Even the terms used to describe these transparent and dynamic learning environments are evolving like the spaces themselves. While the space they describe are largely the same, libraries are becoming learning commons, learning hubs and media centres.

With the ability for digital content and information to be accessed anywhere, via the devices we all carry in our bags and pockets, so the library therefore becomes a place of participation and social learning, encouraging exploration, communication and collaboration – key tenets of the 21^st century learner.

The modern library is helping to instil the characteristics that employers now deem most valuable - critical thinking and problem solving. The same characteristics that are prioritised in a ‘STEAM’ approach. The experiential learning in a STEAM education results in students that work creatively to persist in problem solving and embrace collaboration.

STEAM

Georgette Yakman founded the STEAM movement in 2007. She defined STEAM as “Science and Technology, interpreted through Engineering and the Arts, all based in elements of Mathematics.”

Adding an ‘A’ to STEM, it is important to note that the ‘A’ should not refer simply to Art as a subject but to “The Arts” – incorporating language, arts and humanities. With this definition, STEAM is more than the sum of its five core ‘subjects’, but is of course an integrated educational approach.

The development from STEM to STEAM places a greater emphasis on communication and collaboration – not only inquiry and critical thinking, the students are encouraged to engage in experiential learning and problem-solve through a creative process.

In the education sector we are increasingly seeing the inclusion of ‘STEAM rooms’ and ‘STEAM buildings’ to accommodate and cluster those traditional subjects described by the acronym. However, STEAM is not about individual spaces - in a STEAM school, the effect of this educational approach needs to be all-encompassing and pervasive. Our approach put the library as the heart of the school, or perhaps more accurately, ensures it is the ‘life blood’ of a school that connects all learners and as such places the library at the epicenter of the school’s STEAM endeavors. But what will this STEAM-loaded future library look like?

Variety

The future library must be able to cater for different learning styles, different groups sizes and different acoustic environments. From active and dynamic spaces for project work and group collaboration, through to individual quiet study pods, variety and variety of scale is key.

Role in the School

Technology continues to improve access to digital resource. This leads to the idea of the single, centralised library becoming less relevant. Of course, students still need spaces where knowledge can be assimilated, which can be multiplied around the school in the form of collaborative commons within the learning clusters. But essentially, the library ‘stretches’, and grows further into the fabric of the school to become a connector, a conduit for creative collaboration. In some cases the school itself becomes the library.

Shanghai Dehong School (a sister school to the Dulwich College International network of schools)

SE21 is a unique educational framework where the ‘S’ stands for STEAM, ‘E’ for entrepreneurship and environmental sustainability and the ‘21’ for the 21st century skills developed in the school’s approaches to learning.

The brief for Shanghai Dehong School also placed a strong emphasis on amalgamating STEAM with the outdoor learning. Opportunities for outdoor learning are embedded in all parts of the design; from large science, DT and makers courtyards on the ground level to multiple, flexible terraces on each and every level, topped with an exploratory rooftop combining science and humanities gardens, play areas and a 300m running track.

From Primary (Grades 1-5), the students are grouped into whole year clusters. Each cluster combines four Chinese Medium Learning (CML) classrooms and four immersive, flexible English Medium Learning (EML) classrooms. At the heart of every cluster is a multiuse SE21 break-out area combining a large lecture space and portable study pods, allowing teachers and students to rearrange the space to provide a dynamic and flexible learning environment necessary for 21st century learning.

UNNC Library Interior Design

Although not a school library, we have developed the ‘STEAM Library’ theory through our work on University of Nottingham Ningbo’s new library project. Our proposal puts into practice a lot of the principals we have developed in our international school work, where dynamic and fluid spaces are coupled with controlled and focused zones to provide a variety of different learning environments.

The ground floor of the 4-storey 24,000sqm library is dedicated to social learning and the creation of an education community to serve the whole campus. This ‘social garden’ is inspired by the green spaces of the campus and aspires to in-part replace some of the green space lost to this new library development. Green planting will be brought into the interior of the library, on all levels to create an environment that promotes wellbeing and an atmosphere of calm and tranquillity.

Responding to the changing learning behaviours of students, the library will be open 24 hours a day and can accommodate up to 2,000 people at any one time. As well as providing a quiet spaces for individual learning, the facility also includes multi-function rooms, event spaces, discussion areas for social study and a meditation area – essentially providing a central social space for the whole campus.