THE FUTURE OF EDUCATION
NEW THINKING, NEW IDEAS, NEW SOLUTIONS Education is changing. Changes in the demographic, overseas student learning places, online learning and sustainability pressures are all producing an environment for education very different to the clearly defined strata of learning that dictated past configuration of the built estate. Competition for student placements make the provision of top-quality accommodation and lifestyle facilities as important as the learning environment against a backdrop of fragile funding and the political roller coaster. EEUK promotes creative thinking across all levels of education from Primary to Tertiary, private and public, challenging the norm and creating alternatives to the approach and methods of the past. |
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FOREVER CHANGES
Bailey Garner Architects' Coopers School
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SPACE FOR LEARNINGThe pressures for changes in the way we approach the learning process are many and various. Perhaps more than ever, there are increasing calls for changes to the traditional methods that rely on education buildings at all stages of learning.
The increasing use of new technologies, fluctuations in demographics, cost of learning, sustainability issues and the need for flexibility not currently offered by many fixed assets, result in the need to take a long, hard look at the resources on offer and the way in which they are used. Parental demands and concerns at one end and student expectations at the other end of the process, makes traditional investment in the built environment for learning hard to anticipate and there are many instances of such investment proving misjudged leading to waste and unjustified cost. |
DESIGNED FOR LEARNING
Sheppard Robson Architects' Burntwood School
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As an architect you design for the present, with an awareness of the past, for a future which is essentially unknown It is not impossible to imagine a future when learning may be dominated by online services. Lectures by webinar, one on one tuition using Facetime or Skype, submissions by email are all now common practice in higher education, arguably making the enormous investment in University campus’ unnecessary and wasteful – and if so, what is to be the future of these vast estates?
One possible option is to create cradle-to-grave learning facilities when children can enroll as infants and continue at their own pace through to degree or technical qualification levels alongside mature students and re-learners. Such radical thinking will call for a new approach to the planning, design and construction process when flexibility, sustainability, safety and security will be even more important to future generations. |
PROFESSIONAL PARTNERS
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Our Professional Partner Board is composed of representative companies and practices whose expertise and resources together provide the community with the built infrastructure of schools, universities, student accommodation and associated research, leisure and performance facilities.
So much of this estate is being subjected to scrutiny and evaluation as teaching and learning methods change and COVID-19 and climate change is factored into design and use. Charged with creating these innovations and delivering them cost-effectively, who better than the building community to provide thought leadership and imagination. |
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