Over the last century we have seen a slow transformation of the architecture of school classrooms in response to changing pedagogical theory and practice. A shift from teacher-centred to student-centred learning is accompanied by the move towards a more 'open' plan with new spatial types, interconnections and modes of adaptation. This paper seeks to understand this linkage of plans to pedagogies in the case of the middle school. Using an analytic framework of assemblage theory, clusters of learning spaces from a range of recent innovative school plans are analysed in terms of capacity for socio-spatial interconnection and adaptation. Five primary plan types are identified, ranging from the traditional classroom through various degrees of convertibility to permanently open plans. Patterns of spatial structure and segmentarity emerge to enable new forms of teaching and learning on the one hand, but also to camouflage a conservative pedagogy on the other. If traditional classrooms with their corridors and doors can be understood in terms of Foucaultian disciplinary technology, the new learning clusters suggest a use of Deleuzian social theory to understand an architecture of connectivity and flow. Through an analysis that is intended to reveal rather than eliminate ambiguities, architectural capacities for 'convertibility' from one pedagogy to another are distinguished from properties of 'agility' or 'fluidity' that enable continuous adaptation between learning activities. We find that the most popular types have high levels of convertibility and reveal conflicting desires for both discipline and empowerment. We also suggest that the most open of plans, while cheaper to build, are not the most agile or fluid.
Informal urbanism, from informal settlements to economies and street markets, is integral to cities of the global South -economically, socially, environmentally and aesthetically. this paper seeks to unfold and re-think this informal/formal conception using two interconnected theoretical frameworks. First is assemblage theory derived from the work of Deleuze and guattari, in which a series of twofold concepts such as rhizomic/tree and smooth/striated resonate with the informal/formal construct. Second is theory on complex adaptive systems, in which dynamic and unpredictable patterns of self-organisation emerge with certain levels of resilience or vulnerability. these approaches are drawn together into the concept of a complex adaptive assemblage, illustrated with brief snapshots of urban informality drawn from Southeast asian cities. the challenge is to develop multi-disciplinary, multi-scalar methodologies to explore the ways in which informality is linked to squatting, corruption and poverty on the one hand, and to growth, productivity and creativity on the other.
The urban interface between private and public space, the ways in which private plots plug into public networks, has long been recognized as a key issue in urban design theory. This paper presents a typology for the mapping and analysis of public/private interfaces. Drawing on mappings of the mixed morphology of the Australian inner-city, we develop a simple typology of five primary interface types classified according to access, setback, transparency and mode of access. From a theoretical framework of assemblage theory, the interface is construed as a socio-spatial assemblage wherein types are diagrams of connectivity that enable the creation, production and reproduction of ideas, goods, services and identities. In the second part of the paper we explore the complex dynamics of adaptation and transformation from one type to another. The paper raises questions about the methodology and ontology of micro-spatial analysis in urban research, as well as the importance of interface connections to urban production, exchange and innovation.
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