The aim of this post is to consider the value of small rooms in schools with the intention of starting…
Education in the time of Covid-19: who gets to decide and when? A call for increased participation in the design and adaptation of education and schools
This is a guest post by Dr Tom Bellfield, a part 2 architectural assistant at SCABAL, an architecture practice specialising…
Anyone for online hopscotch? Why school space (still) matters in the digital age.
This is a guest post by Dr Pamela Woolner, Senior Lecturer in Education at Newcastle University. Pam has been researching…
Mythologies of learning spaces in the time of Covid-19
The closure of many schools around the world in the past few months has given us a unique opportunity to…
Mythologies of education in the time of Covid-19
This is a guest post by Catherine Burke, Professor Emerita of the History of Education at the University of Cambridge.…
Designing therapeutic spaces in schools 5: the corridor and the cupboard, a case study
After several years of working with children in a busy primary school corridor, two teaching assistants trained in emotional literacy…
Incoherences in English Planning for Schools Policy
The English planning system promotes school choice not better or more sustainable or simply more schools. This post explores the consequences.
Designing therapeutic spaces in schools 4: how to create a space from scratch
Here, I offer a practical perspective on creating a therapeutic space in a school, with comments from people who have…
Designing therapeutic spaces in schools 3: how to communicate safety, security and stability
It is important to be aware that open-plan formats are not that helpful for these pupils. Let’s recognise how that…
Designing therapeutic spaces in schools 2: four principles supporting their success
As adults, were we to visit a therapist or counsellor, it would be hard to imagine sitting in an open-plan…
Designing therapeutic spaces in schools 1: an introduction
The design of spaces in schools for therapeutic purposes is the focus of this series of posts. These are spaces…
Space and Education Seminars, Spring 2020, London
Info on a new, free and open-to-the-public, evening seminar series, “Space and Education” at UCL Institute of Education.
A new design for Harlem School of the Arts: an interview with John Storyk, architect and acoustician
John Storyk is the Founding Partner and Director of Design of Walters Storyk Design Group (WSDG): an architect and acoustician…
City Schools as Meeting Places
Text of a talk I gave at the Université de Montréal connecting architectural ideas of the “in-between” to educational discussions on “meeting places”.
A Useful Definition of Architecture
What is architecture? A helpful definition by Giancarlo De Carlo clarifies what architecture is and who’s involved.
Spot the Difference!
Similar visions of school design travel the world at speed – with what effects?
Barbarian Education, state-evading learning and James Scott’s “Against the Grain”
Some thoughts about education and James C. Scott’s ‘Against the Grain’.
Giancarlo De Carlo: How to Keep Educational Architecture Human or Creative Anti-Institutionalism
A talk I gave at the Bartlett’s Spatial Engagement Network meeting about Anarchism, Education and Space on the architect Giancarlo De Carlo.
Disappearing School Libraries – Why?
School libraries seem to be disappearing – I suggest this is related to their being “illegible” in terms of how space in schools is valued.
“You can’t sit there”: How students claim and police school space through sitting
A guest post by Dr Siobhan Dytham on the rules and rituals that students develop about space and sitting in school
Designing the ‘in-between’: Alison Clark’s micro-history of a welfare room
“School design, which is finely tuned to the full range of activities and needs of adults and children who inhabit…
In the Hills, on the Trail of a Radical Priest and Critical Pedagogy
Moving north from Florence you climb up and up, past Fiesole to a ridge formed by Mounts Calavana and Giovi…
Learning in inappropriate spaces?
When “assessing the impact of education”, argue Edgerton, McKechnie and McEwen (2011, p.34), “researchers have tended to focus on what…
How might the curriculum shape spaces in schools?
One of the aims of this website is to open up a discussion about the ways in which school design…
Putting Children (and Values?) into Architectural Plans of Schools
Aldo van Eyck put children into his architectural drawings to influence ideas of schools. Can you add “values” too in this way?
How to make a basic school design pedagogically interesting? Learning from a case in Ecuador.
A guest post by Beatrice Balfour and Alejandra Manena Vilanova telling their story of co-designing a school near Cuenca, Ecuador.
