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Brain boxes

When I was at university, I spent a lot of time in the library staring into space. It wasn't that my mind was void of thought, you understand. Par contre, it was often too full of competing and conflicting ideas and nascent notions. I'd still be able to describe the hallowed reading room's ceiling to you in minute detail. 
 
Third-level education is where the training wheels come off and (mostly) young people are invited to develop their intellectual faculties independently. The role that architecture has to play here shouldn't be underestimated. As places and spaces of inspiration, they also have to fulfil their utilitarian function effortlessly. And, increasingly, flexibly. 

The landscape of third-level education is changing and, with it, its literal architectural landscape. Flexible learning requires flexible spatial solutions. 

A shift in the classic classroom dynamic has occurred and architects have taken note, designing schools that are ready to respond to the future with a mind toward sustainability and more room for creativity.

The design of Pedrali has been selected for schools and universities
 
Nowadays schools and universities are designed to be flexible and the furniture has become the main protagonist. Tables and seating create a variety of configurations: Pedrali collections meet the new needs of these dynamic and constantly evolving spaces.

At their best, faculty buildings that house schools of architecture and design – apart from serving functional needs of its occupants – strive to demonstrate and represent the pedagogical ambitions of the school itself. In the case of the SDE in Singapore, the focus was on creating a NET Zero-energy building – that is to say, a building that generates as much if not more energy than it consumes within its building footprint. 

Architekten + Partner Dannien Roller's focus is on the workplace: the place where we spend most of our lives awake. Although we live in a world that is becoming more and more mobile from day to day, administration and production, research and teaching, education and training, and work, are linked to physical places. This topos requires both material and emotional criteria, to which they respond creatively, innovatively and with outstanding design quality.