Quadratic : Embracing the challenge of learning-spaces evolution

May 7

May 7 Quadratic : Embracing the challenge of learning-spaces evolution

PREMIS

American University of Beirut is a private independent university located in Beirut, Lebanon. Established in 1866, AUB is ranked as the top University in the Middle East. In 2006, AUB approached our team to take on several projects in the following three years. The projects would include a complete redesign of classrooms, lecture halls, library spaces, and study hall spaces.

CHALLENGE

Today ‘formal’ learning spaces are competing with informal settings for the attention of creative and engaged lifetime learners. Knowledge exchange can take place anywhere. AUB is one of the most prominent institutes in the Middle East, but more so for Beirut. How could the innovation of AUB’s educational outlets contribute to the transcendental roles of AUB as a good neighbor, as a partner in neighborhood revitalization, and as a producer of knowledge?

SOLUTION

The strategy is to design multi-layered rich settings with flexible meanings, where exchange of information can happen. Learning spaces are a matrix of layers that combines architectural specificity and programmatic indeterminacy. The core of any solution needs to be rooted in the various and diverse characteristics of what surmounts to be a learning environment and what constitutes of a learning experience.

INSIGHT

Going through various methods and different levels of research, the real insight is defining the characteristics of these spaces. The spaces that we are designing for are spaces that encourage self-expression, sense of belonging, identity and relation in order to form memorable experiences. These spaces are comfortable for learning and engaging and at the same time, flexible and easily reconfigured. Additionally, these spaces with integrated state-of-the-art equipment are efficient in a well-structured layout with easy access to environmental controls.

RESEARCH + DELIVERABLES

AUB caters for 20,000 students at any moment, and to a much bigger society in its neighborhood and city. All that in addition to the time spent and the variety of users and user experiences made the research a tad more complicated than usual. The tools we choose among many were designed to give us a rounded view of the user experience with a tool such as Offering-Activity-Culture Map, and others tools, which will help us understand the specificity of certain users or experiences such as Personas and 5-Human Factors tool.

OFFERINGS - ACTIVITY - CULTURE MAP

The suitable aspect of this method is that it provides a high-level view of the cultural context. This broadens the examination process. It also shifts innovation offerings from features and products to a higher level with a deeper understanding of background and conditions. Keeping in mind AUB’s role, it helped us understand the intricacies of the students’ life in and outside of the campus.

FIVE HUMAN FACTORS

Observation is key to innovation. One of the best methods of observation and documentation at the same time is the Five Human Factors. It helps researchers look for physical, cognitive, social, cultural, and emotional elements. Grasping those five factors can give individual context to the research. We followed different users along campus using the designated spaces of intervention. Small details like how they sit in class, where they decide to locate in a study hall, or when they use the library were all insightful factors that affected the final design.

PERSONAS

In the process of innovation creation, the user in mind is not just the current user or the “evident user” but also the user of tomorrow, the probable user, and the current non-user that could be a user. Creating user personalities helped us broaden our mindsets and determine the direction to take. Defining different user attributes built our stories and those stories reinforced the conceptual exploration. The exploration helped us actualize stories of non-common and common users but not documented usages of these spaces.

LIGHT SIMULATIONS

The other side of the innovation process is the actual design creation. Keeping in mind all the learnings and insights from research, light simulations was one of many tools used to design the spaces and infuse the essence of learning into architectural fabrication.

QUADRATIC

The collaboration with AUB focused on 4 projects: Engineering Lecture Hall (ELH), Jafet Library, Nicely Prototype Classrooms, and The Reserve Reading Rooms. The design process provided an opportunity to reassess and redesign traditional academic spaces to updated human-centric needs.
The different classroom prototypes tested different settings from round tables, modular system, raked seating to more of a café style arrangements. Jafet Library design took into consideration the different types of users; from students to neighborhood locals and offered a series of spaces catering for different users and different interactions. Engineering Lecture Hall introduced group work to linear lecture spaces. Reserve Reading Rooms offered the users a space of many layers. It was an enabling space for users to express themselves and make it their own. Social, Cognitive, and teaching presence were taken into consideration to provide a fertile ground for growth.