Supporting fluid transitions in innovative learning spaces

architectural, social and technological factors

Nadia Pantidi

pp. 57-83

in: Nicholas S. Dalton, Holger Schnädelbach, Mikael Wiberg, Tasos Varoudis (eds), Architecture and interaction, Berlin, Springer, 2016

Abstract

Innovative learning spaces (ILS) are a response to the ubiquity of technologies in our everyday lives and a shift towards a student-centered pedagogical approach in higher education. As an inhabited, technologically enriched architectural space, ILS embody multi-purpose agendas that are intended to support a variety of activities, often simultaneously. Yet, we know very little about the everyday lived experiences of those who use and inhabit them, and whether they are used as anticipated by their creators. This chapter reports on three ethnographic investigations into ILS. Our analytic themes provide an account of the everyday interactions in these spaces focusing on how diverse activities coexisted, how people collaborated and socialized and identify factors that were found to mediate user interactions, and support – or obstruct – fluid transitions in these spaces. The three factors are: (i) Legibility (infrastructural and social) (ii) Legitimacy and sense of ownership (iii) Customisation and appropriation.