Analysis and study of architectural spaces as educational sources, using data.
How is our relationship with educational spaces? Do we learn from these spaces? Would our learning and formation improve if we had better buildings? How? In what ways? In the Escuela en Arquitectura Educativa (EAE), we are interested in demonstrating that architectural spaces are able to educate. Our project aims to achieve educational spaces which are Welcoming (smart, sustainable, supportive and safe. The four “S”), Versatile, Theatrical and Positive. Come along and join us!
National
Spain
{Empty}
Mainly urban
It refers to a physical transformation of the built environment (hard investment)
No
No
Yes
As an individual in partnership with other persons
First name: Ana Last name: Marzo Gender: Female Nationality: Spain Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: C/ VIllavieja 4 Town: Madrid Postal code: 28011 Country: Spain Direct Tel:+34 639 75 50 08 E-mail:amarzocal@yahoo.es Website:https://arquitecturaeducativauam.es
How is our relationship with educational spaces? Do we learn from these spaces? Would our learning and formation improve if we had better buildings? How? In what ways? In the Escuela en Arquitectura Educativa (EAE), we are interested in demonstrating that architectural spaces are able to educate. Our project aims to achieve educational spaces which are Welcoming (smart, sustainable, supportive and safe. The four “S”), Versatile (personal, flexible, capable of embracing different methodologies and uses), Theatrical and Positive.
In order to obtain this, we consider 3 main scales:
“Macro-scale”, where links between the school centre and its neighbourhood can be identified.
“Meso-scale”, in which the proper school centre is analysed, beginning in the main entrance of the building and ending in the classroom.
“Micro-scale”, where, once inside the classroom, furniture design and decoration of the room itself take the leading role to transform this classroom into an intimate and social place where we spend (students and teachers) such a great amount of time during a school year.
The project is divided into three main parts:
One of them is due to analyse physical factors in the classroom and possibilities of recycling existing materials and furniture. Data related to the following issues will be compiled.
In the second one, teachers’, student’s and families’ requirements involved in the educational process will be considered.
In a third part, (posterior in time and conclusive) a manual/guide showing the different possibilities and solutions would be created, as a result of the first two investigations.
What could be an opportunity in creating this new Europe is trying to join forces and define a common European tale, respecting territorial features/ peculiarities. Redefining these educational spaces we could create a new European way, a new European citizenship.
For this, we need to share thoughts and weave nets. Come along and join us!
EDUCATIONAL SPACES
WELCOMING
VERSATILE
THEATRICAL
POSITIVE
In this project we consider 3 main scales, one of which is the:
“Meso-scale”, in which the proper school centre is analysed, beginning in the main entrance of the building and ending in the classroom. Here, physical factors such as lighting, air quality, sizes and scales, students’ arrangement inside the class, colours used, temperature, noise, materials, etc. must be taken into account. Should the illumination inside the classroom be the same during a session of Maths and problem solving and a session of Poetry reading? These physical factors complement other psychological ones. Are these spaces extensions of students’ homes, as pedagogue Francesco Tonucci defends? Here, the capacity of reinvention steps in; the capacity of recycling, of restructuring obsolete spaces and making them beautiful areas that can stimulate curiosity and sense of belonging in the student. It’s not about building new facilities but about refurbishing existing ones, following a sustainable process. In order to achieve this, the project is divided into three main parts or steps:
The first one is due to analyse physical factors in the classroom and possibilities of recycling existing materials and furniture. Data related to the following issues will be compiled:
- Classroom size
- Orientation
- Vegetation inclusion
- Type of lighting (natural and artificial one)
- Temperature throughout the school year.
- Type of materials in walls and ceilings.
- Colours used
- Entrance or hall of the building
- “User friendly” circulation.
Our project aims to achieve educational spaces which are Welcoming (smart, sustainable, supportive and safe. The four “S”).
In this project we consider 3 main scales, one of which is the:
“Micro-scale”, where, once inside the classroom, furniture design and decoration of the room itself take the leading role to transform this classroom into an intimate and social place where we spend (students and teachers) such a great amount of time during a school year. This micro scale focuses on the manipulative elements that we use on a daily basis and that we need to keep on reinventing so that educational innovation becomes a reality. Once again, high quality, functionality and aesthetics are involved to design beautiful and long lasting objects.
In order to achieve this, the project is divided into three main parts or steps:
The first one is due to analyse physical factors in the classroom and possibilities of recycling existing materials and furniture. But there's second one which teachers’, student’s and families’ requirements involved in the educational process will be considered:
- Teachers’ requirements dealing with the different subjects.
- Teachers’ requirements related to the methodologies used.
- Communication between students and teachers.
- Welcome and communication with families.
In a third part, (posterior in time and conclusive) a manual/guide showing the different possibilities and solutions would be created, as a result of the first two investigations .
Our project aims to achieve educational spaces which are Welcoming (smart, sustainable, supportive and safe. The four “S”), Versatile (personal, flexible, capable of embracing different methodologies and uses), Theatrical (spaces which allow students move towards a non written future. Today’s design shouldn’t stop possible future stages) and Positive (that promote positive attitudes related with the learning process).
In this project we consider 3 main scales, one of which is the:
“Macro-scale”, where links between the school centre and its neighbourhood can be identified. An educational space must be inclusive, an extension of its neighbourhood, a place where students’ families participate in this learning process, bonding together and creating a sense of community that enriches everyone, from all points of view. An educational space opened to the community, offering its facilities during weekends and vacation days and developing activities with students in which different sectors of the community are targeted.