Interview with Jeremy Till on Schools, Contingency, Flexibility and Competitions
Interview with the architect, educator and writer Jeremy Till on a range of issues involving architecture and school design.
Why Carillion and PFI Matter for Building and Designing Schools
How we fund and procure new schools matters. This post draws together some reasons why in the light of Carillion.
3 Cambridge Seminars, 2018: Educational Aims and Values through Architecture
3 Seminars at the Faculty of Education, Cambridge University exploring the role of the built environment in education and schools.
Schools of Tomorrow but Rooted in Society – an Interview with Silvia Fehrmann of Berlin’s HKW
An interview with Silvia Fehrmann, curator of HKW’s conference “Schools of Tomorrow” on schools and society.
Architecture Schools for Children
A list of organisations running architecture schools for children.
The Purposes and Functions of Schooling: some reasons governments give for building schools
Why do governments say they build schools? It’s not as simple as providing “education”.
Interview with Herman Hertzberger (2017): architecture as visual and social connection
An Interview with Herman Hertzberger from May 2017 about Architecture’s Role in Providing Visual and Social Connections
Measuring and Evaluating as Rhetorical Management
Are evaluation and measuring a form of rhetorics? A political art of obscuring the political? What’s Post-Occupancy Evaluation got to do with it?
An Anarchic Take on Architecture, Space and Education – Giancarlo De Carlo and Franco Bunčuga’s Conversazioni su Architettura e Libertà
Some notes about a book of interviews with Italian architect and anarchist thinker Giancarlo De Carlo.
What High Schools Look Like and Why
After 1968, James Ackerman, Giancarlo De Carlo and others questioned school design: why? why like this? This post revisits their questions.
What Are We Building Schools For Again?
For OECD and UNICEF, the well-being of UK young people is not good. Is it time to rethink the aim of school architecture?
On Forgetting: Some Similarities between Architecture and Social Media
Architecture and social media share a way of being understood as neutral things – their social production being obscured.
An Interview with Jill Blackmore on space, learning, feminism and the politics of education
Professor Jill Blackmore discusses learning spaces, teachers’ work, feminism and the complexity of education.
Pearson, IBM Watson and cognitive enhancement technologies in education
Originally posted on code acts in education:
Ben Williamson Image: Atomic Taco The world’s largest edu-business, Pearson, partnered with one of the world’s…
A List of Museums of School, School Life and Education
A list – to be updated – of school museums (that is, museums of school life or buildings) in Europe and a few beyond.
The Museum of School Life, Nerokourou, Crete
The old village primary school (1930-2000) in Nerokourou (Crete) is now the Museum of School Life (Μουσείο Σχολικής Ζωής) and striking for its reminders of the physicality of education and material technologies of teaching and learning.
Flexibility, Time and Learning Spaces
If teachers don’t have time to make flexibility happen, a learning environment isn’t flexible. This post proposes a breakdown into 4 types of flexibility based on the temporal (& other) resources users need.
The Changing Vocabulary of Education and its Spaces
A post exploring changes in the words used to talk about education e.g. the shift from “classroom” to “learning space”.
An Ideal School-Building Programme
Thinking about some of the differences between school-building programmes in Australia, England and Italy got me wondering – what would…
The spaces have to really want to change: an interview with architect Ruth Taylor
Ruth Taylor was born in London, England and attended schools in Surrey and Buckinghamshire. Prior to studying Architecture at University…
Hertzberger’s ‘cupboardness’
Should schools have cosy, secluded spaces for children? The architect Herman Hertzberger thinks so. His ‘little library,” is one example:…
An educational paradox: where beginner readers learn in school
As a collaborative* doctoral research student in the field of architecture and education, I’m often asked to explain what my…
Learning how to listen: an interview with Jennifer Singer
Jennifer Singer is an architect and education design advisor. She has collaborated with students, teachers, parents, contractors, local authorities, government…
Shopping for Schools 2 – Schools Advertising
Catch a bus or a train and you’re now likely to see advertisements for state-funded schools. That’s odd.
