projects and articles by members

Learnscape
- The Interconnections between the Child and the City

I am an architect at the Oslo School of Architecture, engaged on my PhD thesis. The theme of my research is the impact on learning outcomes of the design of the physical environment in which children live and grow up.

My thesis involves the discussion of school architecture as a tool in the learning process and ideas about how to design environments that assist learning. I question the child-city relationship and the alienation of children from their environment that has resulted in global concern and has brought professionals from the fields of architecture, psychology, and education as well as politicians, to organise projects and conferences on these issues.

The aim of my project is to focus attention on school architecture as a connecting link between the child and the context in which the child lives, and to inquire into the nature of the relationship between the child and the physical dimensions of the learning environment. My research builds on the questions of how this relationship influences learning and how school architecture can mediate in this process.

In my thesis, I introduce the term Learnscape, my original contribution to knowledge, which is the 'learning landscape' where architecture is the manifestation of the context (e.g. city, nature).

Mitra M. Hedman

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