Is it possible for a school building to transform into a wholistic learning experience? The present paper constitutes an attempt to enhance both the educational role (communication of knowledge) and pedagogical character of school buildings through a series of interventions made from the perspective of the spatial distribution of learning. This project concerns existing school buildings (primary schools) in which the interventions proposed are applicable. The school buildings of the Greek city of Kalamata constitute the starting point for the present study of primary school buildings.
In the first part of the dissertation, a research is conducted in three stages. At first, the city is studied in terms of its spaces and their uses with emphasis placed on the educational ones. Then, the focus is placed on school buildings. Schools are divided into five categories based on their common features to make it easier to deal with their large number. Finally, we turn to the people who move and live in these places, that is the students and teachers, through the method of questionnaires. The purpose of this project is to project reality in schools on a wholistic level that will constitute the basis for the designs proposed.
In the second part of the paper, a list of interventions is created. The interventions made are distinguished into three categories that have to do with the structure of the school building, its operation and more specifically that of the classroom as well as the building’s equipment. In the end, we examine the application of these interventions in four school paradigms. This approach in its entirety has as its aim the expansion of both the field of studies and the range of stimuli and experiences students will have in a school building.