Successful education is more than what happens in a classroom

The author recommends listening to 'Pink Floyd - Another Brick in the wall' while reading this article.

Well-designed classrooms can improve the academic performance of primary school pupils by 25 percent, according to a new study undertaken by the University of Salford and U.K. architects Nightingale Associates. If the study is correct, it means that if you are not educated in such a building, you will not reach your full potential. It sounds a little farfetched and perhaps a little absurd, right? Well, what if it's not? What if the furniture you sit on, the color you perceive, the place you breathe in and any detail you look at become the elements of your understanding and come together in your mind.

The new educational year has started. Students of every age will be away from home for half of the day. Especially for kindergarten children, it's very hard to get used to a new place. Learning the rules and defining the world around you are very new habits for them. Children between the ages of three and five want to run, jump and paint without any limits because at these ages, they don't know how to concentrate on a subject yet. A thoughtfully designed building helps them to focus on what they do. The colors and the shapes say so much: what kind of place it is, is it different from home, is it safe or not, are the other children and the teachers friends or strangers, and the most important thing is, what are the limits – the limits of the rules and the limits of the building.

Architects think about educational buildings and design very carefully. They are not just creating a school but also a life center for kids. Let's look at one of the examples of new architecture.

In Bintaro, Indonesia, the Shining Stars School has survived for more than 10 years. Located in two former houses that are joined together, the building began to deteriorate and the need for space was a crucial issue. In addition, the main street in front of the school became a busy street that created noise and air pollution.

Because of the building's poor condition, the architect group Djuhara+Djuhara and their clients decided to start from scratch. A limited budget forced them to use exposed concrete, hollow bricks, reclaimed wood from crates, other local materials and lightweight structures. Local materials such as hollow bricks and ceramic tiles were arranged in new patterns using local craftsmanship to give it a contemporary feel.

Previously, the school had had to rent spaces in other buildings for performances and graduation ceremonies as well as transport the children to nearby parks for them to be able to enjoy trees and fresh air. Now, the children can run and play on the grass. A group of small fruit trees were planted in pots on the roof, as an element to educate children who have seen fruit, but never the trees.

For some of the students' parents, it took a while to accept the raw qualities of the building against their preconceived perceptions of what a school should look like: A concept offering the luxury and quality of space versus expensive material.

The given example is not from a rich country, and it proves that money needn't be a barrier to quality. Good buildings with excellent design can create smart solutions to old problems.

London-based designer Gavin Hughes has created primary school interiors with a palette of vibrant colors. This school is a small, multicultural, multiracial one-form entry school housed in a Victorian triple-decker building near central London. Many of the children are from disadvantaged backgrounds, and several initiatives have been undertaken by the school to increase the children's readiness to learn through developing their social and emotional wellbeing, enabling them to realize their full potential.

The colors and the shapes seem exhaustive at first sight, but when we consider the children's social life and backgrounds, we see that they need a more colorful and cheerful environment. Huge pink and orange pillows, lego-style desks and a "write on me" wall try to push them to produce freely and increase their creativity. Obviously, it works.

Design is a thing learned from our experiences, and what we design is directly proportional to what we have seen. That's why well-designed and unique buildings are a kind of heritage for future communities.