School of Architecture Sustainable schools as the ‘third teacher’ Crea ng a design framework for sustainable schools in Serbia, learning from prac ces in England, Germany, and Spain Thesis submi ed for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy By Marta Brković Sheffi eld, United Kingdom September, 2013 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This research would not be possible without the contribu on, inspira on and dedica on of a vast number of people and organiza ons, to whom I am deeply grateful. Someone once said that everyone should be so lucky in their lives to have at least one great teacher. I consider myself to be extremely lucky. I have two. Without the unwavering support of my two supervisors Prue Chiles and Rosie Parnell no part of this thesis would have been possible. Their intelligent guidance, construc ve cri cism, and endless encouragement helped me start, travel, and fi nish this journey. My deepest gra tude goes to them. I am also grateful to my external supervisor Susanne Hofmann and Die Baupiloten, from TU Berlin, where I have carried out a part of my research. Numerous discussions we had, her enthusiasm, and strong de- termina on to fi ght for the realiza on of unimaginable learning landscapes, inspired me throughout this research. Addi onally, I would like to thank to all those people who supported this research in various ways – my colleague Dr. Oriol Pons from Polytechnic University Catalonia for collabora ng with me in Spain; the architectural bureaus Building Design Partnership (BDR) from Sheffi eld and Pich Aguilera Architects from Barcelona, for sharing their school design vision and providing me with all the technical drawings and documents; the Bureau of Design Research (BDR), Cris na Cerulli, and Peter Blundell Jones from Sheffi eld School of Architecture for insigh ul comments. Clearly, without the par cipa on of teachers and pupils from England, Spain and Serbia this research could not be completed. Their comments illuminated my decisions, inspired my design, and reinforced my belief that making schools more sustainable, and pedagogically valuable, is an idea worth fi gh ng for. I would also like to thank Deutsche Bundess ung Umwelt, Santander Research Mobility Award, Robert`s Fund for Knowledge Transfer Partnership from The University of Sheffi eld, Fund for Women Graduates, which fi nancially supported various parts of this research. I must specially thank the Fund for Young Tal- ents - Serbian Ministry for Youth and Sports, for giving me half of the scholarship for the fi rst year of my studies, and then withdrawing it for the next two years. Having a secure and steady fi nancial help from my country would probably made me not so proac ve, and would not challenged me to fi ght for addi onal fi nancial help. They helped me learn that fi rmly believing in an idea, and being surrounded by suppor ve people, there are no boundaries that cannot be surpassed. I would like to specially thank my colleagues from the NGO ARQubator: Miloš Vlas ć, Petar Milašinović, Slobodan Marinkov, Ana Lazović, Stefan Tepić, Vuk Đorđević, Ana Zastranović, Milica Stanković, Ognjan Vasić, as well as all the other students from the School of Architecture, Union University – Nikola Tesla from Belgrade. They are inspiring colleagues and suppor ve friends, who taught me that for making radi- cal changes, as the once we planned, a team eff ort is needed. Last, but not the least my family. Without not just fi nancial, but emo onal and moral support of my moth- er Milanka, my father Željko, my brother Danilo, and my partner Lazar Dodig, this thesis would not be in our hands. This thesis is for them. The success of this research I share with all of the previously men oned people, while the mistakes made along the way are solely mine. iii ABSTRACT Since 2009, when Serbia applied for candidacy in the European Union, the debate about educa onal reform geared up. Along the way important aspects of educa on have been modernized such as: edu- ca onal goals, regula ons, teaching and learning methods, curriculum, etc. Addi onally, the Ministry of Educa on obtained funding for “School Modernisa on Programme” aiming to improve the quality of learning environments. However, the debate about what kind of schools Serbia should aim to build in the 21st century has not started yet. Close examina on of the newly proposed educa onal goals set by the Serbian Ministry of Educa on suggests that educa on should be reformed with sustainability in mind. Therefore, by implica on school design also. The problem is that the majority of relevant professionals are approaching school design from a less than cri cal posi on. The situa on is quite diff erent in Western Europe. Some architects here