School Design: Crisis, Educational Performance and Design Applications

This paper explores the relationship between educational outcomes and the architectural design of educational facilities. Following a brief review of the crisis in school buildings in the United States, an attempt is made to clarify the issues involved in the research literature bearing on the relationship between educational performance and school facilities and to critically review some of that literature. Two physical environmental factors are found that directly impact academic achievement in elementary schools (school size and classroom size) and another two that impact “non-achievement” behaviors (location and secluded study spaces). Two of the 27 design patterns developed in response to these findings are presented and discussed. In conclusion, a mediational-interactional model of the relationship between the socio-physical environment and educational outcomes is presented.

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