As soon as we enter, we've seen real trees inside the school and a child in the upper branch. Won't it fall? Our concern. That so far they have not had any misgivings, that every child measures their abilities and risks and that whoever cannot get up to the top is not going to do what Professor Izaskun Aranbarri says. We are in the Uribarri building (Ikastola Arizmendi, Arrasate), which welcomes about 150 children and ten teachers from 0 to 6 years old. It consists of two floors and is organized by spaces, but these spaces are not isolated spaces, but open spaces, without walls, playful and colorful. We have seen many places: to do crafts, to experiment with different materials, to work for projects, to play… and we have also found a corner to be quiet in all spaces, protected by a transparent curtain; mats, cushions, books, quiet music, projector… “Even when they are angry, they are going to stop there”, Aranbarri says.

The structures and furniture have different degrees of difficulty, as the student will go to test depending on their ability to jump, up or down. Moreover, those between 0 and 2 years old somehow carry out the architectural transition: they separate the slopes from the quieter and more complex space, and when they are able to climb the slope, they are willing to go to the second place. A child who seeks peace of mind can also walk down. Labyrinths and, above all, holes can be found in many structures in order to offer intimate spaces: in small groups or alone, children like to get into holes and work on their own. Parents also have their space, by the time they leave and receive their children, as a transition. The large stained glass allows the entrance of light and heat from the sun and the mixed toilets are surrounded by stained glass at the sight of all. “We have nothing to hide here.”

Mixed and surrounded by stained glass, so are the toilets in the Arimazubi building of the ikastola Arizmendi. On the ground floor are the first and second years of Primary Education. It has 88 students and four permanent teachers and is a plant divided by large stained glass windows, but united by a single hallway; the faculty room is also integrated into the same space. And they have an amphitheater with stands to bring the whole group together. The next challenge, the acoustics, is to lower the ceiling and suck the noise with special materials.

In total, Arizmendi has 12 buildings and about 3,000 students, from Early Childhood Education to Vocational Training. The architectural changes began eight years ago and today the six buildings of Early Childhood Education and the first and second courses of Primary Education have been remodeled, in the attempt to organize a space consistent with the pedagogy of trust. At the moment they are immersed in the remodeling of the whole Primary Education and the Baccalaureate space; the spaces they want for these ages are being discussed and works will be carried out in summer in several buildings. Then the transformation of the Secondary spaces will come. They want to give continuity to the pedagogy started in childhood even at higher levels, because what sense does it make to work with children innovative proposals, if suddenly they turn to the usual rigid schemes?

From rigid structures to transparent spaces

“The classrooms are not meant to teach, but to control,” they are words of the educator Stephen Heppell. The pedagogical director of Arizmendi, Amaia Antero, is not so crude, but it is clear: the concept of space cannot be isolated from the pedagogical approach, “and school spaces, with exceptions, have responded to a social model, to the mentality of industrialization: discipline and authority. This requires putting the teacher in the center and the students in rows in order to listen and obey the teacher in a one-way teaching. In our current approach, the moments when teachers inform students do not disappear, but the question is in what proportion they do it, and how: they can work in groups, in a self-employed group and in another group accompanied by the teacher. Because the learning process is built in many directions, not just from the professor.” All of this facilitates and makes possible the remodeling of the space. “In addition, the spaces so far were cold, we are looking for another warmth.”

We have also achieved this: the diaphanous spaces are broad the result of the architectural changes in Arizmendi: “The logic of the room disappears and there are no classrooms anymore, but spaces; it is a scheme that is repeated at all levels,” says Antero. This has broken the dynamics a classroom = a teacher, there is more than one teacher in the same field, because the transparency we have sought in the spaces is linked to the closeness, to the closeness, to the closeness of others, to the view at all times. At the moment when a difficulty arises (competitive, emotional, physical…), the faculty is present and is important to develop a relationship of trust between us”. This organization also invites teachers to work together, “which means agreeing more among them, that the looks towards children be more varied, that coincide more with a vision of the situation…”. Likewise, the new space allows the students to work in groups and txokos, “because one of our main bases is to work in the cooperative structure”.

Aware that climate is fundamental to encourage curiosity and motivation, “we have sought structures that stimulate, but also spaces that transmit tranquility. Stained glass windows are important because natural light influences joy; the architects themselves confirm it, exterior light serves to activate learning.” In addition, “in a closed classroom the level of carbon dioxide is increasing as the morning progresses and it is difficult to concentrate students from 2,000 particles and can reach 4,000,” we read Stephen Heppell. There are also open spaces for dealing with it.