have realised that sustainable schools could reduce the impact on the environment and contribute toward a more sustainable life. They have also discovered that the school environment impacts on the learning process, and can incite and even provoke learning. These architects believe that the school space and design can be a “third teacher”. A small number have ventured a step further and used school design to raise awareness about sustainabil- ity issues, and s mulate children to explore them. Under these circumstances a ques on that emerges for an architect from Serbia is how should we, in Serbia, develop architectural design for schools to be more sustainable and pedagogically valuable? The main aim of this thesis is the development of a series of design ideas so that one exemplar school in Serbia could be transformed in this way. This thesis explored three sustainable schools and their pedagogi- cal poten al with architects, teachers, and pupils. One of the schools was in Germany, one in Spain, and one in England. Triangula on of their experience with the exis ng literature from the fi eld of architecture, pedagogy, developmental and environmental psychology, led to development of key messages useful for developing design ideas. Addi onally, the most important messages were theore cally framed so that a be er and improved framework for analysing and designing pedagogically valuable sustainable schools could be proposed. These insights are then translated and implemented in Serbia through the design of one school. A school from Serbia, wishing to act as an exemplar, embarked this journey. Through par ci- patory ac on research I encouraged them to cri cally refl ect on their current learning environment, and later on, through a par cipatory design process developed a series of ideas for the school. Finally, ren- dered through an array of contextual challenges and poten als, and inspired by this wealth of teachers and pupils ideas, my research developed a set of design proposals for transforming this exemplar school in Serbia into a more sustainable one, poten ally able to act as the “third teacher”. iv CONTENTS List of illustra ons .....................................................................................................................................................viii Preface ......................................................................................................................................................................xv CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER 2 ESTABLISHING THE RESEARCH BACKGROUND ....................................................................................................7 Global challenges 5 Sustainable development 8 Educa on for sustainable development 9 Educa onal reform in Serbia, England, and Germany 10 The legacy of history in Serbia 10 Educa onal reform in England and Germany 11 Educa onal reform in Serbia 13 Educa onal goals 13 Regula ons 15 Teachers and teaching/learning methods 16 Curriculum 17 Governance 19 Equipment 19 Summary 20 CHAPTER 3 SCHOOL BUILDINGS IN SERBIA NOW AND THEN: THE CRITICAL APPRAISAL......................................................23 School building modernisa on programmes in Serbia, England, and Germany 23 Newly built schools in Serbia 26 The infl uences on school design in Serbia 28 The cri que of school design in Serbia 31 Architects and architecture as catalysts of change 34 Summary 37 CHAPTER 4 SUSTAINABLE SCHOOLS AS THE “THIRD TEACHER”: INSIGHTS FORM THE PAST, CHALLENGES FOR THE FUTURE ..............................................................................39 Sustainability themes to which schools should respond to 39 Sustainable schools: The three groups of studies 42 Sustainable school as the “third teacher” 43 How the third teacher teaches: Sustainability themes and links emerging 46 Evalua ng the teaching poten al of sustainable schools: The tools available 51 Challenges for the future 53 Summary 56 CHAPTER 5 RESEARCHER ARCHITECT: A METHODOLOGICAL POSITION.......................................................................59 The research methodology, the research design and the underlying theories 60 Research methodology 60 Research design 61 The underlying theore cal approaches 62 Research by design 62 Evidence-based design 64 Par cipatory ac on research 65 v Par cipants 66 Selec on criteria 66 Sampling method 67 Ethical considera ons and data collec on 67 The research tools 68 The tools for cri cal engagement 68 Spector – Sustainability Inspector: Important characteris cs of the game 72 Theore cal background of the game Spector – Sustainability Inspector 73 The tools for crea ve engagement 76 The tools for cri cal and crea ve engagements: Successful choices?