The time is ripe for interdisciplinary, collaborative approaches to school design. Whatever the current funding limitations, we still need to think about how we design, organise and use space in schools for learning and teaching.
This edited book ensures that we don’t start from ground zero in terms of good design. Including chapters from researchers and practitioners in architecture and education, it assesses, describes and illustrates how education and environment can be mutually supportive. The centrality of participation and collaboration between architects, educators and school users holds these diverse contributions together. The book embodies the practice as well as the principle of interdisciplinary working.
Organised in two parts, this volume considers how schools are designed and used with chapters looks at current and past school environments in the UK, US and Europe. It then questions how the learning environment can be improved through participatory design processes with contributors from design and education backgrounds offering both theoretical understanding and practical ideas.
Written without subject-specific jargon or assumptions, it can be used by readers from either an architectural or educational background, bridging the on-going communication gap between education and design professionals.
Design and education professionals alike will appreciate the:
• practical information which shows how to change or improve a learning environment
• focus on evidence-based research
• case studies and chapter topics including schools from across the primary and secondary sectors.
Acknowledgements Notes on the Contributors Foreword by Guy Claxton Introduction - A school environment to help not hinder Pamela Woolner Section 1 preface 1. The development of the school building and the articulation of territory Peter Blundell Jones 2. The built environment of primary schools: interactions between the space, learning and pupil needs Karl Wall 3. Designing Primary Schools: Architect-Educator Dialogues Geraint Franklin 4. Successful secondary school design in an age of austerity Jennifer Singer 5. The Open Plan High School: Educational Motivations and Challenges Neil Gislason Section 2 preface 6. Co-creative adventures in school design Rosie Parnell 7. School buildings: what the users really think Adrian Leaman and Roderic Bunn 8. Children’s imaginations at the centre of design for education Derek Bland 9. Developing shared understandings of learning environments with students, teachers and other professionals Alison Clark and Pamela Woolner 10. Exchanging ideas for the ever-changing school Jennifer Singer and Pamela Woolner Index.
Biography
Dr Pamela Woolner is Lecturer in Education in the School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences at the University of Newcastle, UK. Her current research interests centre on understanding and developing the learning environment. This includes examining the historical and research background to recent developments in school buildings, and investigating the participation of users (including students, teachers, non-teaching staff and the wider community) in the design process.
'This book is a most welcome contribution to the discussion about an often politicised and charged issue. It provides convincing arguments for establishing strong relationships between designers and users of school environments and helps to realise the huge potential for positive change that lies within. As an architect working in education, the practical tools and examples of creating genuine opportunities for exchange and involvement, as well as introducing consistency in the approach, are what make this book particularly valuable.' - Christoph Oschatz MSc, Architect, Kiosk Architecture & Design, UK
‘School Design Together consolidates everything for those designing, using, managing and researching school environments. An excellent resource, it guides and informs the collaborative design and transformational agency of the physical school environment. In addition, it makes a compelling case for using the school environment as a catalyst for further understanding and exploiting the empowering potential and mutual benefit of open dialogue and cross-disciplinary practice in order to more effectively address evolving educational needs.’- Professor Jill Franz, School of Design, Queensland University of Technology, Australia
'The style and design of these complex structures has never been more important. This comprehensive and thoughtful publication reminds us that children are the future. Nothing could be more important than the school buildings within which education and social development takes place [...] This book should be required reading in the Department for Education.' - Mark Dudek, architect and Research Fellow, School of Architecture, University of Sheffield, UK
'In this edited collection Pamela Woolner convenes lead scholars and practitioners who span the fields of education and architecture. School Design Together makes an invaluable contribution to the field, demonstrating how the art of architecture informs the art of schooling, and vice versa, and advancing our potential to create inspired and inspiring learning environments for students, teachers, and communities.' - Cynthia L. Uline, Professor and Director, Educational Leadership, San Diego State University, USA
'This is not a how-to book or design manual, but instead an insightful book that in 212 pages manages to shed light on the complexity of school design, the multiple perspectives of stakeholders, and the uncontestable value of collaboration in order to advance school design and education.' - Kai Wood Mah, architect, co-founder of Afield and associate professor of architecture at the Laurentian School of Architecture
