Selling New Learning Spaces: Flexibly Anything for the Twenty-First Century

Abstract

Insecurity about the knowledge and skills required for a world that appears to be rapidly changing, and confusion over how designed space can best support students’ learning have given rise to innovative educational and architectural responses including the ‘flexible learning space’. Whilst the language used to describe learning spaces is developing quickly, conceptual clarity lags far behind. It is unclear what flexibility of a space really means, what (or whether) it demands of its users nor what constraints or contexts might limit the nominal flexibility of a learning space. This chapter calls attention to shortcomings in the theorising behind the terms of the debate and points the finger at the ambiguity of the language used. The risks are great—for designers as for users—because unless we can gain some common control over what is meant by flexible space and its implications for those who work in schools, we risk overestimating the powers of designed space and underestimating what is asked of people in their work. The chapter provides a first attempt at clarifying some of these issues of language and concepts.