Never enough space!

As another academic year begins, I am aware yet again of that tension between feeling there is simply not enough space - particularly in studios where we still still wish for a model of one desk per student where they can work whenever they want - and knowing that in programming and occupancy terms, our buildings will feel relatively empty; that actual occupancy rates will be low compared to, say, offices.

And I still feel we should be able to design our way out of this problem, just can't work out how!

Helpfully, the University of Lincoln's Centre for Educational Research and Development is running a research project (in collaboration with DEGW) called Learning Landscapes "looking at the ways in which academics work with colleagues in Estates to develop and manage innovation in the design of teaching and learning spaces in Higher Education."

Space costs!

One of the most interesting things about the Explore it! toolkit launch at the University of Dundee (see below) was how many estates and facilities managers were there, keen on finding out how to generate more innovative policies and approaches to learning spaces development and design. Estates people and academics can find it all to easy to stereotype each other: teachers are perceived as unwilling to shift from their existing practices (single offices, course or department 'owned' spaces, last minute planning and and 'just-in-time' room-booking) whilst estates managers are seen as obsessed with space utilisation figures and cost-saving, un-interested in the demands of teaching and learning.

The truth is, space costs - and with increasing pressure on university finances, we all need to be collaborating on how to creatively think/procure/design/implement/manage space better. This is about more than better briefing (although of course that helps too). We also need to develop better understandings of the relationships between material space and the teaching and learning practices which take place in it. It is only when we know more about what actually happens that we can decide priorities and explore what might change. And I should mention that, to date, it has been the estates and facilities management team at the university who have been talking about this to me ( and about the potential to be more adventurous), not academics....