Page 20 - College Planning & Management, September 2017

DESIGNING FOR STUDENT ENGAGEMENT
ARCHITECTS ARE CHANGING THE WAY THEY DESIGN SPACES TO BETTER MATCH THE WAY STUDENTS LEARN.
By Brandon Barrett
CLASSROOM AND FACILITY DESIGN
has long been a critical element in sup- porting student learning. Until recently, that learning was largely based around the factory model of education. Now progressive facility design is helping students uncover the world in new and different ways — ways that are meeting the needs of a changing educational and professional landscape. Student engagement has become an impor- tant part of the learning process, and the ways in which students best learn are being taken into account now more than ever.
As changes in educational and classroom philosophy take place, a shift in facility design must follow to accompany these new
priorities. No one knows this better than Kevin Aires, a principal at BLT Architects (BLTa), a firm that has been at the forefront of designing spaces that facilitate student engagement. “Students just aren’t learning the way they used to, there is no longer a one- size-fits-all model of education,” confirms Aires. “There is now a big trend toward project-based learning, and an emphasis on learning spaces with flexible formats.”
According to Aires, project-based learn- ing is an effort to keep students engaged by giving them challenges and having them collaborate to find a solution. This type of learning can be beneficial for any subject, but has long been utilized in engineering
programs and can also be seen in the recent emergence of makerspaces, where students collaborate and create. “These spaces can include anything from a 3D printer to a CNC router; it’s all about having adaptable space that molds to student learning,” says Aires.
Dan Boggio, founding partner, president and CEO of PBK Architects in Houston, TX, agrees, stating that he has seen collaborative and project-based learn- ing grow recently through his involvement with Humanizing the Education Machine, a book focused on solving challenges with the current education system.
As an architect, Boggio stresses that design will become ever-more important in the educational process. The factory model of education didn’t readily allow for high levels of collaboration, and that a crucial reason for why classroom designs are starting to change. “The factory model was broken,” says Boggio, “we have to open things up a bit.”
OPENING THINGS UP
Breaking down any type of barrier to interaction is a vital part of creating a space tailored to student engagement. Aires uses a tiered lecture hall as an example: “Tiers make it difficult to interact with your peers. The space needs to be more open, not fixed, not blocked. It needs to be more flexible.” This emphasis on openness and flexibility means that students will stay more engaged as they interact with one
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