As a result, we’ll likely see formal teaching spaces designed around traditional teaching methods diminish in favour of buildings that support a broad variety of workspaces and activities – in other words, what the influential architect Herman Hertzberger calls ‘learning landscapes’.
Learning landscapes are not unarticulated spaces, left to be divided up by teachers and students. It’s up to architects to recognise the sector’s needs and develop unique landscapes that meet them. This requires a well-organised diagram of inclusive, inviting spaces defined by spatial unity and cohesion, followed by collaboration with a broad range of stakeholders. Recent projects such as Make’s Science Central masterplan for University of Newcastle and Teaching and Learning Building for University of Nottingham, along with Grafton Architects’ Town House for Kingston University, demonstrate how articulated space within a fixed framework can be adapted to different situations as they arise.
