The theme of the 2019 Education Buildings Scotland Conference is ‘Scotland’s Learning Estate – Connecting People, Places and Learning’. It focuses on the new Scottish Government/COSLA Learning Estate Strategy published in September 2019.
This short publication provides some reflections on the Education Buildings Scotland Award winners. It draws out the story of the award-winning projects and sector partners, and provides some learning reflections to support the ambitions of the Learning Estate Strategy.
A cornerstone of the new Strategy is to connect people, place and learning across all ages and stages of life. This year’s conference explores the evidence, benefits and spatial possibilities of doing so. It aims to foster greater collaboration in creating new integrated learning environments to improve the education and life chances of children and young people, as well as their communities.
The Scottish Government, Scottish Futures Trust and Architecture and Design Scotland (A&DS) are working as a team to support local authorities in implementing the Learning Estate Strategy.
Learning from and building on what’s gone before is central to the new Learning Estate Strategy. This publication aims to help facilitate such conversation and reflection by examining a sample of recent projects and active sector partners – consultants, designers, contractors – in the context of the Strategy.
The 2019 Education Buildings Scotland Awards provide an opportunity to draw just such a sample, as it celebrates some of the most exciting recent projects and the most innovative partners. Though the award-winning projects were all conceived before the Learning Estate Strategy was published and so predate it, many of them embody some of its principles. They provide glimpses of what’s possible – whether on the small scale of a room refurbishment or the large scale of a new-build school.
We hope that this examination of the award winners in the context of ‘Connecting People, Places and Learning’ provides some useful food for thought.
Learning from and building on what’s gone before is central to the new Learning Estate Strategy.
