The Learning Environment as a Three-Dimensional Textbook

Anne Taylor
University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, New Mexico

Citation: Taylor, Anne (1993). "The Learning Environment as a Three-Dimensional Textbook ." Children's Environments 10 (2): 104-117. Retrieved [date] from http://www.colorado.edu/journals/cye/

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Abstract

Learning environments can be more educationally and optimally useful if the architecture of the built, natural and cultural environment can be used as a teaching tool. The structure itself and the surrounding landscape is not passive space but can be an active learning tool for the learning of physics, geometry, botany, and ecology. Teachers, students and parents learn to "read the environment," interact with and learn from it at many levels.

Student involvement in the architectural programming process has produced in two examples—Trout Lake, Washington and Stockton, California—a unique architectural programming process which trusts children enough to be participant planners in all phases of design for their new schools. Curriculum concepts and the developmental needs of students replace square footage as design determinants for building spaces. Predetermined educational specifications are replaced by a more thoughtful and thorough architectural programming process.

Keywords: schools, design, learning