Architectural Contribution to Enhancing School Learning Environments Through Post-OccupancyEvaluation

The impact of school physical environments on learning activities, people’s wellbeing, and school attractiveness is well known. Teachers, students, and parents alike wish to enter a school building designed to be welcoming, inclusive, and capable of communicating the value of learning and the many ways it is fostered. However, the everyday reality in existing schools is often different: outdated facilities as well as occupational modes are often problematic and make the life of the school’s “inhabitants” highly difficult. More importantly, they limit their capacity to imagine something different. It emerges that schools need support in looking beyond the poor conditions of their physical environments and taking action. Post-Occupancy Evaluations (POEs) are ideal methods to foster school staff engagement in monitoring and caring for the physical environment, improving their occupancy modes and spatial behaviours to address current and emerging challenges (e.g. sustainability, inclusion), and laying the ground work for making their innovation willing to emerge.