The Library is Open 17

The Library is Open 17 invites Fabrizio Gallanti, director of Bordeaux’s arc en rêve, to discuss one of the recent publications done with the institution: Classroom, a teenage view.

Drawing from the research developed for the exhibition, Classroom, a teenage view, the accompanying book presents a set of contemporary architectural realisations to address the challenges of the classroom from a teenage view. The examples, spread throughout the continents, are set in dialogue with five post-war twentieth century schools who are presented as seeds of pedagogical discourses. The architecture is framed by a conversation between the curator Joaquim Moreno and the education historian Catherine Burke, and a short anthology of texts with prospective ambitions for learning environments.

The exhibition Classroom, a teenage view was inspired by dire conditions of a generation that had to experience the transition to adulthood during a pandemic. The experience of confinement with respect to learning was paradoxical: it transformed the students, who were forced to study from home, without really modifying their learning spaces, which remained unchanged when until they could returned to collective education. Two years were enough to create a gap between needs and reality. The archaeology of adolescence was organized through the dominant tool that shaped it in the second half of the 20th century: the classroom. How were these spaces designed? How were these learning communities generated? What made them into political bodies?

Classroom, a teenage view aims to give a voice to adolescents, to understand how these learning environments changed over the decades, particularly in response to the evolution of pedagogical methods. The project takes the form of an exhibition, a publication and a symposium which together question the architectural space of the classroom and its transformations.

The project was organised by CCB / Garagem Sul Architecture Center (Lisbon), arc en rêve centre d'architecture (Bordeaux) and Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Design & Architecture (Hasselt)

The Library is Open is a lunchtime series featuring recently published works and their authors, curated by Bart-Jan Polman, Director of Exhibitions and Public Programming and Curator of the Arthur Ross Architecture Gallery at Columbia GSAPP. Hosted in a central location in Avery Hall, the LiO series honors GSAPP’s historical connection to Avery Library, the world’s largest Architecture library.