Designed For Learning

Architecture should not be side-lined when it comes to educational institutions. It can even help improve student performance.

- Oliver Ellerton

In many countries, conversations surrounding education too often focus on a few topics. Funding is a perennial issue, as is the choice between going public or private. Some countries grapple with the standardisation and quality of examination, while others debate student debt, teacher pay and physical conditions.

Perhaps because it is largely free from ideology, school design is rarely discussed in the mainstream media – this despite growing evidence that the way educational institutions are designed and built have significant effects on the quality and outcomes of student learning.

A study conducted by Salford University and published in 2015 showed that welldesigned classrooms can improve pupil performance by 16 percent. It pointed toelements including light and size of the room, layout of the school and proximity to nature impacting student performance.

Professor Peter Barrett, Emeritus Professor at the university in Manchester, United Kingdom, led the study. “We found that the differences in the physical characteristics of classrooms explained 16 percent of the variation in learning progress over a year for the 3,766 pupils included in the study.

“The implication is that pupils learning in schools that rated highly across a variety of physical factors would do better than those in schools with poorer physical attributes.

“Design does matter when it comes to schools, and architects need to get the basics right, such as ensuring the school is orientated correctly, the windows are at the right height (lower down for smaller kids) etc. 

“They should take into account future trends and possible changes in teaching methods, and they need to find ways of making the space more interesting,” says Prof Barrett.

CARING FOR THE YOUNG