Creating Sustainable Learning Spaces
Sustainable Learning Spaces: Design, Infrastructure, and Technology (Section 1)
Chapters in Section One feature new, technologically sophisticated, and sustainable learning spaces with a focus on how they were envisioned and eventually came to fruition. Through discussions of funding, architectural design, and campus partnerships, these chapters illustrate the challenges and rewards of opening new academic spaces. Moreover, the chapters in Section One help to frame key issues when considering sustainability in the design of learning spaces. In particular, these chapters feature emerging writing centers, digital literacy centers, digital studios, and learning commons that weave a narrative of sustainability, including the challenges faced by planning teams.
Focusing on the creation process, chapters in Section One examine the concept of sustainability through the creation of new and redeveloped spaces. Through discussions of funding, architectural design, and campus partnerships, these chapters illustrate the rewards and challenges of opening new academic spaces or redesigning existing ones.
IMAGINING IT. BUILDING IT. LIVING IT. Design and Development of the Communication Center
Karen Head, Georgia Institute of Technology
Rebecca Burnett, Georgia Institute of Technology
Karen Head and Rebecca Burnett’s experience designing and implementing a new communication center space within a LEED-certified building in “Imagining It. Building It. Living It.” explores the complexity of designing an innovative space for honing written, oral, and visual communication while considering sustainable practices.
Collaboration in New Spaces: One Room, One Summer, One Two-Year Technical College
Amy Edwards Patterson, Moraine Park Technical College
Amy Edwards Patterson’s “Collaboration in New Spaces: One Room, One Summer, One Two-Year Technical College” highlights the design of spaces that were implemented by a team charged with exploring funding, technology, sustainable construction, and architectural design.
Composing New Narratives, Creating New Centers: Constructing a Multiliteracy Center with a Wide and Lasting Impact
Justin A. Young, Eastern Washington University
Presenting the challenges and rewards of sustainable planning and practices, Justin A. Young, in “Composing New Narratives, Creating New Spaces: Constructing a Learning Commons With a Wide and Lasting Impact,” explores a learning commons space that integrates the university’s writing center.
A Space Defined: Four Years in the Life of the FSU Digital Studios
Stephen J. McElroy, Florida State University
Jennifer Wells, Florida State University
Andrew Burgess, Florida State University
Jeff Naftzinger, Florida State University
Rory Lee, Florida State University
Josh Mehler, Florida State University
Jason Custer, Florida State University
Aimee Jones, Florida State University
and Joe Cirio, Florida State University
Finally, Stephen McElroy and his colleagues provide a historical perspective of their digital studio in “A Space Defined: Four Years in the Life of the FSU Digital Studios.” Their timeline approach spans the years of spatial and pedagogical development as they highlight the creation of their innovative space for digital composing.