Tímarit um menntarannsóknir - 01.01.2011, Page 76

76
Torfi Hjartarson og Anna Kristín Sigurðardóttir
This research project took a close look at
Icelandic school buildings at the primary
and lower secondary level (ages 6 to 15).
The aim of this study was to identify fea-
tures of change in new school buildings,
reflecting new challenges involving archi-
tecture, educational ideology, school poli-
cy and digital technology. Environmental
and architectonic features characterizing
recently designed school buildings and
their surrounding area were examined in
light of emerging issues and challenges
facing 21st century schools. Five school
buildings developed and built in this cen-
tury were presented and discussed with
regard to general classroom layout, public
spaces and community halls, facilities for
arts and crafts, school libraries or infor-
mation centres, application of informa-
tion technology, teacher work stations,
outdoor teaching, communal ties and the
design process at preparatory stages. The
buildings represented the most recently
designed and constructed schools from a
sample of twenty school sites explored and
reviewed by a multidisciplinary group of
researchers. The group included two fac-
ulty members at the University of Iceland,
two school principals and an architect.
Data was collected by observations and
photography at each location, interviews
with selected members of staff and the stu-
dent body, review of technical documents,
drawings and writings. The result indicat-
ed a clear shift in the design of educational
buildings. Flexibility, flow, openness, so-
cial dynamics and teamwork seem to have
guided recent school design. Clusters of
classrooms or open spaces, transparent
or movable boundaries, as well as public
spaces allowing for manifold interactions
in flexible groups seem to have replaced
traditional classrooms along confining cor-
ridors. The participation of many different
stakeholders in the preparatory design
process was also noted. When our results
are viewed in light of seven design themes
for schools in the 21st century, outlined
by OECD and DfES (2006), congruence
is obvious for most of the themes. Recent
school buildings in Iceland also seem to re-
flect a development similar to other coun-
tries and resonate with some of the most
innovative school buildings in the world
(Walden, 2009). It should be noted, how-
ever, that clusters of classrooms and open
learning spaces are not new arrangements,
as they have been tried in many school
buildings throughout the past century in
different countries. Such initiatives have
often been met with skepticism and have
not necessarily led to any radical changes
regarding teaching and learning. This is
also the case in the Icelandic context. New
knowledge and insights into education
and reform, however, as well as techno-
logical advances, seem to have paved the
way for such initiatives of late and made
Abstract
The design of school buildings in the crucible of new teaching
methods: Icelandic primary and lower secondary school build-
ings in the early 21st century.