This document discusses the importance of participatory approaches to classroom design that involve classroom users. It notes that children spend many hours in the classroom environment, which significantly affects their health, performance, and emotions. Some key projects are highlighted that have used participatory design approaches, collaborating with students, teachers, and designers. However, it is noted that more research is needed on how classroom users perceive the environment and how the design process can continue after initial construction to better meet changing needs. The goal is to inspire ongoing involvement of classroom users in designing their learning environment.

1. A PARTICIPATORY APPROACH TO
CLASSROOM DESIGN

11. Why?

14. from to =
kindergarten twelfth grade

15. children spend around
six hours a day = over 1000 hours a year
most of these school hours children spend in the classroom
interacting constantly with the people and physical elements of
this environment
(Ghaziani, 2008)

17. The classroom environment is one of the most important environments that
affect children’s health, performance, and emotions
(Ghaziani, 2008).

18. teachers and students are using the
physical classroom environment as a tool
for enhancing learning outcomes (Fisher, 2008)

19. A PARTICIPATORY APPROACH TO
CLASSROOM DESIGN

20. The Evelyn Grace Academy
to help break the cycle of underachievement in
schools in the UK’s most challenging urban
areas, by designing an outstanding schools for
children
ARK now runs eight academies, six in London,
one in Portsmouth and one in Birmingham
The Evelyn Grace Academy is one of them
which was designed by Zaha Hadid.
(ARK, 2004)

21. Lee-on-the-Solent School
Established in 1999
Pinewood Infant School
CABE stands for an improvement in people’s
quality of life through good design.
CABE influences and inspires the people
making decisions about our built environment,
so that they choose good design (CABE, 2007)
- Lee-on-the-Solent School
- Pinewood Infant School
CABE working side by side with RIBA

22. Sinarmas World Academy
Design Patterns for
21st Century Schools
George Town Primary School
Fielding Nair International firm has
designed more than more than 500 case
studies from 30 countries (FNI, 2005).
Architectures
Randall Fielding
Prakash Nair
Sinarmas World Academy - Indonesia
George Town Primary School -
Cayman Islands

23. This project has been applied into 100
schools projects and workshops. It has
involved 700 pupils in client teams,
10,000 pupils indirectly and 54 design
businesses, 150 individual designers,
100 head teachers and 175 teachers and
170 visits by client teams
The Sorrell (Ghaziani, 2008)
Foundation
project that brought some of the UK’s top
designers into schools with the initial aim of
building confidence and self-esteem in the
pupils and helping to unlock their creativity
(Ghaziani, 2008)

24. “In 2001 the Guardian launched a competition
called ‘The School I’d Like’, in which young
people were asked to imagine their ideal
school (Burke and Grosvenor, 2003).”

25. Westborough Cardboard School by
the Buro Happold
The Docks School by Mikou Design Studio
Zero Energy School and Sports Complex, France

26. 1. Mossbrook Special School
Designed by Sarah Wigglesworth
“At Mossbrook, a primary special school
for children with severe disabilities and
autism, Sarah developed an environment
to encourage learning and sensory
stimulation for visual learners (Chiles,
in Sheffield 2003).”
2. Ballifield Community Primary School
Designed by Prue Chiles
“Ballifield Community Primary School is a
“It encouraged both a design-led approach and
successful school in a residential suburb on
an exploration of where the theory of the
the edge of Sheffield (Chiles, 2003)”.
classroom design meets teaching practice
(Chiles, 2003).” 3. Brunswick Primary School
Designed by Robert Evans
4. Yewlands Secondary School
Designed by Mark Dudek
Ballifield Community Primary School

29. Teachers Together
Classroom Users
students Individual
Communication and relationship Teaching
method
Students’ behaviour
students Teachers
Social interaction
Student different learning styles
mood age Social class Personality culture Identity

30. Classroom Purpose
Learning Socializing
Curriculum Classroom
Psychology

31. Survival needs
Judith said
The Physical Elements of
that there
Classroom Environment are
Wellbeing
needs
The physical environment of classroom- physical and visual
The built environment of classroom - physical comfort
comfort
The interaction of different elements are as important as the consideration of single elements.
Temperature
Furniture and equipment
flooring Ceiling Wall
Air quality (technology is part of it)
Noise
Designing the physical environment of the classroom
Lighting
Circulation /
Arrangement Display and Elements of Principles of
traffic and
Acoustical issues path
and layout storage design design
Colour
Scale (size of
classroom)

33. Aleeman School Alflah School in Muharrq

34. Alflah school in Rufaa Alnaseem International School

35. Kawla School Umar Ben Alktab School

36. Notes
Affinity
Diagram
2

38. What is missing?

39. Until recently school environment researches focused on two main issues
which are generalizations about school building effect (Cash, 1996,
Branham, 2004), and specific problems such as acoustics and lighting
(Luckiesh and Moss, 1940, Siebein et al., 2000).

40. Therefore a very strong literature have been established about
educational buildings specifications, design guidelines and prototypes of
school design, this leaves little room for real creativity in designing this
important environment (Nair et al., 2009).

41. such literature is important and functional for designing and building learning
environment, but it does not tell how teachers and students respond to the
classroom physical environment (Sanoff, 2001). Although some efforts have been
made to assess the classroom environment, how teachers and students perceive
classroom environment is a missing factor (Sanoff, 2001).

