School Design Studio

Ordrup School in Gentofte Denmark is Designed for Personalized Learning

Check out this wonderful video of the new elementary school at Ordrup school in Gentofte, Denmark that features authentic new paradigm learning environments, privacy niches and "cave space" for personalized learning, as well as, group learning. Going well beyond traditional school design with a teacher’s desk and a black board, Ordrup School in Gentofte, Denmark, has created a variety of rooms with space for differentiated teaching and creative thinking.

The school features true new paradigm learning environments with privacy niches and "cave space", heightened window seating to sit and look outside, green platforms with round, red holes where discussions can buzz and bubble and large upholstered tubes where you can hide with a good book or to spend some time alone.

Furnishings become objects that are interesting, and invite curiosity and imagination about their use.  They are specific, as well as, flexible because they are abstract enough to be used and interpreted in multiple ways (e.g., columns). They subdivide space, and also are child scaled spaces (like the green rings that provide cave space and form a wall).

The design, created by Bosch and Fjord, is based in three concepts, ‘peace & absorption’, ‘discussion & cooperation’ and ’security & presence’, that will separate the individual areas in distinct functions and create new rooms for learning. By separating the activities and creating varied rooms space is created for dissimilarity in both teaching and play where the learning situation will be optimized.

Textbook on Educational Facility Planning

Ken Tanner and I have co-authored the definitive textbook entitled Educational Facilities Planning: Leadership, Architecture and Management. Our essential goal in writing this book on educational architecture is to establish a common language, a Lingua Franca, for better more constructive communication among the various groups and interests involved in planning, designing, constructing, and using educational facilities. We have found that the communication divide between architecture and education, and in general between researchers and practitioners in both fields are as wide as they have ever been, despite sincere, thoughtful and tireless efforts of individuals in both disciplines – many voices of whom we have endeavored to capture in this book. Flowing from our fundamental goal of improved cross-disciplinary communication, are several purposes for writing this book. First, we aim to introduce ideas that encourage people who plan and design physical learning environments to become more responsive to students’ needs and community cultures. Second, we anticipate this book will provide a scholarly reference work for practicing educational leaders and architects that picks up where most guideline books leave off. Finally, we intend for this book to be the primary textbook for students of education architecture and planning who plan to either become school administrators, professional designers or educational researchers.

33 Principles for Educational Design

I have enjoyed reading your "33 Principles of Educational Design". It struck a chord with me because too many times I see designers jumping in and rushing for an 'architectural' result. There are some amazing opportunities out there at the moment, and dare I say it, 'most' are being completely wasted with a lack of proper pre-planning, consultation, and vision. It is very easy to read and understand, and this clarity is obviously intended for its value to educators. I wish that something like this could be distributed to all schools by their respective Departments, just to show what is possible, and what they should expect from their architects.

"Sam Aukland, Principal, Aukland Architecture"

Getting Serious @ Gunma Kokusai Academy

These kids are deep at work trying to figure out what the Sensei wants, and getting it right. At least they get to work in style. Check out this furniture! - wish you had this kind of fun place to work in school when you were seven years old?

This Gunma Kokusai Academy, a private English immersion school in Ota City, Gunma-ken, Japan, one of its kind in the entire country, thanks to a forward thinking City Council and MInistry of Education willing to try something different. This is a demonstration public school in effect; a school able to bypass the existing school regulations and policies with the help of the Japanese Ministry of Education who designated it a Special Zone School with waivers allowing deviations from standard curriculum and approved textbooks. Foreign-credentialed teachers are lead teachers in classrooms and all courses taught in English.

Change isn't easy...Wish them luck!

To learn more about the policies of the Japanese Ministry of Education towards the future of public education, such as the concept of YUTORI (allowing children 'room to grow' without - their words!: "cramming knowledge") and IKIRUCHIKARA (cultivating an environment for a "zest for living") please visit: MEXT

Lost in Translation...

My colleague Kaname Yanagisawa and I were touring a wonderfully new school facility a few months back in Japan and I noticed a strange thing. New school designs have taken to providing what are called "Japanese Rooms" - what I could might rather call a Japanese Culture Studio, an attempt within the school to teach traditional Japanese rituals such as the tea ceremony. However, I noticed something out of place. Viewing through this beautiful traditional Japanese room with tatami mats and shoji screens was a perfect view of...the school parking lot! What is wrong with this picture?

Clearly, if you compare with the picture on the right, there is somthing missing from our new school's Japanese room - a view of NATURE! Could it be that all the focus on teaching kids about tea ceremonies inside the space, educators (and architects) forgot the critical importance of the inside-outside connection in traditional Japanese architecture? Or does it just provide an object lesson in the modern Japanese society? Certainly, the whole reason Japanese rooms have become all the craze in new school design is precisely the sense of urgency in educating their young in traditional ways, before this cultural knowledge is completely lost. Unfortunately, in this case, the design appears to be lost in translation...

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