Simeon Aranicki – “Smart school for smart children” was a design exploration of how could we transform a school in Serbia into a more sustainable and pedagogically valuable one. The designs are interpretation of a contemporary knowledge on the matter, and empirical evidence arising from participatory post-occupancy analysis of one school in England, one school in Germany and one in Spain, as well as teachers’ and pupils’ ideas and suggestion for improvement.

 

Taking into consideration the location - actors – activities framework for each design idea, firstly important contextual or location parameters were explored: educational goals, local sustainable development goals, and micro and macro location challenges. Secondly, actors` or teachers` and pupils` criticism and ideas for improvement were explained. In the thesis they are presented in the form of a text, and in the design portfolio in the form of a graph. In both the thesis and the design portfolio, they could be found under the heading “researching the issues”.

 

The second step of presenting the design ideas in both the thesis and the design portfolio could be found under the heading “developing the ideas”. In the thesis the ideas were described, while in the design portfolio a photo collaged rendering was placed as the visual representation of each idea. On the photo-collaged renderings local motives that inspired the design were mapped, together with teachers and pupils evaluation and comments about the design proposals. Beside the renderings sketches of teaching/learning activities taking place in newly designed and proposed spaces were shown. Using the key messages from the analysis it is suggested how each of newly designed spaces, together with the actors taking part in proposed activities, could act pedagogically.

 

Much further details could be found in my PhD thesis and portfolio:

 

http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/4513/