Renewing Middle School Facilities

This book draws on important original transdisciplinary research to address a wide range of issues relating to the remodeling of existing schools for pre-teenagers to fit them to various novel teaching models (e.g. collaborative learning, ICT integration, and out-of-classroom working) and to create effective educational environments for the future.
The strong relationship between people's wellbeing, physical environment and student learning in schools has already been extensively studied in international research. At the same time, a number of different scenarios of possible innovations are now emerging, and these require conscious choices in terms of designing both the ways and the places where educational processes can be developed.
The principal focus of this research was the relationship between infrastructure, activities, and school communities.

The book is divided into three sections, the first of which discusses conceptual aspects and outlines innovative renewal strategies. The second section describes a participatory research process developed in five case studies of lower-secondary or middle schools with the aim of updating our knowledge about such schools and identifying emerging issues. The last section presents case studies, operational tools, and design strategies that aid decision-making and support interventions to renew school facilities. The book is intended mainly for scholars of architecture and education, but is also of interest to a wider readership, including principals, teachers, designers, decision-makers in school communities, and heads of municipal education departments.

Maria Fianchini is an Associate Professor of Architectural Technology at the Department of Architecture and Urban Studies (DAStU), Politecnico di Milano, Italy. She graduated in Architecture in 1989 and subsequently specialized in monument preservation; she holds a Ph.D. in Building and Environmental Rehabilitation from the University of Genoa. Her research and educational work focuses mainly on performance analysis and project aspects relating to the existing buildings. Dr. Fianchini has completed several studies on learning environments as well as field research in schools and universities. She was the Scientific Lead for the research program 'Back to School,' funded by DAStU.