Place and action: The school building as an enhancer of the learning process

Abstract

This paper aims to highlight the relevance of the built space towards society, and more specifically the influence that the school building bears for the learning process, that there takes place. It also intends to emphasize the relevance of studies on space use, assuming that they provide a comprehensive input on the actual occupancy of a particular space, and that conversely present guidelines as an operative design tool when intervening on that or other buildings with a similar brief. Ultimately, contributing for a more complete and effective spatial, social and pedagogical answer to the actual needs and wants of the users, at each particular time, throughout its lifecycle.Hence, it will regard first the relationship between architecture and society, focusing on the bond between providers and users of the places, thought and lived in. Itwill then concentrate on school buildings and their input towards education, considering space use research as a means to understand space as a social «setting» and also a social «influence». Finally, it will address psychosocial studies on spatiality, while dealing with means and techniques within architectural studies concerned with this relationship. Firstly in its generic assertion and secondly and more specifically applied to school buildings.