COMEBACK OF THE REFORM PEDAGOGUES

Since the end of the 19th century, various reform pedagogues have opposed this rigid concept of school, calling for individual support, greater well-being and social interaction: from Paul Petersen, who spoke out in favour of abolishing grades and mass schools, to Maria Montessori, who advocated child-friendly room design, to Loris Malaguzzi, a key supporter of Reggio pedagogy, which defined the room as a third educator. "In Reggio pedagogy, the child is the constructor of its own knowledge, the pedagogue and the social environment take on the role of the second educator and the space with its material equipment is the third educator," explains Sabine Brehm, consultant for Reggio-inspired culture of learning. "The space plays an essential role: it provides important stimuli and an atmosphere in which to internalise learning. It's about aesthetics, security and challenges." In the 1960s and 1970s, the design ideas of the reform schools were hardly ever implemented; instead, school construction seemed to be orientated towards industrial buildings - with bunker-like concrete blocks and box-shaped low-rise buildings. It was only from the 1980s onwards that reformist pedagogical ideas made a comeback and studies in architectural psychology increasingly focussed on the effect of spaces on the psyche and well-being.

MODERN LEARNING: CLUSTER, OPEN LEARNING LANDSCAPE AND LEARNING CENTRE

Discovering and co-operative learning is the order of the day in the 21st century. "School is a learning and living space for children," says Anne Lena Ritter, Head of the Office for School Development in Cologne. "Researching, learning, moving, playing, relaxing and eating: All these activities must be able to take place in a sustainable school building." The new school building concepts have names such as cluster, open learning landscape or learning house. A cluster combines different teaching and learning areas as well as differentiation, recreation and relaxation areas into a single unit. It enables pedagogical flexibility when changing forms of learning and favours teamwork. The open learning landscape offers even more openness for different activities - with flexible furniture and smaller spaces. Here, the classic classroom is effectively dissolved: several classes learn and work together. A learning house, on the other hand, consists of four to six classes and, with its permanent team, forms a family-like "small school within a large school" - with its own rooms, its own management and its own organisation.

FLEXIBLE, DIGITAL AND IN LINE WITH THE EDUCATIONAL CONCEPT: SCHOOL FURNITURE

The furniture industry has also recognised the signs of the times: Flexible, customisable furniture is available for schools: height-adjustable desks, ergonomic chairs, rollable room dividers or modular seating landscapes. Following the experience with homeschooling, blended learning - the combination of online learning with face-to-face teaching - is likely to become even more important. Flötotto Learning Spaces, based in Hamburg, specialises in innovative learning space concepts that take particular account of the new framework conditions for teaching in the digital age. The result of the merger between school equipment supplier Flötotto Einrichtungssysteme and the Gesellschaft für digitale Bildung (GfdB), the company knows the needs of schools all too well. It sells furniture in a wide variety of shapes that can be moved even by small children, mobile board elements that can be easily detached and offers accessories for integrating digital end devices. Flexible furniture means flexible teaching. An innovative learning landscape allows a quick transition from the instruction phase to individual or group work and can be used in a variety of ways thanks to zoning: as a workshop, stage, exhibition space, communication platform, quiet zone or reading island. This makes lessons more varied for pupils and easier for teachers: they can freely organise their teaching scenarios and the classroom becomes a third teacher.