Inspired by light and space: How architecture can influence the learning experience

lthough nobody would suggest that there is a single blueprint for designing 21st-century FE colleges, Chris Banks, the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) chairman says there is one certain truth in all educational buildings. "Anyone who teaches," he says, "will tell you that their students will be more responsive, attentive and enthusiastic in a bright, airy and stimulating classroom."

The same goes for the wider college environment, adds Peter Tavernor, principal of Manchester College of Arts and Technology (Mancat). He should know. Having inherited a down-at-heel, dark Fifties college in a deprived area in 1997, he is now head of a group of state-of-the-art buildings including a four-storey glass atrium, flooded with natural light, and a large exhibition space, as well as a huge open-plan restaurant, a giant water feature and a two-storey escalator linking a ground-floor and second-floor library.

"How buildings look and work is a vital component of learning outcomes," he says. And he can prove it. In 1998, Ofsted ranked Mancat as "below average" in terms of its overall performance. Earlier this year, it was graded "outstanding" by Ofsted, and Mancat is now in the top 20 per cent of the country in terms of Level 1, 2 and 3 results. The biggest change that has taken place during this time, says Tavernor, is the physical regeneration of the college.

It hasn't all been about brand new buildings, he points out. Indeed, Mancat created a football pitch out of a long-redundant former graveyard and deployed a disused tobacco warehouse for its office and administration staff as part of its £58m redevelopment.

The Government is increasingly recognising the importance of the link between learning and the environment in which it takes place. Indeed, Bill Rammell MP, Minister of State for Lifelong Learning, Further and Higher Education, recently announced the findings of new research which links capital investment with increased participation levels at Further Education colleges. "The Government is fully committed to transforming the FE estate," he says. "Prior to this the earmarked Government expenditure on FE capital in 1996-97 was nil. Our aim is to make the UK FE estate the best in the world, delivering learning in buildings that are innovative and inspirational and that are designed to fully meet the needs of individuals, employers, and our communities, both for the challenges we face today, as well as for those we will face in the future."

Last year alone, the LSC provided around £400m of grants for around £1bn of college development. Philip Head, infrastructure and property services director at the LSC, reports that more than half of the country's 390 FE colleges currently have capital projects underway.

Behind all these projects lies the belief that the typical concrete and glass construction that defined the educational landscape for much of the Fifties and Sixties has got to go, whether this means bulldozing existing sites, designing purpose-built ones or working with existing environments.

More space, greater flexibility, sustainability and a generous mix of formal and informal study areas are just some of the components that help integrate learning and information-sharing into everyday college life. Meanwhile, natural light has been shown to lift the spirits of students and teachers. Little wonder that such features are top of the priority list in the 21st- century college.

In fact, educational wisdom has long argued that it is often the most depressing looking buildings that house the most inspirational teachers and that it is still possible to have world-class teaching in portable buildings and wooden huts. But this almost reverse snobbery against more imaginative design is finally giving way to the belief that teenagers born in the Nineties have very different needs and expectations to their parents. "It's about respecting students and giving them a building and facilities they can be proud of," explains Tavernor.

Nevertheless, new builds alone - with no innovation - are not enough, as a recent report by the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (Cabe) discovered. The study, carried out by the Government's own advisers, found that billions of pounds were being wasted on badly-designed and poorly-built schools. Indeed, as many as 50 per cent of the schools built between 2000 and 2005 were reported as being "poor", with just 19 per cent of them being described as "exemplary, inspiring, innovative or flexibly designed."

Cabe concluded that too many schools looked as though they were trying to control children rather than inspire them and failed to tackle basic issues such as ventilation and natural daylight. The report added that the worst new schools looked like prisons and appeared not to "respect" pupils.

Back in colleges, if the traditional arrangement of cramped classrooms and dingy corridors in a 40 or 50-year-old building hampers both teaching and social facilities, then today's design should be led by the freedom of modern technology, says a recent report on 21st-century learning by the Higher Education Fund Council for England (HEFCE).

Just as interactive whiteboards and wireless networks are freeing students to choose where and when they study, hi-tech systems can also liberate colleges from the old entrenched ideas of where teaching should take place.

Among its recommendations, HEFCE says that colleges of the future should be flexible, future-proofed, bold, creative, supportive and enterprising, and argues that technology can play a crucial part in delivering all these things. Wireless connectivity within a brightly-lit atrium, learning café or open-plan social area encourages a desire to learn outside timetabled classes and social interaction between students improves results.

Look out for our focus on green college buildings and courses in the next edition of 'Further Education' on 28 June

'Teenagers are demanding consumers'

South East Essex College began life in 1899 as the Day Art School in Southend. Highly commended in the 2006 LSC/Riba awards, it is now housed in a £53m building off Southend High Street which has changed the town's skyline forever, and is now an integrated HE/FE site marking a joint venture agreement with the University of Essex.

Architects KSS Design were given a brief which they responded to with a design that incorporates a huge conservatory and atrium housing seven floors of learning space, a 25-seat lecture theatre in a red "pod" and six "floating" dining platforms for students and staff.

For the wider community, the college now offers for hire a business and conference centre, a performance "pod", lecture theatre, sports ground and sports lab and there are now plans to apply for a weddings licence.

Aside from the sheer wow factor, the building provides 26,500sq m of flexible learning space for up to 15,000 students.

The building opened on time and on budget in September 2004 in time for more than 2,100 first year students - the biggest intake that the college had seen - to walk through the revolving doors.

The 2006 results showed a 98 per cent pass rate in the BTEC national diploma; matched by a 98 per cent pass rate at A-level - the college's best results to dates.

To Mark Vinall, college director of curriculum and communications, teenagers are extremely demanding consumers when it comes to building design.

"Having a bright, airy and welcoming space is of paramount concern to teenage students in my experience.

"They are very critical when they feel that a college isn't investing enough money in them and they are also very critical if they find that their expectations of a facility don't appear up to scratch.

"A world-class building inspires both staff and students and excites their imagination. We don't have shareholders but we do have learners and they are worth every penny."