Designing The Schools of Future

When you picture a school in your head you will most probably see a large dull building filled with numerous classrooms. Each classroom will have a blackboard and teacher’s desk at the front with numerous rows of tables facing it. The walls will be plastered with educational posters and there will be a window looking out onto a playground. Feeling inspired to learn something?
This is a highly stereotypical image of a school and its classrooms though, an image that isn’t true to reality one bit. The only way you would ever come across a school with classrooms like the one described above is if you were watching a movie or had travelled back in time. The reason for this is that schools are undergoing great transformation and nobody quite knows what the schools of the future are going to look like.
But the changing design of schools poses a number of problems that designers will have to overcome. Want to know what some of these problems are? Then you had better read on.

Schools Are Getting Smaller

Most of the old schools that are still around today were designed when there were only a few schools in an area. This meant that they had to be large in order to accommodate all the students that would come from the surrounding areas.
Nowadays there are more and more schools so as a result they are a lot smaller. There is no point designing a huge building if there are only a few students in attendance. The other problem is that schools as a physical space are (or will be) becoming rarer at the same time. Online learning is becoming increasingly popular, which means that in a few decades there may not be a need for new schools to be designed.

Making The Classroom A More Creative Space

The typical classroom that was described earlier is a thing of the past. Schools nowadays are really pushing to make their classrooms as creative as they can be, with the hope that this will spur an interest in learning and enrich the overall education experience for students.
Designers may opt for more open plan spaces that really emphasize collaboration, which not many schools do at the moment. Having an open plan space will also represent having room for thought. Students won’t feel confined by the walls of the classroom, which may have a positive impact on their learning experience.

Accommodating For Technology

There can be no denying that technology has now become a large part of schools. Most rooms have a computer in them and classrooms usually have an interactive whiteboard. Designers need to bear this in mind when coming up with designs for the schools of the future. Technology is also problematic for designers as it quickly changes. New pieces of technology are constantly being released and designers will have to be able to deal with this.

Sustainability

2012 has seen a massive push in sustainability and schools have been affected by this. Without a doubt schools of the future will have to be designed with sustainability in mind. Designers will have to make sure that schools conserve as much energy as possible and that they do the best they can to help the environment. For example schools that are located in hot climates may be fitted with solar panels, reducing a school’s emissions into the atmosphere.

Author Bio:

This is a guest post by Kate Simmons, an occasional guest-blogger and educations advisor specializing in online nursing degrees.