Five concepts to consider when designing future schools

This paper presents a review of concepts that have implications for the design of future schools. These concepts have both educational and design meanings and applications, and these are examined here specifically in relation to their design application. A brief review of school design trends is outlined, followed by a semi-systematic review of literature that combines both future education pedagogical trends and related school design implications. Five concepts are identified and considered: context, culture, and place; community ecosystem; personalized experience; flexibility; and agency. The conclusion summarizes the considerations for future school design. These design concepts are important as the built school context provides a basis for how teachers and students frame their perceptions of where, when, and how they can teach and learn. Built environments may be symbolic of a construct that represents the school’s education vision and practice. The concepts explicated here are relational, connecting design ideas to the social practices of teachers and students that are by nature complex and unstable, but with an assumption that these practices can be afforded and prompted through considered design.