42. In addition, a lot of
the case studies are
concentrating on
school building design
and the facilities it
provides, while
classrooms which are a
core element of the
school building their
potential is often
overlooked
(Gee, 2006).

43. according to Chiles (2003) in typical primary classrooms the curriculum needs are
diverse and heavily dependent on the different ways of teaching methods; because
these teaching methods change, the need for flexibility in classroom environment
is important.
Therefore a lot of designer work in classroom environment could start
after architecture finish his work.

44. • Classroom environments stop being designed after architecture finish his
job.
• Decorating elements in classroom environment is often overlooked by
designers and left to be designed and utilized by teachers and students.
• Current participatory projects of class environment are collaborating with
environment users only while other environment elements in term of
curriculum, teaching method and students learning style have not been
involved.

45. This research intends to maintain primary classroom
environment motivating, stimulating and fresh after
architecture finished his work. The aim of this
research attempts to be achieved throw two aims
which are:

46. Influence and inspire classroom users (teachers and
students) to continue designing classroom
environment after architecture finish his job.
Establish an agenda for future research on
participatory classroom environment design and
continue designing after architecture finish his job,
by identifying areas which have not been empirically
studied.

47. How could designers influence and inspire primary
classroom users to continue designing their
environment after architectures’ finish their work
through participative approaches?
What are the elements of primary classroom
environment that could be redesigned easily by
classroom users?

48. For who?

49. Teachers and students

50. Co-designers

51. Architecture

52. Thank You
Fatema Qaed
Northumbria University

53. References
ARK (2004) EDUCATION-ARK Schools. Available at: www.arkonline.org (Accessed: 12-11-2010).
Beard, A. (2009) Primary school case study - Pinewood Infant School- Farnborough, Hampshire.
London: CABE - Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment
Burke, C. and Grosvenor, I. (2003) The School I'd Like: Children and Young People's Reflections
on an Education for the 21st Century. RoutledgeFalmer: London.
CABE. (2007) Who we are- What we do- Why it matters. London: CABE- Commission for
Architecture and the Built Environment - The government’s advisor on architecture, urban
design and public space
CABE. (2009) Primary school case study Lee-on-the-Solent Infant School Hampshire. London
CABE - Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment
Chiles, P. (2003) 'Classrooms for the Future: ‘an adventure in design’ and research', design 7.
DfES. (2002) Schools Building and Design Unit. London: Classrooms of the Future -innovative
designs for schools, The Stationery Office
FNI, F. N. I. (2005) Resumes. Available at:
http://www.fieldingnair.com/index.php/resume#Prakash_Nair (Accessed: 12-11-2010).

54. References
Ghaziani, R. (2008) 'Children's voices: raised issues for school design', CoDesign: International
Journal of CoCreation in Design and the Arts, 4, (4), pp. 225 - 236.
Happold, B. (2001) Westborough Cardboard School. Available at:
http://www.burohappold.com/BH/PRJ_BLD_westborough_cardboard_school.aspx (Accessed:
12-11-2010).
Higgins, S., Hall, E., Wall, K., Woolner, P. and McCaughey, C. (2005) The Impact of School
Environments: A literature review. Newcastle: The Centre for Learning and Teaching
School of Education, Communication and Language Science-University of Newcastle
Ahrentzen, S. (1983) '"Children and the Built Environment: an Annotated Bibliography of
Representative Research of Children and Housing" in School Design and Environmental Stress',
Architecture Series, A 764, 2, (53).
Barrett, P. and Zhang, Y. (2009) Optimal Learning Spaces
Design Implications for Primary Schools. Salford: SCRI Research Report
David, T. G. (1975) Environmental Literacy. Learning Environments , The University of Chicago
Press: Chicago.
Dean, J. ( 2003) Organising learning in the primary school classroom. Routledge: London and
New York.
Dudek, M. (2000) Architecture of Schools: The New Learning Environments. Architectural Press:
Oxford.

55. References
Fisher, E. S. (2008) The Effect of the Physical Classroom Environment on Literacy
Outcomes: How 3rd Grade Teachers Use the Physical Classroom to Implement A Balanced
Literacy Curriculum. thesis. University of Missouri.
Gump, P. V. (1987) “School and Classroom Environments.” In D. Stokols and I. Altman, eds.
Handbook of Environmental Psychology. John Wiley: New York.
Loughlin, C. E. and Suina, J. H. (1982) The Learning Environment: an Instructional Strategy.
Teachers College Press: New York.
Martin, S. H. (2002) 'THE CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENT AND ITS EFFECTS ON THE PRACTICE OF
TEACHERS', Journal of Environmental Psychology, 22, (1-2), pp. 139-156.
Parnell, R., Cave, V. and Torrington, J. (2008) 'School design: opportunities through
collaboration', CoDesign: International Journal of CoCreation in Design and the Arts, 4, (4), pp.
211 - 224.
Sanoff, H. (1992) 'School design', in Van Nostrand Reinhold: North Carolina State University.
New York.
Sanoff, H. (1993) 'Designing a Responsive School Environment', Children’s Environments, 10,
(2), pp. 62-80.
Taylor, A. (2005) 'Silent Curriculum: Learning Through Creative Design', paper presented at the
American Architectural Foundation's National Summit on School Design. Washington, D.C.,
Silent Curriculum: Learning Through Creative Design: pp.