A jointly-designed program from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the Harvard Graduate School of Design

What You Will Learn

The program will engage architects and educators in understanding key principles of teaching and designing innovative K–12 learning environments. Through a research-based understanding of current and emerging best practices, participants will work with Harvard faculty and leading practitioners to envision how school buildings can most effectively support learning in the coming decade and beyond. Participants will explore the challenges of designing spaces that enable personalized learning for students, support social and emotional development for both adults and children, better engage families and communities with schools, and include new media and information technology.

Program Overview

Learning Environments for Tomorrow will explore four key themes emerging as defining elements of 21st century education: collaboration; technology; engagement; and sustainability. Participants will work in teams to apply their combined understandings in one of several school-building design focus areas. Possible focus areas include: new school buildings; specialized, magnet and charter schools; international schools; urban school redesign; school renovation and development initiatives; vocational and technical schools; and early-learning centers.

To support the exploration of these themes, the program will engage participants through a variety of formats, including plenary sessions, intensive workshops and small-group discussions.

Program Objectives

• Understand the principles of effective pedagogy and design for in the coming decade
• Learn the latest thinking in the areas of child/adult collaboration, student and community engagement, social media technologies and environmental sustainability
• Speculate on the modes of creativity and productivity which education will need to address in the coming decades
• Consider the implications that the areas noted above have on designing effective learning environments
• Critique learning environments and educational facilities that are seen as models of effective design
• Develop planning and design strategies for facilities that serve a broad set of stakeholders—from students, teachers and administrators to the communities in which they are based

Who Should Attend

• Teams of educators and architects engaged together in a process of school design, redesign or renovation, or school facility and space planning. Teams should include a cross section of key stakeholders from both the education and architecture sectors
• Applicants from the education sector could include school building committee members, superintendents, principals and assistant principals, teachers, directors of curriculum and instruction, parents, special educators, and local and state education leaders and policymakers
• Applicants from the architectural professions could include principal architects, project managers, engineers, chief builders, school designers, space planners, lead construction managers or interior designers

Faculty Cochairs

Jonathan Levi is Adjunct Professor of Architecture at Harvard Graduate School of Design. Levi’s teaching focuses in the areas of core program architectural design, architectural drawing, professional practice and construction technology. Levi’s private practice emphasizes work for local, state and federal governments and communities.  He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and a National Peer for the Office of the Chief Architect of the United States’ Design Excellence Program.  His work has been acknowledged internationally, nationally, regionally and locally through frequent awards, citations, and articles in books and publications.

Maryann Thompson is Adjunct Professor in the Department of Architecture at Harvard Graduate School of Design and is Founder and Principal at Maryann Thompson Architects. She specializes in architecture that is sustainable and regionally driven and attempts to heighten a sense of its immediate site and landscape. Her architectural investigations revolve around such concerns as the creation of a rich and thoughtful edge between inside and outside, utilizing light as a material, and employing warm, natural materials in order to accentuate a sense of place. Thompson’s work has received numerous awards including two AIA National Honor Awards, numerous AIA New England Design Honor Awards, BSA Honor Awards for Design Excellence and the AIA National Young Architects Award.

Daniel Wilson is Lecturer on Education, Principal Investigator at Project Zero and Co-principal Investigator and founder of the Learning Innovations Laboratory at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.  For four years he was also a Research Fellow at IDEO. Wilson is interested in the inherent dilemmas of knowing, trusting, leading and belonging in adult collaborative learning. His work examines how groups navigate these tensions through using flexible language, routines, roles and artifacts and is currently organized around three areas: professional learning in communities; learning behaviors in the workplace; and uncertainty and team learning.

Additional faculty to be announced.

Enrollment Instructions

Learning Environments for Tomorrow is an application program. Preference will be given to teams of two or more. Teams should have representation from both the education and architecture sectors. Participants are selected based upon team composition as well as the match between their stated objectives and the goals of the program. In order to maximize the learning experience, the program aims to bring together as diverse a group as possible.

Each team member must submit a separate application.

Admission decisions will be sent via email once each team’s completed application materials have been submitted. Early application is encouraged.

Fees

The comprehensive program fee includes tuition, instructional materials and refreshments.

Payment or a purchase order must be received within thirty days of acceptance and prior to the program start. Participants are responsible for their own travel expenses.

Cancellation Policy

Cancellations must be submitted via fax or email. Full refunds will be given up to 30 days prior to the start of the program. Due to program demand and pre-institute preparations, cancellations received 29–14 days prior to the start of the program are subject to a fee of 10% of the program tuition. Cancellations received within 13 days prior to the start of the program and no-shows are subject to the full program tuition. Please note: cancellation fees are based upon the date the written request is received.

The Harvard Graduate School of Education reserves the right to change faculty or cancel programs at its discretion. In the unlikely event of program changes, the school is not responsible for non-refundable travel arrangements or other planning expenses incurred.