The traditional pedagogical thought with regards to education environments was dictated by individual learning, taught by a solitary teacher at the front of the room, with an emphasis on memorization. In fact, as recently as the 80’s, school’s in Ontario routinely boarded over windows in order to save energy costs and keep student’s attention trained on the board. Yet, in the last two decades teaching styles have quickly evolved, pushed forward by new research that questioned old assumptions about learning.

As a result, education design needed to adapt in order to support new teaching styles, whether through renovation within the defined constraints of current facilities, or in the imaginative reinvention in new construction.

Now, gone are classrooms with desks lined in neat rows, reminiscent of industrial assembly lines of the 19th century, where students were encouraged to remain static and quiet.

We foresee three transformative design approaches that we believe will continue to inform educational environments in the next 10 to 20 years.

Lessons Learned A white paper on the evolving design of education sector environments