Improvements to teaching and educational practices in schools have been a very topical issue for the last few years, but it is now no longer just a matter for teachers. This was evident on Friday, 15 March, when the Paranimf Hall of the University of Barcelona was filled with teachers and architects attending the seminar Nous espais, nous aprenentatges (New Spaces, New Learning), organised by the Architects’ Association of Catalonia, the Bofill Foundation, and the Ministry of Education.

How can we encourage learning through educational spaces? What should the classrooms of the future be like? How should we transform primary and secondary schools? These and many other questions were addressed during a morning of talks and workshops, presented by Sandra Bestraten, president of the Barcelona branch of the COAC, which were just the starting point for the intensive work that begins now on creating new learning spaces.

During the first half of the seminar, three success stories were presented: the La Mirada School, with architects Jordi Adell and Júlia Nabona; the Farigola del Clot School, with the team from mayorga + fontana arquitectes, and the Lola Anglada School, with the Smart Classroom project by the UOC, which, thanks to the collaboration between teaching teams and architects, have transformed their spaces to adapt them to their educational projects.

In three break-out rooms, almost 500 attendees discussed and generated ideas for establishing ‘New Construction Criteria’, for the ‘Transformation of Educational Centres’ and for the creation of ‘Classrooms of the Future and New Technologies’. These workshops highlighted the needs of educational centres and teachers to transform their spaces, and the potential solutions put forward by architects.