Connection
Educational design: Renewing history
Architects and educators have carefully experimented with and studied school environments for over a century. Advances in design are due to factors such as technological innovations, political movements, health epidemics, and cultural shifts, paired with the desire to provide children with a lifestyle and education better than the generation that came before. We are at the epicenter of another movement in educational facilities as influences like the coronavirus pandemic, technological varieties of educational delivery, and the need to be safe, healthy, and wanted have been in the forefront of educational methodologies. While the minute factors may vary from generation to generation, there is a common need to provide educational facilities that deliver a specific pedagogy in a community based on cultural norms and desired academic outcomes. For example, the one-room schoolhouse is thought of as a primitive educational facility. Early on, this facility also would be what we now call a community center or a multi-use facility, as in many cases the school would also be the town’s religious epicenter. There was no separation of church and state because there was no “state” at that time, physically or figuratively. In Europe, educational experiments such as “natural education” were being better understood because of epidemics and people looking outside the city limits for refuge. Kindergartens, or children gardens, were founded at this time during the Common School Movement, and in 1874, the Kalamazoo Decision determined it was legal for public schools to be paid for by local property taxes. The political decision coupled with child labor laws during the Industrial Revolution caused expansions of public schools in the coming decades. At the turn of the century, schools were built to be standardized with as many students as possible to maximize classroom space. Ventilation was passive through expansive openings. The placement and size of windows were standardized because of their importance for both daylighting and providing views to rest students’ eyes. In contrast to standardized schools, the Montessori Movement was gaining popularity, and in 1911, its first school in the United States opened. These facilities were the first of their kind, focusing on “child-centered learning,” therefore shifting the paradigm that classrooms needed desks in a row and instead calling for collaborative, flexible educational spaces.
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Above: Part of Missouri’s educational exhibits at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, the model country school, “fully furnished,” intended to provide a model for rural school construction. Image taken in 1904. Public Domain Image Provided by: St. Louis Public Library.
During the same time, the Open-Air School Movement was gaining traction because of the tuberculosis epidemic in both Europe and the United States. It was believed that exposure to air and sunshine would assist in stopping the spread of the disease and aid in students’ physical and mental health. Outdoor classrooms became commonplace in areas that adopted the movement. By the 1930s, open-air schools were more mainstream in architectural thought, and more were beginning to question the educational environment. Like Montessori, many educational visionaries were trying to think beyond students in desks and better understand the psychological effects of school environments in the open air, with a focus on child-centered design. Both features are still a focus in educational design just shy of a century later. During the Depression in the 1930s, the Public Works Administration provided financing for 70% of new school construction for local communities, but 15 to 20 years later, between 1945 and the 1950s, school boards struggled to keep up with ever-increasing enrollments due to the baby boom. New standards on design predicted that schools would be four times
