By Janessa Bretner and Rebecca Ochitwa

This project is all about students creating alternative arrangements for the Maker Space classroom designed to promote optimal learning and ensuring that the form of the space matches the function.

To get started with this project, students needed to research criteria that are important for an optimal Maker’s Space. This might include things like ample natural light, comfortable furniture, and plenty of space for collaboration.

Once they had a list of criteria, students started thinking about alternative arrangements for the Maker Space. This is where their creativity and problem-solving skills really came into play. They needed to think about things like the location of furniture, the arrangement of desks and tables, and the use of space. To do this students created a top-down map of the classroom space and cut shapes to represent the furniture in the space to scale. Students collaboratively created a scaled model of their classroom to represent their classroom as it currently looked. Once they had the existing layout complete, they were then tasked with brainstorming alternative layouts.

One of the great things about this project is that students were free to be as creative and imaginative as they wanted! They could introduce new furniture into their designs, such as standing desks, bean bag chairs, storage and more.

Once students came with their alternative arrangements, they created a scale model with 3D elements to represent their re-design of the classroom.  

Overall, the classroom redesign project was a fun and engaging way for students to learn about the importance of how a form of a space, should match the function of the space, and in this case, how the form can impact the learning experience. Students also used our design process while applying their knowledge of scale and drawing. It was a great way to get the students thinking creatively and critically, while preparing them for their final architectural design projects.