Futuring New School Design From Within: Experiments in Speculative Mapping and Modeling

• In Event: Sunday Roundtable 9:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Qualitative Inquiry Through the Senses (Table 40)

Abstract

We present findings from a study across education, architecture, and design on the spatial experience of school buildings. We focalize on methods of mapping and modelling data generated through a collaborative sensory ethnography of a new school building in Liverpool. We draw from Latour’s concept of the Terrestrial and its connections with design practices to experiment with visualization methods that combine techniques of description and imagination to address school design from within, rather than against design practices. The outcomes are “living maps” and 3D models that render visible the agentive force of space, and the affective dimension of spatial experience. The maps and models open the school building to multiple futures by visualizing the limits/possibilities of spatial life in schools.

Authors

• Laura Trafi-Prats, Manchester Metropolitan University

• Elizabeth De Freitas, Adelphi University