CLUSTER-BASED SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE AND THE RECONFIGURATION OF PEDAGOGICAL OPENNESS
CLUSTER-BASED SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE AND THE RECONFIGURATION OF PEDAGOGICAL OPENNESS

Summary/Abstract: This article examines the historical and conceptual evolution of open plan school architecture, from the first wave of undifferentiated open classrooms to contemporary cluster-based learning environments. It argues that openness becomes pedagogically meaningful only when it is organised through acoustic control, selective transparency, spatial differentiation, and shared professional routines. The analysis challenges architectural determinism by showing that spatial form does not produce educational change on its own; rather, it creates affordances that must be aligned with pedagogy, leadership, and everyday use. Drawing on debates around Innovative Learning Environments, the Lernhaus model, Phase Zero planning, and selected architectural examples such as Ørestad Gymnasium, the article proposes the notion of pedagogically organised openness. This concept reframes openness not as the removal of boundaries, but as their educational reconfiguration in support of collaboration, concentration, movement, visibility, and retreat. By linking historical critique with spatial analysis, the article clarifies why the failure of earlier open-plan experiments does not invalidate openness itself, but exposes the need for more precise relationships between design, professional practice, and the material conditions of learning

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