Senses of Place: Building Excellence

Argyll & Bute: Reviewing big spaces

As the curriculum develops, what implications does it have for new school buildings? What kind of spaces will provide opportunities for young people to become successful learners, effective contributors, confident individuals and responsible citizens? How can communities contribute to the development of learning spaces for the future?

The Senses of Place project has explored aspirations for the design of school buildings and their grounds. It has demonstrated how well designed learning environments can support the delivery of the new curriculum and changes in teaching methods. New ways of thinking about how we learn and where we learn have been encouraged and the expertise that school staff, pupils, community members and design professionals have to offer has been invaluable in the process of developing the design briefs and the design ideas.

This exhibition, and the accompanying publication, illustrated this process in detail. Five themes were explored by five different teams, including pupils, educators and community members, each from a different Local Authority. Each group worked with a team of design professionals to create their designs.

Through the Senses of Place Programme it is hoped that communities and design professionals can continue to develop their understanding of how to contribute to a better design process, providing Scotland with the opportunity to produce world class schools which satisfy our aspirations for our children and young people.

Publications

• The toolkit and Outcomes
  Download a copy pdf(25mb)