The result of a collaboration between arc en rêve center d'architecture, Garagem Sur in Lisbon and Z33 in Hasselt, Belgium, this book is the culmination of a two-year project involving teams from all three institutions. With contributions from experts in the field, selected case studies and documentation of the iterations of this initiative, this book aims to become a reference in the current debate on learning spaces. It reinforces the optimistic vision shared by all participants in this project: public education is a common foundation of contemporary Europe, and the right architectural solutions can strengthen and multiply its power.
Public education has been a cornerstone of the edification of the new Europe, that emerged from the ruins of the Second World War. In fact, until 1989, the attention attributed to pedagogy could be seen as one of the few common traits between the countries pertaining to the former capitalist and communist blocks: in both cases, accessibility to free schools and the progressive extension of compulsory education were considered as crucial tools to form idealized “citizens”.
Starting from the post-war, a new human subject emerges across all the industrialized countries: the adolescent or teenager. This figure, that never existed before, is not a kid anymore, nevertheless not yet an adult, although formally recognized as such since reaching 18 years of age (in numerous countries around the late ‘60s, voting rights were lowered from 21 to 18). Especially in the affluent West, this novel subjectivity overlaps social classes. Ideology, lifestyle, and taste converge into an odd concoction of consumerism and rebellion. How to educate the vast masses of adolescents becomes a crucial issue in politics: while the age of voting is lowered, in numerous countries compulsory education is extended. It is the moment when the lyceum, until the early ‘50s, the site of reproduction of the bourgeois elites becomes massive: the high school emerges. The disciplinarian approach inherited from the 19th century, as analyzed by Michel Foucault, loses its grip, eroded by the deep contestation of 1968, and then substituted by newer experimental methodologies to collective education.
The project “Classroom”, articulated around a variety of components – a traveling exhibitions, workshops with high-schools’ students, a dedicated digital platform, an international symposium and this publication – is the result of the collaboration of three European institutions, dedicated to architecture, arts and design.
It is not accidental that arc en rêve centre d’architecture (Bordeaux, France), Garagem Sur – Centro Cultural de Belém (Lisbon, Portugal) and Z33 – House for Contemporary Art, Design & Architecture (Hasselt, Belgium) rapidly established a common ground of exchange, dialogue and collective work around the subject of adolescence and the spaces for its education. Every member of the personnel working for these structures had similar personal experiences when younger: the memories of these formative years can be considered as the collective mental sub-strata of all European citizens.
In the inception of this joint initiative, the relevance of reflecting today about the situation of secondary education appeared immediately as a self-evident necessity.
Stimulated by the initial prospective ideas of the curator, Joaquim Moreno, we shifted our attention to the spaces and physical qualities of the sites where we studied. “Classroom” could be described as a vast deductive inquiry: analyzing and understanding multiple pieces of evidence such as the layout of buildings, their presence in the urban fabric or against landscape, the building materials, the furniture, and details it becomes possible to read intentions, not just of the architects and designers, but also of educators, civil servants and politicians.
Through the case studies selected for the exhibition and the book, “Classroom” generated a kaleidoscopic portrait of the background against which, millions of European have grown up. The title of the project is almost a tautology as it focuses on the architecture of our most pervasive, obsolete and contested learning environment: the classroom. Considering adolescence (and the often-neglected spaces of secondary education) as the threshold through which children are transformed into the citizens of the future, the classroom becomes the prism to understand how learning is performed today and how we could be innovating in the design of secondary-school architecture. The project aims to identify and understand best practices, highlighting tendencies and solutions for the future, within a very dynamic context where our access to culture and information morphs at the speed of light.
Presenting contributions from experts in the fields, the research underlying the project, the selected case studies and documentation of the iterations of this initiative in France, Portugal and Belgium, this book has the ambition to become a reference in the current debate about the spaces of learning. It cements the optimistic view that all the participants to this project have shared over the years: we firmly believe that public education is a foundation of contemporary Europe and we share the conviction that the right architectural and design solutions can enhance and multiply its power.
Editorial for Classroom, a Teenage view, co-authored by Fabrizio Gallanti, André Tavares and Adinda Van Geystelen