Our project aims to achieve educational spaces which are Versatile (personal, flexible, capable of embracing different methodologies and uses) andTheatrical (spaces which allow students move towards a non written future. Today’s design shouldn’t stop possible future stages).
In order to achieve this, the project is divided into three main parts or steps:
The first one is due to analyse physical factors in the classroom and possibilities of recycling existing materials and furniture.
In a second step, teachers’, student’s and families’ requirements involved in the educational process will be considered:
- Teachers’ requirements dealing with the different subjects.
- Teachers’ requirements related to the methodologies used.
- Communication between students and teachers.
- Welcome and communication with families.
In a third part, (posterior in time and conclusive) a manual/guide showing the different possibilities and solutions would be created, as a result of the first two investigations .
As said before, not only different aspects of the physical space would be analysed, but also, teachers’, student’s and families’ requirements involved in the educational process will be considered:
- Teachers’ requirements dealing with the different subjects.
- Teachers’ requirements related to the methodologies used.
- Communication between students and teachers.
- Welcome and communication with families.
After this phase, a manual/guide showing the different possibilities and solutions would be created, as a result of the first two investigations (analysing physical space and analysing requirements from the teaching community). With these new possibilities shown in the guide:
- the obsolete space could be turned into a beautiful, healthy, inclusive, versatile space in which students could have a better and more meaningful learning;
- teachers could count on a versatile and positive physical resource to make their teaching more consistent. A physical space that could promote positive attitudes related with the learning process.
- citizens from the neighbourhood could use these facilities in many ways, improving their life quality and also improving communication among different sectors of the community.
Since the objective of our project is redefine the educational spaces, depending on the nature of the school/ high school, the stakeholders could be private ones and/or public ones (in those cases in which we deal with a public school). Public administration should get involved, once we show them the positive results in the students' learning achievements after improving these educational spaces. And in order to do this, we need to share thoughts and weave nets, so we could create a new European citizenship, respecting territorial features and peculiarities.
The Escuela en Arquitectura Educativa belongs to one of the most prestigious colleges in Spain (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid) and, as said before, 39 members are already studying, researching and trying different activities in educational spaces, in order to prove that architecture educates.
The Escuela en Arquitectura Educativa (EAE) is formed by 39 members (updated information to the present day), being architects (mostly), educators, psychologists, linguists, artists, musicians, etc. Our different backgrounds and professional activities adds value in the sense that we see the same problem from very different points of view and experienced knowledge. We have a monthly meeting (every last Tuesday of each month) in which we debate, share ideas, news, projects we are developing, etc. As a result of these meetings, some of us are already trying activities in educational centres; others are doing research and preparing their PhD in this line; others have written articles and books about it, etc.
The innovative character of this project is mainly that, not many studies have already shown and proved solid results in what we are researching, which is that architecture educates, and we believe that this is a very important issue to implement if we want to improve the life quality of our European citizenship. Being the EAE a multidisciplinary group, which allows us to enrich the results, we are looking forward to enlarge the web and include more professionals from other European countries.
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Our idea is to prove that architecture educates. We begin analysing schools and high schools, and, even though all the different aspects could be common to different spaces, each teaching community is unique and each neighbourhood has its own initiatives and synergy. So, our process of analysis can be surely replicated: first analysing space and in a second phase, analyse or include teaching community requirements. The results and resulting guide are the ones that could differ from one place to another.
The project is divided into three main parts:
One of them is due to analyse physical factors in the classroom and possibilities of recycling existing materials and furniture. Data related to the following issues will be compiled:
- Classroom size
- Orientation
- Vegetation inclusion
- Type of lighting (natural and artificial one)
- Temperature throughout the school year.
- Type of materials in walls and ceilings.
- Colours used
- Entrance or hall of the building
- “User friendly” circulation.
In the second one, teachers’, student’s and families’ requirements involved in the educational process will be considered:
- Teachers’ requirements dealing with the different subjects.
- Teachers’ requirements related to the methodologies used.
- Communication between students and teachers.
- Welcome and communication with families.
In a third part, (posterior in time and conclusive) a manual/guide showing the different possibilities and solutions would be created, as a result of the first two investigations.
The first two phases need time if we want to do it properly. Physical spaces change during the day (air quality, lighting needs, noise levels, etc.) and even during the school year. And teachers, students and families need to establish a dialogue, and really think of chosen methodologies and objectives. In this second phase we could be interlocutors.
This is not a new project and in many European countries there are initiatives that have been already been studying all of these issues. What could be an opportunity in creating this new Europe is trying to join forces and define a common European tale, respecting territorial features/ peculiarities. Redefining these educational spaces we could create a new European way, a new European citizenship. For this, we need to share thoughts and weave nets.
In the Escuela en Arquitectura Educativa (EAE), 39 members (updated information to the present day) with different academic training (architects, teachers, a psychologist, a musician, …) have been attending to eighteen meetings throughout more than two years, interested in demonstrating that architectural spaces are able to educate.
Some of us are already doing their PhD; others are implementing activities in their teaching sessions; others have written article or a book; summer courses have being organised; etc.
In our website, https://arquitecturaeducativauam.es, many of the results/outputs can be checked. These are some examples:
We have also collaborated with Ludantia in the congress held in Pontevedra:
https://arquitecturaeducativauam.es/abierta-inscripcion-para-el-congreso-de-ludantia-del-10-11-y-12-de-mayo-2018/
