This article addresses schoolteachers' spatial work in the process of inhabiting and using a new school building. The study focuses on a historical case of a Danish open-plan school built in the early 1970s and shows how the teachers' spatial work engages with questions of the organisation of bodies, sound, furniture and teaching aids. The article…

The role played by innovative educational environments to support learning for the 21st century has attracted the interest of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development at the global governance level and at the national policy level internationally. This article draws on global, European and Australasian research and data from a…

People with visual impairment often rely on their residual vision when interacting with their spatial environments. The goal of visual accessibility is to design spaces that allow for safe travel for the large and growing population of people who have uncorrectable vision loss, enabling full participation in modern society. This paper defines the…

This study highlights how 20 Swedish principals, school managers and architects involved in planning, construction and reconstruction of primary and secondary school buildings at regional, municipal and local levels represent good learning environments. Drawing on semi-structured interviews, the analysis focuses on how the stakeholders understand…

The Professional Master's in Work Management for the Quality of the Built Environment, MPGTQAC has existed at the Universidade Santa Úrsula, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, since the beginning of 2015. The body is one of the substantive elements of the course. It emerges as an elective discipline. The purpose of this communication is to refine the…

In this chapter we present the findings of an investigation into the ways in which the discourses and practices of school design produce educational spaces which influence the discourses and practices of teaching and learning when the building is occupied. This investigation involved the development of a methodology for systematically analysing…

Finnish education has recently experienced reforms with respect to guidelines forming the curriculum framework for basic education and school architecture. Since 2016, all new schools incorporate open and flexible design, at least to some extent. The more open school design challenges the conventional organisation of space and pre-defined…

This article draws together two linked studies on formal teaching spaces within one university. The first consisted of a multi-method analysis, including observations of four teaching events, interviews with academics and estates staff, analysis of architectural plans, and a talking campus tour. The second study surveyed 166 students about their…

This article seeks to augment an emerging interest in education policy research in enactment theorising, to explicitly consider the role and contribution of materiality in this theorising. Guided by the notion of policy "matters," the article takes as its empirical context a major policy initiative, the Building the Education Revolution…

When one thinks of 21st century schools, one thinks of geometric modern architecture, sustainable building materials, and high-tech modular classrooms. It's rare, though, that a district has the space or the money to build that school from the ground up. Instead, the challenge for most is the transformation of the 20th century architecture to…

This article explores the possibilities and opportunities created by large-scale property developers for new ways of learning and working in master-planned communities. The discussion is based on the findings from research of one developer's innovative solutions to learning in newly developed communities and specifically draws on data from one…

A critique of the new Goddard Library at Clark University (Worcester, Massachusetts). (JB)

Forty-one seventh and eighth grade New York students were interviewed for purposes of determining the kinds of "built" (architectural) space most valued by children. Results indicated geometrically irregular and multileveled structures were most appealing to children. Unexpected, secret, or hidden places were also considered especially…

Incorporating the principles and practices of crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) in the design and remodeling of schools can contribute to the safety of the school while reducing the target-hardening and fortressing effects of a bunker mentality. The basic CPTED premise is that through the effective use and design of the built…

Examples are cited to support the argument that structures and spaces, especially public buildings and spaces, establish and reaffirm hierarchies of values for society. These buildings and spaces define both goals and people as important or as expendable, and win support for the values of those groups that are already powerful. (JMD)