
Learning spaces have been turned upside down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but once we move beyond the pandemic, what will our education environments look like?
We spoke with Gretchen Diesel, senior interior designer at leading education design firm Stantec, about how learning spaces are becoming more nimble, more innovative, and more collaborative.
The Pandemic Influence
“A lot of trends come out of challenges – when people are actively trying to solve a problem and come up with similar solutions. This could be the case with the COVID-19 pandemic.”
“Our challenge with COVID has been in our ability to engage with our clients, because they’re so busy trying to solve all of the issues that COVID presents. Different districts are reopening at different times and in different capacities. Once schools knew exactly how many students would be coming into the physical school space, they were able to move forward with planning. A lot of this decision-making is operational in nature and hasn’t involved us too much. And right now, it’s really a furniture solution people are working on – instead of 24 students in a room, you now have 10 students, and those 10 desks have acrylic screens between them. But, in the projects we’re working on right now, we are very much involved in helping our clients figure out and plan for what getting back to a new normal will look like. The new normal may very well not be exactly like pre-COVID.”
“Moving into the future, we’re really interested in creating a number of different kinds of spaces. First, we’re dividing and layering study spaces into smaller rooms. We’re using movable partitions and more modular solutions that allow universities to remove and add walls and doors. Second, we’re specifying benching systems that allow, for example, three desks now, but once COVID is passed, universities have the ability to add more desks in. It works for today, but it’s easily adaptable in the future.”

Corporate Environments Are Trickling Down to Education
Diesel notes that our education spaces are beginning to look and function much more like workplaces – with more open collaborative areas and less structured classroom environments. The reason? Corporate companies are struggling to find people with the skills they need.
“Students sitting and consuming information from a teacher lecturing is a teaching model that doesn’t match up with the type of people corporate companies are looking for. Companies are looking for critical thinkers, people who can think and work independently, and who can collaborate with others well. 21st Century education needs to be responding to this and making people into lifelong learners.”
“There’s a desire for corporations and even government entities to sponsor research programs, labs and other maker spaces because they want to encourage young people to pursue learning. There’s a growing relationship between corporate America and education, built on partnerships and integration and mutually beneficial relationships. We’ve seen a lot of this at the collegiate level, but it’s now trickling down to high school, particularly in CTE [Career & Technical Education] environments. And it may even begin happening fully across K-12.”

Creating Life-Long Learners
Diesel noted a strong focus on the idea of ownership – instilling in children the idea that they have control over the way they learn and over the spaces they learn in. If they’re able to take more ownership of their own learning experience, they have a better chance of becoming a “life-long learner.”
Diesel also identified a current focus on how to keep students engaged for longer. And CTE learning environments are contributing to this goal, helping to keep at-risk students in the learning environment longer.
CTE programming can include areas of study in everything from culinary arts, welding, auto mechanics, cosmetology, and health care. The students who seek out these career paths sometimes cannot afford to go to a traditional college, or have already figured out that what they want to do requires CTE training rather than a traditional collegiate experience.
“Keeping students engaged in the learning process builds stronger communities and connects us. CTE schools help to foster the mentality that everyone can have a career and contribute positively to society.”
Partnerships between CTE schools and corporate entities often come about in facility sponsorship opportunities. For example, a hair product company like Vidal Sassoon could provide a training and learning environment for training.
“The partnership serves as an important branding opportunity for the company as well as a built-in talent acquisition and retention too,” said Diesel.

The Corridor Space is Widening
“Instead of it being simply a passage, it’s now a gathering place in itself, with all kinds of breakout spaces – small group spaces, spaces outfitted with a particular technology or white boards. You certainly still have classrooms, but a lot of them now have glass, so teachers can observe students who may be working on their own projects in the open breakout space outside the classroom.”

Wellbeing-Focused Learning Spaces
Schools have a unique opportunity to become healthy, movement-oriented spaces. State-of-the-art athletic facilities can and will combine with the surge in WELL-certified buildings to.
“We’re also seeing a focus on neurodiverse students – who haven’t typically been supported by traditional school environments. We’re beginning to create environments that are sensitive to all of these different types of learners.”
“Somewhere in between athletics and academics and WELL buildings is a really interesting opportunity for design firms and communities to begin building holistically healthy learning spaces.”
