How Are Designers Re-Imagining the School Typology to Better Support Today’s Learners?

By Editorial Staff - 9 February 2023

We present ways in which designers are re-thinking how learning communities have evolved and how spaces can accommodate future ways of exchanging knowledge with one another. In the paper “‘L’École Poreuse’ A Project for an Innovative School,” the authors Riccardo Zuliani and Brunella Angeli detail:

“the design solution awarded at the 2017 international call for ideas for the design and implementation of fifty ‘innovative schools’ launched by the Italian Ministry of Education and Research (MIUR).”

We conclude by sharing pertinent information from the book School Design Matters: How School Design Relates to the Practice and Experience of Schooling (2019).

>> We encourage you to browse The Plan Journal and explore for yourself

“‘L’École Poreuse’ A Project for an Innovative School”

Riccardo Zuliani and Brunella Angeli’s article “‘L’École Poreuse’ A Project for an Innovative School” explains that the project focuses:

“on the class layout in relation to the educational curriculum proposed inspired by the principles of Social Constructivism and with the final aim of providing continuity among nursery, infant and primary schools.”

School Entrance. Image by Riccardo Zuliani, Mattia Valenti and Fabio Moratti, courtesy of © the Authors.

Zuliani and Angeli present ideas that have the:

“potential to put the learner back into the center of things where he can meet and exchange with distant cultures and far-off worlds. It accomplishes this by creating a school as a place for investigating and exploring, where the child constantly searches and is completely freed of boredom, in truth one of the most serious pathology of the early years of twentieth-first century life.”

We thank the authors!

Riccardo Zuliani is an architect and interior designer. He obtained his M.Arch. in “Architecture for the City” at the IUAV (Istituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia) in Venice. He is a Project Manager at A++ in Miami. Along with this, Riccardo continues to investigate the theme of “educational architecture” through design competitions and projects.

Brunella Angeli is a Professor of Architecture at the Savannah College of Art and Design. She holds a Ph.D. in Architectural History and Theory and a M.Arch. from the Politecnico di Milano. Her writings on urban design and the architecture of the city have been published in several international journals and she has co-authored a book on Italian post-modern architecture, L’avventura del progetto (2012).

>> We invite you to read the article by Zuliani and Angeli in THE PLAN Journal, vol. 3/2018, no. 1

School Design Matters: How School Design Relates to the Practice and Experience of Schooling

In the book School Design Matters: How School Design Relates to the Practice and Experience of Schooling, the authors Harry Daniels, Andrew Stables, Hau Ming Tse and Sarah Cox provide a robust collaboration between architects, educators, engineers, and policymakers aiming to enhance the conversation about how teaching and learning environments might be designed to increasingly inspire all stakeholders.

Harry Daniels is Professor of Education in the Department of Education, University of Oxford, UK.

Andrew Stables is Professor Emeritus at the University of Roehampton and a Senior Researcher with the International Semiotics Institute.

Hau Ming Tse is a Research Fellow in the Department of Education, University of Oxford, UK.

Sarah Cox is a Researcher in the Department of Education at the University of Oxford, UK.

School Design Matters: How School Design Relates to the Practice and Experience of Schooling

English
206 pages
Routledge
March 18, 2019
Paperback ISBN: 9781138280113
Hardback ISBN: 9871138280106

To learn more, check out: School Design Matters

“‘L’École Poreuse’ A Project for an Innovative School” and School Design Matters: How School Design Relates to the Practice and Experience of Schooling increase awareness about how the school typology can continue to adapt to accommodate new modes of learning and enrich the lives of learners.

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