Picture the average school building, and a number of images will likely spring to mind: long, grey hallways lined with lockers, stuffy classrooms and outdated architecture reminiscent of a prison or a factory, rather than a place for learning. 

While this may be true for the cheaper, more standardized “flatpack” schools of previous years, educators and designers are now turning their attention to the effects of school design on learning, and how current buildings can be adapted.

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Why School Design Matters

Over time, greater emphasis on student wellbeing has marked a shift in perspective in terms of school design. For example, just as schools were once seen as containers in which to educate children, hallways were also viewed simply as a thoroughfare and store for cubbies lockers and storage cabinets.

More recently, school hallway design has come to include more collaborative and communal aspects such as seating and tables in the form of non-instructional “learning hallways”, expanding their use as ancillary areas used for getting from A to B into spaces for learning and socializing.

The Evolution of Schools

From the Industrial Revolution onwards, architectural elements such as natural light and ventilation came to the fore. However, economic challenges in the decades that followed impacted this to a significant degree.

Some notable examples of this took place in the 1970s where the energy crisis created windowless, air-conditioned “experimental” schools, and in the 1980s, when US ventilation standards dropped to 15ft3 per minute, per individual.

Architectural Elements

Other key features such as acoustics have since been highlighted as fundamental to school design. Research for this includes a 2015 study from the University of Salford, Manchester where classroom design was shown to improve academic performance by up to a quarter.

The use of expression in architecture is also key, namely by creating buildings that are visually welcoming through the use of curved lines, color and natural materials, with the theme of inclusivity extending to making school buildings more accessible to disabled students.

Inspiring Design

Color is considered to have a significant impact on emotional wellbeing, as emphasized by Ingrid Fetell Lee in her 2018 TED talk, in which she discusses  the use of color and curvilinear design in public schools as helping to improve attendance and foster a sense of safety and joy.

Biophilic design has also since become a key aspect of school design. Amid a resurgence in popularity of the forest school model of the 1970s (which promoted outdoor spaces as conducive to learning), the practice of bringing nature into interiors is also known to have a positive effect on health and well-being as well as learning and concentration.

The Future of School Design

The impact of interior design and architecture can have a major effect on student engagement, motivation and focus. By shifting away from the rigid, standardized school buildings of the past, more innovative developments in design are now helping to create buildings that inspire student learning and development.

The average person spends around 12 years being educated in a formal school setting. While across the lifespan this constitutes a relatively small percentage of time, it is also a period where the seeds of socialization and development are sown. Just as plants require light, air and nutrients, effective school design provides an environment in which students can truly flourish.