This article focusses on the lessons learnt from the collaborative design of guidance for new build schools in England about the processes of school design, construction and occupation. The study involved head teachers, school building commissioners, teachers and wider school communities thinking about the pedagogic implications of the production…

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have been particularly challenged by the COVID pandemic, the climate crisis, war and political tensions including the fuel price crisis. Strategic responses to crisis including cost-cutting as retrenchment in the short run, debt financing to preserve the status quo and exit. However, perhaps the most…

This paper responds directly to the question, how do we communicate our philosophy of art education? It does this by drawing upon previous research with "House of Imagination, School Without Walls" and doctoral research exploring children's learning identity as artists, to illuminate a philosophical approach to art education and its…

School architecture is often taken for granted both in use (where it is naturalized) and in writing on education policy (tending to feature simply as policy setting.) Built policy instead points up the active and ongoing role of the material environment in shaping education. From financing and procurement to the design of individual classrooms,…

The relationship between school buildings and their pedagogies is complex. There is a consensus that the built environment through its structure and organisation can impact education, but it is often unclear or unknown how this happens in individual cases. Here we examine one design process, which led to the construction of a secondary school in…

This research was caused by an accidental discovery of a photo reproduction of one unknown in Russia masterpiece of British stained glass art of the Victorian age found on open spaces of the Internet: a full-height portrait of John Colet, a famous member of clergy of the pre-reform period, Erasmus' and Thomas More's friend and mentor. Exquisite…

The quality of education suffers when pedagogies are not aligned with physical learning spaces. For example, the architecture of the triple-decker Victorian schools across England fits the information transmission model that was dominant in the industrial age, but makes it more difficult to implement student-centred pedagogies that better fit a…

'New people create new buildings, but new buildings also create New people', so wrote the German art critic Fritz Wichhert in "The New Building: Art as Educator" in 1928. The social and psychological legacy of the First World War was deeply profound and affected how people thought about the future. Children were seen to symbolise a new…

This article takes as a starting point the career of Sir Alec Clegg, Chief Education Officer for the West Riding of Yorkshire (1945-1974), and traces his professional connections with educationists in Australia and New Zealand. In exploring the nature of global exchanges between educators, artists, architects and designers in the decades…

Drawing books can be seen as a vital component to teaching and learning art. They serve as an excellent resource for understanding the historical context of teaching drawing. As the industrial revolution geared forward in the nineteenth century, drawing books became a crucial source for sharing and disseminating educational philosophies for the…

Spatial design as a discipline relies on the psychological construct of space. In the light of shortcomings and challenges faced by traditional approaches to spatial design learning, this paper investigates the role and value of Virtual Reality (VR) as a pedagogic vehicle. Based on understandings informed by action-research using VR with learners…

It is recognised that educational environments influence learning experiences, so it is important to ensure that educational buildings are designed to be fit for purpose. In order to ensure that educational buildings meet the needs of those who use them, all relevant stakeholders should be involved in the design process. However, this is not…

Current debates around the concept of boundary crossing stress the importance of boundary objects in bringing people together to share understandings. We argue that the boundary object is of secondary importance, and that what is important for the transformational potential of interdisciplinary understanding is opportunities for "boundary…

This article focuses on the "Building Colleges for the Future" (BCF) initiative (2008) which saw a wave of new-build Further Education (FE) colleges spring up across England in the final years of the New Labour government. It draws on qualitative data from a research study focusing on four new-build colleges in the West Midlands of…

Exchanges of learning and controversies between engineers and mathematicians were important factors in the development of early modern science. This theme is discussed by focusing, first, on architectural and mathematical dynamism in mid 16th-century Milan. While some engineers-architects referred to Euclid and Vitruvius for improving their…