For a moment, first- and second-year students in the UIC Degree Programme in Preschool Education pretended "to be architects" as they tried to apply their knowledge of education to the design of a preschool. The students, guided by Tuomo Jauhiainen from Finland and Ferran Baesa, specialists in building classrooms and schools, had to create a 1:20 scale model of their project.
The project began on Monday, 18 March 2013, when the architects Jauhiainen and Baesa gave the lecture "School Architecture: Building Preschool Classrooms and Schools. Models to Follow and the Finnish Proposal" to UIC preschool education students. At its conclusion, the architects formed part of the jury that assessed the projects based on the models created by the students. The models were exhibited in the faculty.
The architects, experts in the design of classrooms and schools, emphasized the importance of good communication between the two professions. “Nowadays, when designing new schools, we have to keep in mind several factors, such as functionality, flexibility, air, acoustics, light", said Jauhiainen. "That's why it makes the most sense for architects and educators to work on them together. It's very important for teacher training to reflect these issues and learn to value them and manage them”. Baesa added, “Architecture for schools, which are the primary space for learning, should be designed so that the children feel they're a part of it”.
“After analysing different models of teaching, studying the construction standards of schools and listening to what these two architects had to say, the students had to make proposals based on teaching criteria as well as national regulations for schools so that their projects would reflect real spaces”, explained Meritxell Balcells, the professor of the subject in which the project was carried out.
