OPEN LEARNING SPACES: Redefining School Design in a Post-Pandemic World

The increasing awareness of infection control by design during the pandemic has revived the idea of the open environment as the preferable condition for everyday activities. This chapter intends to revisit the idea of open spaces in an educational context as an important aspect of post-pandemic school design. The current practice of education tends to prioritize learning activities that are confined to indoor spaces, while learning outdoor is considered secondary or complementary. Existing research evidence on various spatial aspects related to open learning spaces demonstrate both the benefits and problems related to the use of outdoor spaces as a learning environment. This chapter argues that the spatial configuration that offers an appropriate balance between openness and enclosure will become an important key feature of post-pandemic learning environment design. Various degrees of openness indicate the opportunities to create open learning spaces with different qualities of openness, which could be adapted for various uses and purposes. The increasing role of open learning spaces will inevitably lead to some implications in the practice of post-pandemic school design.