Learning environment by the future society: development of school grounds in Lithuania

Abstract

This paper presents particular aspects of educational function of the schoolyard, and argues that such a space could be used for educating the young generation, collaboration and interaction in creating the living environment. Research of Lithuanian schools’ architecture during the last few decades has indicated the practice of using the school courtyard that could be described as “Forgotten Space”. Education scholars pay exclusive attention to the interaction between learning and playing. Urban gardening, environmental monitoring, design-build studios become integral parts of secondary or even primary education. These activities need proper environment. The majority of Lithuanian youth attends schools built in the interwar and soviet periods that rarely fit the up-to- date paradigm of education and spatial needs. This makes the school environment problematic but, at the same time, perfect as a transformation laboratory for communities as the non-generic “commissioners”, potential driving force of such actions. Architects, landscape architects, urban designers and planners occasionally look at the cooperation with communities as an obstacle or formal “must”. Since 2014, the Faculty of Architecture, VGTU, started to act as a catalyst activating discussions and alternative visions for changes of school spaces, mostly anticipating that the youth (students and school-children) involved would accustom themselves to active and constant co-creation and maintenance of their environment. The overview of the school grounds development in Lithuania during the last century was performed by consistent analysis of different functions. The study of each possible function of school outdoor area was done by applying the three-aspect correlation method: the education theory, legal building regulations and school environment practice. The study of school ground as the contemporary collectively developed playscape presented the results of experimental practices on participatory design and community engagement.