Assembling the Embodiment of Learning: How can an architectural assemblage be composed to provoke learning?

Education is moving away from being a theory-based discipline to one that is acknowledging the importance of practice within the process of learning. As educators and researchers realise the relevance of experience within the ongoing process of learning, the educational discipline is beginning to adapt its practice to accommodate this contextual shift. This shifting context has emerged the realization that architecture for education often lacks the integration and acknowledgement of embodiment and advocating experience.

This realization has provoked many designers and researchers to reconsider how architecture is to be designed to accommodate this educational refocus. Through close analysis of previous research and the design strategies they adopt, the research gap can be identified. While trying to achieve new architectural designs with the aim to accommodate the shift that is the educational context, there is a discrepancy within the approach taken to achieve this goal. The general approach taken within pre-existing research and designs evidently tends to take inspirations and motivations from contemporary learning activities and architectures. Thus, resulting in architectural designs that remains to lack accommodating for embodiment and experience within the learning environment.

This is an extensive issue as learning is an ongoing process that, both consciously and unconsciously, persists throughout individuals’ livelihoods as they engage to their surroundings. As a discipline that has the power to research gap can be identified. While trying to achieve new architectural designs with the aim to accommodate the shift that is the educational context, there is a discrepancy within the approach taken to achieve this goal. The general approach taken within pre-existing research and designs evidently tends to take inspirations and motivations from contemporary learning activities and architectures. Thus, resulting in architectural designs that fail to accommodate for the experience of learning.

This is an extensive issue as learning is an ongoing process that, both consciously and unconsciously, persists throughout individuals’ livelihoods as they engage to their surroundings. As a discipline that has the power to influence the built environment and the metaphysical world that creates these livelihoods, it is imperative to better establish ways that the built environment can be more accommodating to heighten senses and experience.

This thesis pinpoints the issues within the existing and previous research and design processes, while proposing for an alternative approach to how architecture can be designed to provoke the essence of learning through its assemblage. Alternative approaches will be taken through all the stages of research explorations; literature reviews, case study analysis, site and programme establishments, as well as performance and design criteria established. Rather than research and analysing typical learning processes and designs, this thesis reconstructs its own essence of learning and its criteria, thus taking inspirations from case studies that are not accommodating for typical educational activities, but the performances required.

The research scheme constructs a framework that can become a guideline for assembling architectural environments that better accommodates the experience of embodiment particularly within an educational context.