Education scholars have long been experimenting with tactics to
facilitate learning in the classroom. Are kids more likely to
take in knowledge when at desks arranged in tidy rows? When
divided into smaller groups? Perhaps when sitting in a circle on
the floor? Now, a freethinking school in Stockholm, Sweden wants
to take the classroom out of the picture altogether.
Telefonplan, one of 30 schools from the Swedish education
company Vittra, has done away with the concept of the classroom
completely. Designed by architects at Rosan Bosch, the school
consists of loosely designed “spaces” in which students can come
and go. The principles of the Vittra School revolve around the
breakdown of physical and metaphorical class divisions as a
fundamental step to promoting intellectual curiosity, self-
confidence, and communally responsible behavior. Therefore, in
Vittra’s custom-built Stockholm location, spaces are only
loosely defined by permeable borders and large, abstract
landmarks. The school takes advantage of the f