Future-Proof Me: Transitional Architecture for Students moving into the Workplace

Abstract

Like many other high schools, Epsom Girls Grammar School, the site of this design thesis, was established at a time (1917) where education was rigid and monotonous; this is still reflected in the ‘chalk and talk’ layout of most classrooms today. Often, the classroom culture and physical layout provides little to no insight to future learning spaces that students may be exposed to. This thesis explores how techniques from contemporary architecture can help address this disconnection and aid the transition for high school students as they move from tertiary institutions into office workplaces. The shift in the form of educational spaces relates to not only pedagogy, but social behaviour, and overall attitude toward learning. More often than not, the structural rigidity of educational spaces physically limit the development and scope of understanding of learning styles that are available and best suit the current generation. The research covers several types of learning spaces that correlate to that of the high school archetype. It is not only school environments that are changing; universities, office spaces and public learning spaces, such as libraries, have also shifted from their traditional settings. Further understanding of these main groups of learning spaces, through a selection of relevant precedent studies, can aid in producing a design that is successful for its consideration of our educational metamorphosis. This thesis theorises that similarities between contemporary learning spaces and casual or leisurely spaces can affect and enhance learning. These observations can be used as evidence to support the development of even more successful learning spaces. Special attention is paid to improving the connections between the Epsom Girls Grammar site space and office-type workspaces graduates are likely to inhabit in order to improve continued learning in the workplace. Dimensions, scale, layout, and furnishings and how they influence human psychology and behaviour within a space is also briefly touched upon as the manipulation of such elements may be integral to discovering a methodology that can be reused in other areas of architecture.