Welcome to the June (summer) 2024 edition of Learning By Design magazine, your premier source for education design innovation and excellence. On education campuses across the country. Summer is a time of built-environment renewal and a refresh of tired or worn spaces. For new construction projects, the summer season typically marks the culmination of years of planning, fundraising, and excitement about moving into new spaces of learning designed for today’s pedagogy and for future generations of students, faculty, and community needs.
Within this edition, our editorial team has brought thought leaders together to share with you their perspectives from a wide variety of expertise and workplaces, who reside in geographically dispersed locations. Together with Learning By Design’s professional membership associations and industry-aligned partners within the following pages you find articles, case studies, product advertisements, and human-interest profiles to help inform, guide, and inspire you when putting the finishing touches for creating new or improved learning-built environments that fall under your stewardship.
The topics and focus of the content are timely, forward-thinking, and many are research informed supported by documented outcomes tied to improving the quality of education, life, and well-being for all campus occupants. The conveyed lessons-learned are applicable to all learning environments whether an early childhood education space, a high school, or at traditional and community-based institutions of higher education. In total, there are twenty-four curated and resourceful stories in this issue.
For me, one of the highlights of this edition is the inauguration of The ICON in Education Design Awards. This by-nomination peer-reviewed program highlights educators, architects, and influencers who are trailblazers and changemakers in their communities and who have made the connection of how the built environment can correlate to improved educational offerings and outcomes. Typically, in Learning By Design we highlight the finished building project, but with this award we are showcasing some amazing people, who have dared to go above-and-beyond the norm in advocating for students, teachers, and community.
Another great insight comes from Crystal Ball O’Connor, PhD, an education specialist working to improve the understanding of how education spaces can enhance teaching and learning. Her perspective, as both a 20-year school board member and as someone who built or renovated 70 excellent schools over a six-year period shines evidence on how the application of modern education design theory translates to statistically proven better student and staff outcomes.
These two examples are just the tip of the iceberg of knowledge easily ready for you to digest when reading this edition of Learning By Design. I hope you find the content to be helpful in your work and the impact you have on students and teachers across the continuum of PreK–12 and Higher Education learning. Enjoy your summer and keep a lookout for the fall 2024 edition of Learning By Design to arrive in your mail or inbox in October.
