Programming School Architecture: relating knowledge on pedagogical needs and human behavior to the learning environment

• Grant number: 13/03580-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: August 01, 2013
• End date: July 05, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Architecture and Town Planning - Architecture and Urbanism Project
• Principal Investigator: Doris Catharine Cornelie Knatz Kowaltowski
• Grantee: Sandra Leonora Alvares
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Engenharia Civil, Arquitetura e Urbanismo (FEC). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This research project aims to structure knowledge on educational aspects for the design process of primary school buildings. Different pedagogies have their specific needs and the results of environmental psychology studies bring insights that need to be taken into account when designing school buildings. Thus data of the relationship of different pedagogies and human behavior in the built environment will be searched in the literature and structured in a database for use in the initial stages of a design process. To fulfill such task, the main goal of the study is to identify and to organize design requirements that guide the design of quality learning environments. A detailed bibliographical reference search will be undertaken on different pedagogical theories and studies on the relationship between building environment and human behavior. This data will then be structured according to the architectural program method "Problem Seeking". Once structured according to the concepts of Problem seeking this information will be introduced into Microsoft ACCESS, for easy access during a typical design process, where information should be available in the form that designers use during their creative process, specially during the programming and first solution search phases. The ACCESS system will be tested, for possible adjustments, with design professionals and educators of different Pedagogy. A questionnaire will be used in structured interviews for this test to measure the quality of information in the database, the ease of use during a design process. The final premise of this study is that information on pedagogical theories and environmental psychology, related to primary school buildings, is very much dispersed and that professionals engaged in school design need structured information and access to references to conduct a productive design process and with this enable the creation of better educational environments.

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

ALVARES, Sandra Leonora. Programming school architecture: the relationship between learning, human behavior in the built environment and pedagogical theories. 2016. Doctoral Thesis - Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Faculdade de Engenharia Civil, Arquitetura e Urbanismo Campinas, SP.