Schools should feel more like home: an interview with Lina Iordanaki
Lina Iordanaki is from Piraeus in Greece. Her first degree was in Primary Education and her master’s degree in Literature…
Architecture and Education seminar: two-footed stories of exploration. May 11th 2016, University of Cambridge
Over the past three years, an innovative collaborative research partnership, funded by the AHRC has been established between the Faculty…
Italy’s ‘Competition of Ideas’ for a New School-Building Programme
Italy’s “Competition of Ideas” for Innovative Schools could stimulate architectural & educational debate.
Post-Occupancy Evaluation and Schools – an interview with Adrian Leaman
Adrian Leaman on what makes school buildings special, PoE and managing complexity.
Rising to the challenge: an interview with Helen Taylor, architect
Helen Taylor is Practice Director at Scott Brownrigg, responsible for the strategic planning and implementation of programmes to enhance technical…
When School Architecture Meant System Architecture
In 1811, Joseph Lancaster publishes his Hints and Directions for Building, Fitting Up, and Arranging School Rooms, one of the…
Interview with Herman Hertzberger (2016)
Herman Hertzberger, born in Amsterdam in 1932, is one of the world’s pre-eminent architects. He founded Architectuurstudio HH in 1960…
Do Buildings: a) dictate b) choreograph… …e) suggest what you do…
You’re in a building. (And if you’re not, just pretend your app/software or whatever is a building anyway, it kind…
Discipline and punish in a Pugin school: an interview with Anne Prendergast
Anne Prendergast has spent 30 years in media and publishing and is currently media director at Strattons: a bespoke advertising…
Interview with Irene Lindsay
Irene Lindsay is the Assistant Head of a 2-form entry primary school in Raynes Park, London, which was refurbished by…
Problem-solving and school design: an interview with Tim Byrne.
Tim Byrne is a writer and illustrator of books for children and young adults and a digital technology expert, currently…
Improving access in schools: an interview with Jane Simpson
An Architect and NRAC registered Access Consultant, Jane is the Director of her own company; Jane Simpson Access Ltd. She…
Schools and School Design in Africa: An Interview with Ola Uduku
Ola Uduku (Edinburgh University) speaks about the historical influence of Western pedagogies and architectural traditions and their local adaptation in school design.
The importance of acoustics in learning: an interview with Shane Cryer, Ecophon
Shane Cryer manages the education sector in the UK and Ireland for Swedish acoustic experts, Ecophon. After a career in…
Futures for English School Design
The following is a list of things we learned during the Education Estates conference, held in Manchester on 10-11th November…
Why are people so fixated on area in schools and not on cost?
I returned home from the Education Estates* conference in Manchester earlier this week with one question lodged firmly in my head:…
Does a School Building need to look like a School?
…is a question posed by the architect of the school where I’m doing my research. It came up in an…
Architecture as a Social Science?
Some ideas for seeing architecture as – amongst other things – a social science. Also a bit on why the social sciences seem to ignore architecture.
I started school twice: an interview with Bridget Murray, teacher
Bridget Murray attended primary schools in the late 1970s in Middlesborough, Hertfordshire and Basingstoke, Hampshire (UK) where she also went…
Shopping for Schools – Should Architects Help?
This worries me: As schools behave more like private businesses they will be in competition with one another to attract…
A less modern but more hi-tech primary: more from the DfE’s PSBP
Following yesterday’s cheaper, faster … and better? post, I must apologise for a lack of thoroughness in my research of…
PBSP school buildings in the UK: cheaper, faster… better?
A Victorian-era community primary has been rebuilt as a modern replacement primary academy in the West Midlands of England and…
Allowing for easy interaction: an interview with Hedwig Heinsman, DUS architects, Amsterdam
Hedwig Heinsman is an architect who grew up in the Dutch Flevopolder and now lives and works in Amsterdam.…
Interview with Estelle Morris, Baroness Morris of Yardley
Estelle Morris, Baroness Morris of Yardley, former British secretary of state for Education and Skills (2001-2) taught PE and Humanities…
Interview with Sarah Cuthill, archivist and librarian
Sarah Cuthill is school librarian at Clifton High School in Bristol, England and has worked in archives and libraries in…
Interview with Sue Steggles, teacher.
