EDUCATION ARCHITECTS CANNON DESIGN, EDUCATION FURNITURE DESIGNERS VS, AND DESIGN THINKERS BRUCE MAU DESIGN
Collaborative learning, according to experts on the subject, unleashes a unique intellectual and social energy. We can attest to that. This book is the result of a learning experience that began when three design firms joined forces on an unprecedented project.
Education architects Cannon Design had long had the desire to produce a book about the link between learning and environment. The moment Cannon Design invited BMD, as design thinkers and book designers, and VS, as designers of furniture for the educational environment, to collaborate on such a book, there was a shift. The triumvirate took on the challenge and the idea took on substance.
Through a series of workshops in the United States, Canada, Germany, and England, we began to explore, together, what the book could and should be. We went on field trips, visiting classrooms, showrooms, conferences, even a factory floor — any-where that would help us understand how design and the learning environment intersected. We read books and magazines. We watched videos and listened to podcasts. We combed through websites, journals, and archives. We spoke to students, teachers and parents; scientists, activists, and entrepreneurs; even a chef and a troubadour. The multiple perspectives multiplied our knowledge, ideas, and ambitions for this book exponentially.
Through it all, we collaborators talked with one another. We talked about what we saw, heard, read, and believed. We swapped horror stories and traded tales of hope. You’ll find some of that discussion in the pages that follow, elaborating and commenting on the ideas inspired by the interviews, excerpts, and case studies that we eventually selected from our boxes and files of research. To work on this book was to become deeply engaged in the urgency and potential of this project. It became personal for each one of us, and we’d like you to hear our voices — because, more than anything, we’d like to hear your voices, as part of an international conversation about the power of the Third Teacher to transform teaching and learning. The end of this book is just the beginning — log on to thethirdteacher.com and join us for the next chapter.