The framework
Seven principles of
learning space design.
The Seven Principles are the durable output of the SKG project. They are summarised by the mnemonic CAFÉ BAR — appropriate, the team wrote, "granted the student appreciation of comfort."
C
Comfort
A space which creates a physical and mental sense of ease and well-being.
Regulated heating and cooling; comfortable chairs; natural light; a mix of lighting approaches rather than bare fluorescents; good acoustics. Students describe comfort as a prerequisite for concentration — not a luxury. A space that is physically uncomfortable is already telling them they shouldn’t stay.
A
Aesthetics
The pleasure that includes the recognition of symmetry, harmony, simplicity and fitness for purpose.
Aesthetics is the sum of the other principles: a room that works well tends to feel right. A knowledge-generation aesthetic is a space that invites active input rather than passive reception — one that looks and feels like a place where ideas are made, not consumed.
F
Flow
The state of mind felt by the learner when totally involved in the learning experience.
Furniture should be modular and reconfigurable in minutes. Tables on wheels. Room for the teacher to move between groups. Teachers at university move from room to room and often have only a few minutes to set up before students arrive — the room must accommodate them, not the other way around.
E
Equity
Consideration of the needs of cultural and physical differences.
Rooms need to accommodate differently-abled students. The presentation wall needs to allow optimum viewing by all participants. Every student should be able to see every other student. Equity is not an add-on; it changes the base geometry of the room.
B
Blending
A mixture of technological and face-to-face pedagogical resources.
The room should incorporate a range of teaching tools for a range of teaching methods — what the project called the "chalk to plasma continuum." Good spaces don’t choose between traditional and digital; they let both coexist and get out of each other’s way.
A
Affordances
The "action possibilities" the learning environment provides its users.
Kitchens, natural light, Wi-Fi, private spaces, writing surfaces, sofas, power on the floor rather than around the walls, space for students’ own devices. Affordances are the specific things a room lets you do — and they set the ceiling on how the room can be used.
R
Repurposing
The potential for multiple usage of a space.
The underlying principle of SKG is "(not quite) making do": a knowledge-generation aesthetic can be achieved by simple, low-cost adjustments to existing facilities. Repurposing means the same room can host a lecture at 10, group work at 11, and quiet study at 2 — and will still be fit for purpose in five years when the technology has turned over.
The Seven Principles support a constructivist approach to learning — student-centred, collaborative, experiential.
— Final report, §7
