Integrated Design
Functionality (mind), and Psychological
and Aesthetic Satisfaction into Hab-
itability sustainability. Though newer
schools seem to be more colorful with
wider hallways, newer furniture, the
delivery system is basically still teacher
centered.
Embodied Cognition Fostered by
Design Education
Lately, my colleagues and I from
School Zone Institute as well as the
American Institute of Architects
Albuquerque have been working in
schools with volunteer architects that
teach Architecture and Design to
students K-5.
There are studies that affirm the
influence of kinesthetic exploration
on embodied cognition. Researchers
found by adding kinesthetic experi-
ences to visual and auditory impres-
sions the quality of visual communica-
tion improved. This kind of embodied
cognition is fostered by design edu-
cation including drawings, models,
and site analysis. Design education
demands an environment and curric-
ulum that motivates students to move
around, use their large and fine motor
from windows, known to
increase learning. (Some
teachers draw the blinds
and use them for bulletin
boards all year long.) If
windows are placed east-
west, students can track the
sun on windows from sea-
son to season. There is no
need for blinds. There are
windows that can dim and
open to the light automati-
cally. There are drop down
tables on one wall. Another
wall is writable for solving
math problems, drawing
inventive concepts. Another
wall is for pin up and pre-
sentation. Nearby stackable
stools turn a presentation
Studio as classroom of the future
wall into a critique gal-
Image Credit: Architect Arlo Braun
lery. HVAC is exposed in
the ceiling. The facilitator’s
desk is a small station on
skills. Design is the nexus for the inte-
wheels with a computer. Light tables are
grated study of Science, Technology,
everywhere. There is a courtyard with
Engineering Art/Architecture, Math
a sink and a small garden for practicing
(STEAM).
landscape design by students. This is a
child-centered studio where students
The Classroom as a Studio
are given power to do their own learning
New models of integrated learning
through design.
through design need studios con-
In this new integrated learning
nected to an adjacent “maker” lab.
environment, the teacher,, with goals
Everything in the studio should be on
for each child, is the monitor and facil-
wheels. There is a supply depot in the
itator of growth in traditional subjects
center of the studio with printers, 3-D
plus Body, Mind, and Creative Spirit.
printers, paper cutters, pens, pencils,
This new studio gives power to chil-
and more. There is natural lighting
dren to do their own learning.
n
ANNE TAYLOR, PH.D., is Regents Professor Emerita at the Uni-
versity of New Mexico School of Architecture and Planning and a
distinguished professor for the Association of Collegiate Schools
of Architecture. Her 50-year career is characterized by scholarship,
research and futuristic thinking about innovative learning envi-
ronments and the formation of a Design Education Program, now
international and translated into five languages. Taylor’s focus on
integrated design curricula and studios as classrooms has turned
architecture into a lens through which today’s children can study
and know the built, natural and cultural environment as the order
in the universe.
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