Sue Steggles was a pupil at John Scurr primary school, Bethnal Green in the East End of London in the…
Measuring the Impact of School Design – Differently
To move beyond traditional measures of research impact, this post on the LSE Impact blog proposes a range of alternative…
Summer Reading – “Seeing Like a State” and the survival of high modernism in school planning
For a book that says almost nothing about Education – no classrooms, no students or teachers, no school architecture –…
Interview preview: with special school deputy head Pamela Murphy
Pamela Murphy read Geography at the University of Cambridge before working as a University administrator and then training as a…
Interview with Suvani Dave
Suvani Dave has attended independent primary and secondary schools in Ashford, Windsor and Hounslow. She is currently a student in…
AR’s School Awards: will the interiors count? That’s where students spend their 13,585 school hours…
As the Architectural Review’s School Awards close, let’s hope the judges give due emphasis to the design of the interiors…
A school on the edge of a small town
Treetops Primary is to be sited on the edge of a small town in the South of England on a…
What is a class?
I’d never been inside an architect’s office until a couple of years ago but I’d always been curious to know…
Can Economics explain why we don’t know what schools users think of their schools?
Recently I’ve been learning about Post-Occupancy Evaluation, mostly from the tons of great resources at the Usable Buildings Trust. It’s…
Wiping the slate clean: one way to declutter a primary school
When I asked Catherine Burke what she would wish for if she could change just one thing in all schools,…
The phantom cloakroom
When I was considering whether to include my own childhood school as one of a series of research visits to…
Are you in the right home, near the right school? Are you sure?
A video popped up on Facebook: Almost 2 years into a PhD studying a school and I’m less and less…
Interview with Suzi Hall, urban ethnographer and architect
Suzanne (Suzi) Hall is an ethnographer at the LSE, London, where she explores people’s lives in urban spaces. Prior to…
Interview with Judith Baines
Judith Baines was born in 1933 and is a former primary school teacher and Deputy Head. She pioneered progressive teaching…
Interview with Ruth Benn and Rebecca Skelton, teachers at Sparrow Farm Infants & Nursery school, Feltham.
Ruth Benn and Rebecca Skelton teach at Sparrow Farm Infants & Nursery school in Feltham, close to Heathrow Airport. Rebecca…
Making Spaces, Forgetting Politics
Walls* are breaks (Vesely, 2013). They break into established categories of meaning and space and make new ones. They do…
Why are there so many interviews on the A&E site?
For a while, I’ve been posting interviews here without writing anything about why these interviews are such an integral part…
Interview with Georgie Hughes, Reading Recovery Teacher Leader, Tower Hamlets
Georgina (Georgie) Hughes is the Reading Recovery teacher leader for the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and also trains teachers…
“Zigzag, white, no life”: a Martian’s View of Architecture
Our interactions with Google search results appear to contribute to the fetishization of Architecture as big white ribbed structures. This post explores why.
Interview with Rima Tarar, architecture student
Rima Tarar was born in Paris in the early 1990s, where she attended nursery and primary school. One year into…
Interview with Dominic Cullinan, SCABAL
Dominic Cullinan is an architect and founding partner of SCABAL (Studio Cullinan & Buck Architects Ltd.) based in Hatton Garden.…
Interview with Nicky Manby, Chair of Governors, Pakeman Primary, London
Nicky Manby first became involved with Pakeman Primary, a North London state primary school, as a reading volunteer after a…
Open Space Good, Closed Space Bad? Problems with Architecture and Language
In which Marie, a 12-year-old student, explains how large, open-plan spaces feel claustrophobic.
Child vs Book
A short film about reading, place and memory in an East London Primary school.
School design podcast
Five minute sound montage featuring descriptions of school architecture
What are schools for? An interview with Gert Biesta on the learnification of school buildings and education.
Gert Biesta on school architecture and democracy, and learnification – a reductive reappraisal of education as learning.
Architecture and Education 