Designing a modern active learning classroom building attached to, and then pushing into, an existing historical library building is a challenge. The author of this presentation worked for six years as an interior designer in the University’s Facilities Management Division, and was the University designer on the project team for the design of the active learning classroom building. The subject of this creative scholarship presentation is the building and its interior design – design as interior. In speaking to the conference theme – unpacking systems – the presentation will use available technology and resources to take the audience on a not-so-virtual tour of the space. The broader impact of this approach is to ask participants to unpack how we change our perception of three-dimensional design when we consume it only through two-dimensional media and staged architectural photographs. And, further, how we change design education by only teaching through these limited, 2D media. Design challenges that the presentation will unpack include: how to make the classrooms easily operable for faculty new to active learning and also engaging for students; how to make the classrooms easily, safely, and appropriately accessible 24 hours a day/five days a week to align with the existing library hours; how to foster both impromptu and pre-planned informal collaborative learning; how to incorporate the more modern, clean-lined aesthetic that campus new construction is using while attaching to the front of, and gutting tens of thousands of square feet of, an existing and more traditionally styled structure? The author will present the content as a museum-style docent-led “tour” of the building, with 360 degree views throughout. It is the author’s intent to spark discussion, challenge assumptions, and unpack the traditional conference experience through truly immersive creative work
