Hot on the heels of the federal government’s $16 billion commitment to national education infrastructure over the next three years, a new book reports on how design is transforming schools and learning experiences in the 21st century.
Architect/education academics Clare Newton and Kenn Fisher are the editors of the nation’s latest word on education design, Learning Spaces, being launched in Melbourne this week.
Designing for education is a specialised business and requires expertise in contemporary educational models about how design influences and enhances learning, and can benefit the development of school and university communities and local neighbourhoods.
Intended as an aid for better communication between designers and educators, Learning Spaces explores the links between learning and design in its combination of journal articles and papers, case studies, interviews and advice from practitioners, professionals and academics.
Schools and curricula are changing. Young people today are natives in the world of information technology, and adept at learning using digital media. This increased connectivity between students and their local and global environments is transforming school environments from teaching institutions to learning organisations.
Other factors are also at play. Schools are becoming stronger assets for their local communities, with facilities used after hours and as a setting for lifelong learning. And briefs to architects are increasingly seeking design responses which address issues of sustainability.
“Space is irrevocably linked to teaching strategies. Elements such as the shape and size of the spaces, the furniture and finishes are silently influencing how teachers and students behave,” said Ms Newton.
In tracking recent transformations in the planning and design of formal education settings and their impacts on learning, Learning Spaces uncovers how the most innovative learning environments often evolve as a design response to strong educational direction in schools.
Newton, with Fisher, joins a long line of successful Australian architectural researchers to publish books in the Australian Institute of Architects Take series after winning the Institute’s 2008 Sisalation Prize. They are the first interdisciplinary team to win the award, whose previous recipients include Geoffrey London, Keith Cottier, Noel Robinson, Ken Woolley and Philip Cox.
The Sisalation Prize is the longest-standing prize offered by the Australian Institute of Architects and has been sponsored since its inception in 1956 by Fletcher Insulation (formally Insulation Solutions). The company has had a long and distinguished history in the building industry and has manufactured SISALATIONTM reflective foil sarking for more than 50 years.
Details
Take 8: Learning Spaces – the transformation of learning spaces for the 21st century
eds. Clare Newton and Kenn Fisher
Available from Architext bookshops (Melbourne and Sydney), architext.com.au or download an order form at architecture.com.au
Launch event
Thursday 29 October, 2009
4.45pm for a 5pm start
Architecture Building, University of Melbourne
About the editors
Ms Clare Newton (Senior Lecturer – Faculty of Architecture, University of Melbourne)
Clare Newton’s research is inter-disciplinary. While her focus is on architectural practice and the translation gaps which occur between architectural ideas and their built form, she has other research strengths in pedagogy and the use of innovative IT within educational environments.
Clare’s research, practice and teaching overlap. Clare is first named Chief Investigator on two Australian Research Council Linkage grants worth over $1 million in research funding and has led a range of studio classes on innovative learning spaces. She coordinated design competitions on new school buildings for the Victorian Dept of Education and Early Childhood Development. Clare is also researching and teaching in the area of sustainability and initiated a Masters level subject in conjunction with the Faculty of Engineering called Sustainable Buildings.
Clare has strong ties with practice through her association with the Australian Institute of Architects: as Victorian convener of continuing education, an Institute-nominated competition advisor and chair of the national and state education committees. For six years Clare was a member of the Institute’s Victorian Chapter Council. She recently advised on competitions for new schools for DEECD and a $150million Australian Centre for Neuroscience. In October, Clare was a jury member with the Government Architect and DEECD for the inaugural Minister’s Awards for Innovation in Victorian School Buildings.
Prior to working at The University of Melbourne, Clare was a director of the architectural firm Newton Hutson Pty Ltd and taught part-time in RMIT University’s architecture and interior design courses. In 1998, Clare received the Victorian NAWIC Award of Excellence for Innovation in Construction. In 2003, Clare was one of 19 Melbourne architects asked to debate the best Victorian architecture from the past 75 years for the 2003 book titled Judging Architecture. She has been an examiner for the Architects Registration Board of Victoria and an academic member for a government committee focussed on Design Support for Schools.
Dr Kenn Fisher (Director, Learning Futures, Woods Bagot Architects)
Dr Kenn Fisher is recognised internationally as one of the leading educational facility specialists. Throughout his thirty year career he has worked in a range of disciplines in all education sectors as a teacher and academic, a structural engineer, a strategic planner, a campus planner, a project manager, a facility manager and, more recently, as an educational researcher. Now operating exclusively as a specialist in campus master planning and educational facility strategic consulting and architectural briefing, Dr Fisher acts as the prime interface between designers, teachers and students to create environments for new teaching, learning and research trends. He has been engaged by more than 30 universities in Australia and overseas, numerous vocational training and community college clients, a number of state and national government ministries of education and many school organisations, and has directed numerous consulting and master planning studies.
From 1997 until 1998 Dr Fisher was the head of the OECD Program on Educational
Building (now the Centre for Effective Learning Environments – CELE) in Paris and was responsible for overseeing twelve activities related to educational building planning, design and management for 25 countries in all sectors of education. Kenn Fisher, Clare Newton, three other chief investigators and nine industry partners were recently awarded an ARC Linkage Research Grant of $340,000 to investigate Smart Green Schools. Kenn is Associate Professor for Learning Environments in the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning at the University of Melbourne.
In addition to Kenn’s PhD, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science (honoris causa), Deakin University In recognition of his outstanding contribution to the fields of campus master planning and educational facility strategic planning, both within Australia and internationally.The Australian Institute of Architects is the peak body for the architectural profession, representing more than 9500 members across Australia and overseas. The Institute actively works to improve the quality of our built environment by promoting quality, responsible and sustainable design. Visit the Institute at architecture.com.au.
Australian Institute of Architects
