What makes a quality space for teaching and learning? According to us, the answer is a well-planned design process that applies intensive user participation. In our current demo platforms, we are studying the before and after contexts of campus learning spaces in existing lecture halls and the lounge connecting them. The initial phases take place at the University of Helsinki, on its Siltavuori campus where the Faculty of Educational Sciences is located. The work was initiated in August, and involves the expertise of service designer Jaana Tarma and interior designer Elina Grigoriou who specialises in sustainable spaces that promote well-being and interaction. In August, the IT personnel, designers and campus architects of the Centre Campus at University of Helsinki participated in the workshops that aimed to identify the possibilities for designing and developing classrooms for flipped learning. The work is carried out in well-planned phases that are documented and studied using different methodologies.
If we are to put learning in the centre, we should always be up to and willing to learn new things and skills – from people who are better than ourselves. In our case, when doing participatory and service design, we need and want to learn from the experts that are contributing priceless know-how in the process, with the aim of building a better university and university campuses for needs to come. One of our suggestions for any campus development project, thus, is to screen for and invite service design expertise, indoor design, ICT and pedagogical knowledge, among many others – leading to the best possible outcome. We build and test a HUB for campus development and transdisciplinary learning.
Niclas Sandström and Anne Nevgi
University of Helsinki
