Teaching and Learning Hive

Our practice has been at the forefront of developing some of the most advanced teaching and learning spaces in the country, ranging in scale from large learning spaces with seating capacities in the hundreds, to small rooms for classes of about a dozen students. In tiered lecture rooms, for example, providing fixed tables, two to a tier, allows the students to face forward for a conventional lecture approach, as well as turn their seats around to collaborate in smaller groups. This creates a more interactive and dynamic environment.

For these flat-floor and smaller scale rooms, we are increasingly designing active learning spaces that accommodate pedagogies, such as the flipped classroom, where small group work and discussions that follow a previously-viewed lecture are fostered by movable seating and tables for multiple configurations. With provisions such as multiple flat screen monitors, smart boards and other writing surfaces, and online connectivity for digital research, these TEAL (technology-enabled active learning) rooms shift the focus of the learning experience from the lecturer to the student or group. In these rooms, students are broken down into smaller clusters, often in groups of six to nine. The physical geometry of the rooms allows small groups to interact with their individual screens in one mode, while allowing the instructor to display the efforts of one group on the screens of all other groups so they, in turn, can participate in and benefit from one group’s development.

At a much larger scale, we designed an auditorium within an existing building with a highly restrictive column grid to accommodate over 600 people for MEDITECH. By designing an auditorium in the round, we were able to minimize the impact that it had on the existing structural grid, but more importantly, changed the dynamic between the lecturer and the audience. Utilizing tablet technology for each person, the space meets the necessary audiovisual requirements, which eliminated any large scale screens and other technology that would disrupt the intimate nature of the room. This intimacy encourages active learning modalities in lieu of traditional lecture centric formats common in rooms of this scale.

In both scenarios, we see the integration of technology and the ability to collaborate with another student or colleague as driving factors in the design solution.