Classroom, a teenage view

ended

‘Architectures of Learning’ focuses on the architecture of our most pervasive, obsolete and contested learning environment: the classroom. Considering adolescence (and the often-neglected spaces of secondary education) as the threshold through which children are transformed into the citizens of the future, we will discuss the classroom as a space of learning with a view to innovating in the design of secondary-school architecture. Learn-A is an artistic project realised by a partnership of three cultural institutions in collaboration with three educational agencies. It involves research, exhibitions, discussions and the dissemination of innovative ideas in architecture. The project is based on communication, co-creation, mediation and building processes within the school ecosystem. An exhibition will be produced as a support medium and to provide the tools for holding laboratories where the architecture of the classroom will be examined by adolescent students and cultural agents. Aimed at a wider audience, the exhibition will present a historical overview of late twentieth-century secondary-school buildings and pedagogical projects in parallel with contemporary examples. In its iterations in France, Portugal and Belgium, the project will be a stage on which cultural institutions, in partnership with educational agencies, can engage with young students. Youngsters will be challenged to contribute to the exhibitions by participating in activities and workshops, as well as producing materials (visuals, soundscapes, films, etc.) from their own daily learning environments. The goal is to combine the sophisticated narratives of high-profile cultural institutions with first-hand experiences in different European contexts. The outcome will provide materials to nurture innovation in architectural design, reinforcing capacity and placing European architects at the forefront of pedagogical debates at a time when digital technologies are having a profound social impact.