Spatial traces of pedagogical constructions of meaning over the course of urban change

Abstract

Ongoing research shows by example that although educational concepts are being developed in schools, these are adapted to extremely district-specific situations, directions and needs. This phenomenon also takes material form in school architecture: they reproduce sections of architecture from the functional buildings in the neighbourhood which enjoyed a central position at the time they were built, but which have lost their significance over time due to urban change. For this reason, educational practice in schools has not produced its own architecture expressing a pedagogical idea which applies across multiple neighbourhoods or is primarily founded in child and youth education processes. Instead, as an educational component of the city, the school prefers merely to reproduce the situations (e.g. crises) going on in the school’s site, which in itself is a sign of its need for professionalisation.