Discover a few of the latest education design trends.
School makes up a huge portion of our lives, as many students, professionals, and educators very well know. With the current shifts in classroom learning, a school’s interior design should reflect the changing dynamic of the learning environment. Education design is a more recent consideration for learning institutions, as the style of classrooms everywhere remained the same for decades. But students are now engaged with learning material in new ways, using social and technological tools to shape their learning environment, and institutions need to reflect these trends in order to create an effective environment for education and enrichment. Here are some education design trends to help you create a space for students and educators alike that is functional, flexible, and comfortable.
Flexible Classrooms
The days of the traditional schoolhouse setup, with a chalkboard at the front of the room and students aligned in front of it, are falling away as educators embrace flexible design and teaching tools to make more of the classroom space. Interior design trends for classrooms are leaning away from rows of desks, and leaning into mobile seating areas that can be rearranged to meet the needs of students, whether it is class-by-class or in order to foster better collaborative learning. Flexible layouts also allow for easier integration of technology into learning, which is now an imperative part of classroom learning.
Collaborative Work Spaces
One of the most significant trends in education design is an emphasis on collaborative learning. While this has been a trend for some time in professional work spaces, it is newer in the classroom setting, and entails a departure from the traditional aisle-and-row seating arrangement. To create a more collaborative classroom space, use mobile, flexible pieces of furniture that allow for swiveling and rearranging of the classroom layout. This will encourage more effective collaborative learning throughout the day with the flexibility to use other classroom layouts when needed.
Integrate Technology
Technological tools have become such an important part of the learning environment, at nearly every level. This major shift requires new types of work spaces that allow for ease of sharing, charging, and presenting. This can mean shared desks that allow for charging and shared work spaces–easily used in a classroom, resource lab, or even hallway lounging spaces in a university setting. Integrating technology can also mean considering projectors and board placements to allow for effective classroom presentation that can be reconfigured when the needs of the classroom change. Considering the types of devices that will be used in the classroom environment will allow you to use a more functional interior design that fosters learning through technology.
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