managerial levels of the educational system. • Workshops with the children of a number of the schools examine the impact of the spatial conditions of the project on the children’s perception of their school. • Observatory role in the formulation of the competition brief for a new school and all of the subsequent phases of the planning process until the completion of the project.

Expected Outcomes

The larger intention of the research is to uncover, and give voice to the often hidden similarities between the two disciplines of pedagogy and architecture in an effort to facilitate the dialogue between designers and educators during the arduous path of school planning. By focusing on the circulation programs of the schools (entryway, corridor, staircases) and on the auxillary, “spill-out” spaces of the school (changing areas, terraces and courtyards), the research strives to give concrete, successful examples of important, much needed cross-disciplinary efforts in school design.

References

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Author Information

Beate Weyland (presenting / submitting)

Free University of Bozen, Italy

Sandy Attia (presenting)