Learning Hub - a case study

Learning can happen anywhere and anytime.

 The Floor Plan in the sketch above shows how an existing classroom block can be refurbished into an open-plan Learning Hub. Existing General Learning Areas which were accessed only externally now open into a central collaboration space via new glazed sliding doors. The open-plan space has an ‘inventing’ zone and ‘big think’ room for students to plan out their projects in groups, and a ‘testing/ making’ zone at the other end, equipped with wet area benches and crafting tools to realise their own project’s. Spaces for large group presentation and report writing (reflection on the project outcomes) are also contained within the large space, which can open out onto new covered outdoor learning areas for maximum flexibility.

Now more than ever, students need to be equipped with the skills needed to be careful evaluators and curators of information, and having a flexible and adaptable learning space is the best way to achieve this. The diagram below explains how to transition from traditional learning spaces (individual classrooms) to open-plan (with supportive quiet spaces).

Some ‘Design Generators’ for innovative learning areas are summarised below:

• Schools-within-schools

• STEM-like spaces throughout new build

• Innovative learning areas

• Project based learning typologies

• The building as a teaching ‘device’

• Exposed structure & services for STEM learning

• Flexible & Adaptable spaces for various (and unknown) future uses

• Multi-purpose everything

• All spaces need connection to outdoor learning areas

Flexible furniture that can be reconfigured and ‘scaled-up’ to suit the individual or group (according to the size of the project task at hand) is essential.