Abstract
The way we perceive school space has changed in recent years, evolving from a standard place of teaching to one where people live and learn, and therefore, inhabit. Built by designers according to the client’s wishes, school communities have adapted without paying great attention to the quality of the spaces.
Schools have become the subject of architectural and pedagogical commitments, the responsibility of which lies with all entities involved in schools: administrative bodies, school leaders, teachers, parents and citizens. The research community has focused recently on the relationship between pedagogy and architecture. Different authorities, whether supra-institutional (INDIRE), inter-institutional (Spazio&Apprendimento in South Tyrol) or para-institutional (Montag Stiftung), in Italy and Germanic countries, promote activities to raise awareness and training on the topic.
The possibility for public bodies and schools to receive support and consulting opportunities in order to design spaces according to the latest pedagogical demands and challenges has also been explored. In discussion on school spaces, the relationship between education and design is considered, asking for attentive reflection on the selection of décor and furnishings, and a cost efficient approach to transform the educational setting.
Following research done between 2011 and 2014 (Weyland, Attia 2015) and promoting a series of awareness-raising actions with Spazio&Apprendimento in South Tyrol from 2015 to 2017, I had the opportunity to accompany a number of schools in the so-called “zero phase”, the processes of rethinking their architectural spaces and developing an “organisational plan with a pedagogical focus. The schools included 11 nursery schools, 11 primary schools, 6 junior secondary, 3 senior secondary, 1 music conservatory and 1 community centre.
From these collaborations a more ambitious project of collaboration between school and university called PAD LAB was born, in which the consultancy goes on to real research-action projects, aimed at supporting the school communities in the process of rethinking the school space. Currently, the PAD LAB interdisciplinary group of the University of Bolzano is accompanying five school communities in an action research program aimed at redefining their learning spaces. To meet the ever increasing demands we are studying the possibility of giving birth to a spin off that is specifically dedicated to this important task of renewal.
In the meantime, these experiences and international exchanges have allowed us to collaborate with an interdisciplinary inter-European group at the birth of the PULS project (www.pulsnetz.org) , which is developing and realizing an integral advanced training and qualification program addressing architectural and educational practice.
This chapter presents the ongoing action-research made thus far and express detailed and targeted analyses of processes promoted during the “zero phase” using qualitative case studies. The long term aim is to highlight common points and differences, critical aspects, challenges and pedagogical and didactic elements that characterise these processes and provide a basis for the architectural design, describing how schools are evolving, from start and throughout, the process of transformation of their spaces.