Another feature highlighted by Antero is flexibility. These are spaces of varied possibilities and flexible structure, suitable for moving from one project/txoko/group to another, and are also contacting the furnishing services to, among other things, obtain ergonomic wheelchairs and tables.

Flexibility = chaos?

Free play, flexibility in movements, ample spaces that leave freedom… are they not allies of chaos? “Opening the space does not mean that everything is free,” Antero said. The question is what is done in that space, and chaos will be if the learning process is not directed, but in the closed room the same thing can happen. Our tendency, rather than by subjects, is to work for projects, around the same project addressing different areas and disciplines, and the faculty leads this process. In some moments the students will need explanations from the professor and in others they will do it autonomously”.

Consequences in the relationship, psychomotor skills, autonomy…

The results have been noted in the interaction and socialization: “Children, parents and teachers unanimously confirm that the number of conflicts has gone down, that students are quieter in these large spaces.” In addition, as in small schools, ages mix more easily, younger ages learn from older people and vice versa. Besides offering a plural context, students have at their disposal numerous corners and didactic proposals, taking into account their interests, which also contributes to the development of freedom and self-management. On the contrary, the structures associated with physical challenges not only stimulate autonomy, but also psychomotor skills. In the words of Antero, the cost to which we have referred to the beginning of the article is a clear example: “When he manages to climb this hill, a new space opens up, another world, a new network of relationships with the child, and all of this is very related to the psychomotor aspect”.

The key question is this: Would you go back to the previous space organization? “And no one, neither the teachers, nor the parents, nor the students, wants to come back.”

Commitment to the transformation of Bachillerato classrooms

It would often seem that experiments and pedagogical innovations serve children, but as age progresses we have to get serious and the only alternative is to approach a rigid academic model. Perhaps for that reason, Amaia Antero has recognized that it would be a challenge and a joy that the change of spaces they want to do in high school would have a successful outcome. At the moment, they are in the process of rethinking and the works will arrive in summer. “We will seek the sweetness, the installation of sofas has been debated, and in general, it is about maintaining our philosophy in Children and Primary: large spaces, two or three teachers working with a large team, all in sight…”. We inevitably remind Heppell again: “The desks seem to have been designed with bad intent, there’s nothing more uncomfortable to read.”

At ikastola Txintxirri de Elorrio, biobuilding

In the Ikastola Txintxirri of Elorrio, children 0-2 years old play and learn with the wood biobuilding (once a year they are oiled, they do not use varnish), with natural isolation (lime and straw), with the walls comes hot and not with the earth (considering that children play cats), with the ceilings and crystals they prefer to make the most of the light. “This gives a lot of peace; we do not believe in external stimulus, the child owns its development process.” The building houses 39 children and four professionals.

In Txintxirri it is based on an active pedagogy that aims to guarantee an ecological context: “When we talk about ecological context, we talk about open spaces without rooms or walls, about having things by hand, about children feeling free to move freely, about the interaction between different ages, about the integration of the family in that space… And all this has led us to design the building,” explains Zorrozua.

The large stained glass connects the interior space with the green area they have on the front, as they also look for a center that opens to the outside. In fact, more and more centers are transforming the outer space of schools, reducing the prominence of football and enriching it with mixed activities, guaranteeing spaces for all, integrating nature…

In the old town of Vitoria-Gasteiz, adapting to the new spaces

When European aid arrived for the settlement of the old town of Vitoria-Gasteiz, the parents of the public school Ramón Bajo, located in the old part, pressed for the school to be taken into account, as the building was aged. The center welcomes more than 200 children and elementary students and about 20 teachers on two floors. They got help and once the architectural remodeling of the structure started, they took advantage to take forward another model based on the pedagogy of trust. The characteristics of the new school will be known: wide spaces for free movement, meeting points, various corners… The reorganization that began in 2013 has been launched by the faculty, who has put their forces in the best possible way to use the spaces. The director of Ramón Bajo, Iñaki Ibargutxi, says that it is early to assess the results, but that they have already detected some positive conclusions: in the environment, in autonomy, in the relations between all…

The interviewees have also given us a warning. The organization of space is another instrument, as a complement to the pedagogical approach, since simple architectural remodeling is not enough if there is no educational work behind it. “If you have the opportunity, change the spaces, but change the interior spaces earlier, first throw the head walls and then pull the exteriors,” Amaia Antero’s recommendation.