5 insights for designing education spaces in 2024

Looking forward to 2024, our Learn Projects Consultant Emily Magee shares some design insights that will likely become more prominent when designing learning environments this year – from student-led design to future-proof classrooms.

Student-led design

There’s no one-size-fits-all learning space. Education providers are increasingly taking students' needs into account, opening up more of a two-way dialogue when it comes to classroom design. “In the past, education has been very much a push from the teacher to the child, and now it’s much more holistic,” says Emily. 

It shouldn't seem revolutionary, but observing and listening to what young people need from their learning environment is a relatively new idea – and one that’s very much here to stay. “Schools are wanting to ensure they're giving kids choices in the classroom,” says Emily. “It might be as simple as whether they want to sit or stand, but it’s about choice and empowerment.” Flexible, unfixed furniture is key to adapting spaces to meet various student needs.

Emily Magee - Learn Projects Consultant

Schools are wanting to ensure they're giving kids choices in the classroom. It might be as simple as whether they want to sit or stand, but it’s about choice and empowerment

Pilot classrooms are taking off

Koskela is seeing an increase in schools wanting to test out their education spaces by creating pilot classrooms. “There's a real development now in creating these flexible learning environments – but to ensure sustainability and adaptability, a lot of schools are working with Koskela on pilot classrooms,” says Emily. This way, they can test a classroom over a period of time and get feedback from students and educators before they invest in new ideas across the school. It’s an approach that ensures the best outcome for the people who use the space, and can even save a school money.

Designing with happiness and wellbeing in mind

More and more, the importance of student wellbeing is reflected in educational settings, which are being designed to boost creativity, self-expression and safety. “The Organisation for Economic Cooperation Development (OECD), has said that creativity, collaboration and digital literacy is of greater importance to a 21st century workforce than traditional knowledge acquisition,” says Emily. “There’s this growing sense that young people don’t just go to school to acquire knowledge and regurgitate it – that education is more holistic, and learning environments need to reflect and enhance that.”

This goes hand-in-hand with a greater understanding of how an environment can impact on young people’s mental health. “Having a beautifully designed classroom that has biophilic principles – where the furniture has been designed with nature in mind – enables an overall better outcome in learning because the children are in a happier, calmer and more positive learning environment,” adds Emily. “It’s also why we’re seeing an uptick in outdoors and environment-led learning spaces, where students are taken outside the classroom into nature."

Having a beautifully designed classroom that has biophilic principles – where the furniture has been designed with nature in mind – enables an overall better outcome in learning because the children are in a happier, calmer and more positive learning environment

Future-proofing classrooms

Schools no longer want classrooms designed with just one outcome in mind; a sustainable outlook means that learning spaces can evolve over time to help increase their longevity. “We are seeing schools want to ensure that all the learning spaces – aside from specialised classrooms for things like art and STEM – can be used by and adapted for all different year groups for different activities,” says Emily. 

This means thinking in advance about how joinery or permanent fixtures could be adapted to different age groups and scenarios over a decade. This kind of longer-term planning dramatically reduces the likelihood of redoing entire fitouts, saving on budgets and helping to deliver on the long-term sustainability goals of the school.

Ensuring furniture is repairable and sustainable 

Most schools in Australia are striving to be more sustainable, and one growing focus is keeping piles of old and broken furniture out of landfill. “There's increased frustration in schools about maintenance of furniture,” says Emily. “This can be a real challenge.” Many schools are searching for solutions to reduce the time and waste that comes from furniture that wasn’t created durably, or that has an overseas supplier who can’t easily offer replacement parts or repair options.

And this year we will also roll out our ‘furniture as a service’ business model, which offers schools greater flexibility as they will be able to subscribe to an all-in-one school furniture service instead of buying it. This means schools can allow their fit outs to evolve, have their furniture regularly serviced to maintain its quality, and return pieces when they’re no longer needed without having to care about the furniture’s end of life. Through this circular model, Koskela will then refurbish each returned product and make it available for the next customer, extending the item’s useful life and keeping it out of landfill.