School Architecture – Between Ideas of Space and Lived Space

Abstract

his article sheds a critical light on the making of Danish school architecture year 2015-2020. It points to barriers in architects' practices and a discrepancy between the ideas of future school architecture and the conditions of teaching and studying in the school spaces. Philosopher and sociologist Henri Lefebvres' theory and concepts of space are used to investigate this discrepancy with the perspective of how school architecture is produced socially. Lefebvre’s social ontological stand and anthropological approach to space provide a framework to an analysis that spans from the ideas of future schools and their materialisation to the teaching practices and the lived life in the schools. This article refers to my PhD dissertation, Øjeblikkets skolearkitektur. En analyse af de rumlige momenters praksis med fokus på inklusion that provide a more nuanced analysis of the school political and societal drivers, cultural terms, and bodily perceptions of school architecture. In the following text I address the research question: How does school architecture emerge between ideas of space and lived space in school? My answer to this question draws on the analysis of pedagogical and architectural school briefs and architects’ drawings of schools, as well as field observations in three of the schools, and interviews with consultants, architects, teachers and students. Also, a qualitative survey among all teachers in the schools has been caried out. The research points to that ideology of the future school suppresses the voices of teachers. The findings show that some tenders with an architectural competition prevent architects from communicating with the teachers at the most critical part of the design process. Post-occupancy studies in the built schools briefed 2015-2020 reveal that teachers find difficulties to teach inclusively due to the architecture. It appears that students seem challenged by the teaching practices which contrasts sharply with the visions embedded in the pedagogical and architectural school briefs 2015-2020. A further discussion is suggested on how social practices in the design of future welfare architecture can enhance and ensure social sustainability by promoting care, community, and belonging with the architecture.