Building a School – the Right Decisions From the Start Create Better Learning Environments

Building, renovating or co-locating a school is one of the largest investments a community makes. Yet many crucial decisions about premises and interiors are based on gut feeling or made too late in the process. A learning space analysis helps schools and governing bodies make accurate, fact-based decisions – before the drawings are finalised.

Accessibility, combined with participation and equality, creates the conditions for inclusion.

Accessible learning environments – a prerequisite for learning

By starting from the organisation’s actual needs, learning environments that support teaching, work over time and provide better conditions for both students and staff can be created.

The Swedish National Agency for Special Needs Education and Schools (SPSM) describes accessible learning environments as an interaction between the pedagogical, social and physical environment. For all students to be able to participate and succeed, teaching, relationships and the physical design need to be planned together – with students’ different needs and abilities as the starting point.

A learning space analysis helps schools put this approach into practice by highlighting how the learning environments work today and what needs to be developed in order to create a more accessible and inclusive school.

What is a learning space analysis – and why is it needed?

A learning space analysis is a structured preparatory process that maps how the school’s pedagogical, social and physical environments interact. The aim is to understand how the learning environments are used today, what challenges exist and what is required to create a better learning situation in the future. When the building and interiors are planned in parallel, based on the analysis, the risk of costly rework and solutions that are not fully used is reduced.

Vision and goals

Mapping and involvement

Results and recommendations

The analysis answers questions such as:

Do the learning environments support safety and focus on learning?
Do the learning environments encourage collaboration?
Do the environments promote health and wellbeing among students and school staff?
How do we experience the acoustics, light and air?
Is the school designed for our ways of working and for different learning situations?

How a learning space analysis helps in practice

By combining workshops, dialogue, observations and online surveys, fact-based knowledge is gathered about the organisation’s needs. The result is a clear basis for decision-making that shows what should be retained, changed and developed.

A well-executed learning space analysis:

Reduces uncertainty in complex decisions
Replaces guesswork with data
Creates a shared understanding between school management, staff and other stakeholders
Prioritises the right investments – both in the short and long term

What should you consider during the preparatory work?

For the learning environment analysis to have real impact, the right conditions are required. Here are some decisive factors to consider early in the process:

Organisation and structure

Appoint a dedicated project group
Decide on methodology and tools for the preparatory work
Collaborate with other functions, such as property and IT
Plan the building and interiors in parallel

Knowledge and inspiration

Take part in research and external insights
Draw inspiration from other school projects and study visits
Reflect on existing learning environments – what works, and why?

Participation and dialogue

Set a clear vision, goals and framework
Discuss the school’s challenges and opportunities together
Plan how and when staff and students should be involved
Carry out practical workshops
Gather fact-based knowledge through online surveys

Resources and long-term perspective

Inventory existing furniture
Test-furnish existing spaces
Budget for skills development among staff
Allocate resources for follow-up after moving in

When working with vision, goals and framework, it is useful to first discuss the values that will form the basis for the new learning environments.

Ideally, the focus should not be on the building first and the interiors later. Instead, the processes should run in parallel, with both staff and students involved as much as possible.

From analysis to sustainable learning environments

Every school is different – there is no ready-made answer. But by starting in the right place, with a learning space analysis as the foundation, better conditions are created for learning environments that are inclusive, functional and sustainable over time.

It is only when the organisation’s needs, the people and the physical environment work together that the investment truly pays off – in the form of better learning, increased safety and a school that works in everyday life.

Three questions for Henrik Axell, Head of Workplace Strategy at Kinnarps

Why is the preparatory work so important?

– The most important decisions are made early in the process. When the organisation’s needs are captured from the outset, there is the greatest opportunity to create a school environment that works in practice. If you wait too long, changes become both more complicated and more costly to implement. The clearer the target picture and understanding of needs from the start, the better the result. It affects everything from how the premises are designed to which colours and materials are used. That is why it is also important to involve both students and staff early in the process and allow their experiences to contribute to the basis for decision-making.

What benefit do you see schools gaining from the Next Education® learning environment analysis?

– Decisions become more accurate, leading to learning environments that support teaching and stand the test of time. The data we collect methodically means there is no need to guess. It clearly shows what works and what can be improved, and makes it possible to compare a ‘before’ and an ‘after’.

What makes Kinnarps’ learning environment analysis unique?

– Partly the access to data, which makes everything very concrete for the customer, and partly the structured way in which we involve staff, experts and students. Co-locating or building a school always involves change management. We are involved throughout the journey, providing support and opening up new ideas and thoughts about how the physical environment can be designed and used for optimised learning.

Are you facing a co-location project or planning to build a school?

The school of the future is more than a building – it is part of society. Through collaboration and long-term, sustainable decisions, school environments can be created that are used efficiently and stand the test of time.