Architecture learning environments: pedagogy and space in the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya's Sant Cugat Campus

Abstract

The qualitative improvement of learning spaces in higher education has oftenbeen linked to the technicalization of classrooms, and to the dissolution of thephysical and temporal framework of teaching. The main objective of thisresearch was to examine the relationship between learning and space, beyondits formal and functional values, and how this relationship contributes topromoting an efficient, cohesive educational community that strengthens linkswith the society that it aspires to serve. Methodologically, a quantitativeapproach to the design of learning spaces is proposed in relation to threeaspects: formal diversity, functional flexibility, and sociability of the universitycommunity. The proposed methodology was applied to the UniversitatPolitècnica de Catalunya's Sant Cugat Campus, which is recognized for theinnovative nature of its pedagogical model, based on project-based learning,and the adaptation of learning spaces to educational projects. With aneducational model that tends to the spatial–temporal dissolution of learningand university spaces designed under the principles of form and function,improvement in the quality of learning is related to the improvement andquality of learning spaces using the principles of functional flexibility, spatialdiversity, and sociability.