Ideas on (re)designing school spaces and places

A new school campus can easily run to US$50 million or more--The Avenues, a new for-profit school venture in NYC will cost US$75 million before the first student arrives in fall 2012. Upper schools, in particular, are among the most costly aspects of any construction project, because of science labs, performing arts and athletic spaces.  Yet, for all the expense and spectacular design I have seen applied to international and independent schools from Hong Kong to Huntsville, I am struck by how a brand new schools looks, well, like a school.

This piece from Fast Company suggests we rethink school design in light of how design concepts are used at IDEO, Pixar and Google to create work spaces that drive the sort of activity that goes on there; e.g., collaboration, team projects, creative thinking, etc.  Few contemporary work places--at least those where cutting edge stuff gets done--look much like work places in the 19th Century, so why do we keep recreating 19th Century (or earlier) schools and expect them to be different?  Once we figure our what constitutes 21st Century learning, it strikes me that the next question is about what kinds of spaces best create an environment where that sort of learning happens.  As Churchill famously said, "we shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us."