What will the classroom of the future be like? The only sure answer is that the learning environment—like the world we live in—will continue to evolve at an ever-increasing rate. Ready or not, certain trends are driving the transformation of our classrooms. Here are five trends that have begun to emerge recently, plus brief examples of how they’re playing out in local school districts.
1. Providing educational choices
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Exterior rendering of Houstatonic Community College in Bridgeport, Conn.
Perkins Eastman Architects PC |
One significant trend is increased choice—between public
and private, large and small, subject-based versus
project-based teaching, or a combination of these features.
This variety is reflected in a broad range of physical layouts beyond the traditional double-loaded corridor.
Today’s classrooms are variable in size and configuration, equipped with flexible furniture and technology that allows
for multiple learning formats, including lecture, seminar, and
group work. The old familiar “one-armed bandit” desk is being replaced by two- or four-student tables on wheels that can be rearranged quickly and easily. Breakout rooms and specialty spaces are interspersed throughout schools, establishing precincts and small-scale learning environments that act
as home base for students.
As the projects in this issue of Learning By Design demonstrate, choice is happening at all levels of education, and benchmarks of innovation are emerging for early childhood, elementary, middle school, high school, and post-secondary facilities.
2. Ensuring equity and access
Access to early childhood learning is a key to educational
equity, and communities are responding by providing preschool opportunities. Facilities for young children are open in design, flowing from space to space. They create a scale and mass appropriate to young children and provide for hands-on learning.
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Cyert Center for Early Education, Pittsburgh, Pa. Designed as one of the first demonstration sites for the Reggio Emilia approach—a developmental model of preschool education
that originated in Italy—the Cyert Center uses natural
materials, exposed structure, and connections to the outside through skylights and windows. Tactile surfaces and mirrors
at the children’s eye level, along with scaled down furniture,
demonstrate respect for the dignity of a child.
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Danbury Head Start facility, Danbury, Conn. This new
facility will provide access to special programs that address
family health and nutrition, fatherhood initiatives, volunteer opportunities for parents, family needs assessment, parent-mentor training programs, and programs promoting cultural heritage and legacy, as well as child development workshops to foster social and emotional development and early literacy to enhance language skills.
At the elementary school level, integrated programs,
architecture, and technology provide children with a
welcoming, diverse learning environment.
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Glenville Elementary School, Greenwich, Conn. Originally designed in the 1970s as an open school, Glenville was focused inward on curriculum, eliminating windows to reduce outside
distractions. The school is now being renovated to provide
small-scale learning environments linked to the outside through abundant introduction of natural light. Acoustically designed
classrooms separate core academic and student areas from shared public spaces, which are designed to bring the community in
while maintaining the focus and security of the more private
academic areas.
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Helen S. Faison Academy, Pittsburgh, Pa. One of the first
elementary schools built in Pittsburgh in 40 years, the academy
is designed around clusters of four classrooms and resource areas, providing small identifiable groupings for the children.
3. Linking between learning levels
Middle schools are establishing linkages with high schools to smooth the transition from grade to grade and to encourage
lifelong learning.
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The infant room at the Cyert Center for Early Education at
Carnegie Mellon Universitty in Pittsburgh.
Photo: Jim Schafer Location Photography |
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Roger Ludlowe Middle School, Fairfield, Conn. This 875-
student middle school took advantage of a sloped site by locating the classrooms on the top floor, commons areas on a mid-level patio, and auditorium and gym on the lower level. Shared athletic fields emphasize the close relationship the middle school enjoys with the adjacent high school.
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Mott Haven Campus, Bronx, N.Y. This multi-grade facility consolidates a
544-student charter school for grades 5-8,
a 566-student upper school for grades 6-12, and two 9-12 high schools with 434 students each—all on one 8.7-acre site. By locating all of the schools together, it was possible to
consolidate specialized spaces and make
them available to the public.
4. Linking school and community
High schools are reaching out to the
community and responding to the needs
of an increasingly globalized society.
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Art room addition to the Cyert Center for Early Education.
Photo: Jim Schafer Location Photography
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Community League of the Heights/Lucille Bolger Community Center, N.Y. This 546-
student middle/high school responds to
community needs by providing a combination school/community center focused on the goal of healthy body and healthy community. Located on a tight urban site, the school has two front doors. One opens to the Community Health Network, which provides clinical and social services. The other opens to the school. An athletic center with dance studios, lockers, and other support spaces is located below grade, while the lower two floors will incorporate a café and library shared by school and community.
- Math and Science Center, Stamford, Conn. This high school
facility was designed to support increased enrollment while also
providing a small-scaled academic center focused on science and math—key to global competition. Five clusters composed of four classrooms and a science lab accommodate the basic academic program, and break-out spaces allow students and faculty to meet and interact.
5. Meeting clients’ needs
Community colleges and universities are
transforming themselves in response to the rapidly changing needs of their clients.
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Housatonic Community College, Bridgeport, Conn. One of the most rapidly growing community colleges in the country, Housatonic is shaping curriculum and facilities with the goal of developing a sophisticated workforce. A new construction project
will not only add 189,000 square feet of instructional space, but will also act as a
catalyst for the downtown development of Bridgeport along the I-95 corridor.
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Agents for Change
The following are just a few of the organizations involved in transforming school spaces:
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University of Connecticut, Stamford, Conn. Charged with becoming “the living room” for Stamford’s business community, UConn built instructional spaces,
auditoriums, teaching laboratories, art
studios, and computer laboratories to support its growing MBA programs, which are directly linked to the Fortune 500 businesses in Fairfield County.
These five trends illustrate a growing momentum for change. Public and private entities alike are recognizing the centrality
of education to public policy issues such as economic development, environmental
protection, and social justice.
New York City’s public-private initiative,
for example, is targeting the creation of new, effective small schools through partnerships with private developers, community-based organizations, nonprofit developers, and
charter school operators.
Virginia’s Arlington County has created
an approach to the design, construction, and operation of publicly owned properties that is environmentally responsible, recognizing the importance of public transportation and smart planning of sustainable urban villages.
And the state of Connecticut has developed a magnet school program designed to voluntarily reduce racial, ethnic, and economic isolation.
Initiatives such as these are setting benchmarks for success—and spreading the message that great facilities matter.
Pamela J. Loeffelman, AIA, is a principal at Perkins Eastman
Architects PC in Stamford, Conn., and former chair of the Committee on Architecture for Education of the American Institute of Architects. She also has served as a member of the Learning By Design judges panel. Reach her at p.loeffelman@perkinseastman.com. |
