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<h2>The end of open-plan classrooms in New Zealand, <a href="https://www.1news.co.nz/2025/07/16/no-more-open-plan-school-classrooms-to-be-built-govt/" target="_blank">recently announced by Education Minister Erica Stanford</a>, marks yet another swing of the pendulum in school design.</h2>
<p>Depending on who you ask, these classrooms were an opportunity to foster collaboration and flexibility or an exercise in organised chaos.</p>
<p>So-called “<a href="https://teachersmattermagazine.co.nz/archives/4006" target="_blank">modern learning environments</a>” – characterised by flexible layouts, fewer walls and sometimes multiple classes and teachers in one space – were vigorously pushed by the National government in 2011.</p>
<p>The stated goal was to <a href="https://www.researchbank.ac.nz/server/api/core/bitstreams/e44aad3c-0a1e-4e4c-9c59-5a4d38662a5d/content" target="_blank">promote flexibility</a> in the way students were taught, encourage collaboration and to accommodate new technology in classrooms.</p>
<p>But a 2024 ministerial <a href="https://www.beehive.govt.nz/sites/default/files/2024-10/Report%20of%20the%20Ministerial%20Inquiry%20into%20School%20Property.pdf" target="_blank">inquiry into school property</a> found <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/529839/government-to-shake-up-bureaucratic-and-inefficient-school-property-system" target="_blank">complex procurement, design and authorisation processes</a> associated with <a href="https://www.thepost.co.nz/politics/350192640/govt-wants-answers-over-unrealistic-and-unaffordable-classrooms" target="_blank">bespoke designs</a> caused delays, budget overruns and unrealised expectations in many school communities.</p>
<p>Among the solutions offered by the inquiry was the development of simple but functional schools based on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DNfWSIWYto" target="_blank">cookie-cutter designs constructed off-site</a>. This recommendation was welcomed by the current National-led government.</p>
<h2>Design influenced by ideology</h2>
<p>The modern, bespoke designs of the past two decades represented a response to technological developments, such as the introduction of digital devices, that changed how students learned.</p>
<p>This resulted in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/lots-of-schools-are-moving-to-hot-desking-is-there-any-benefit-for-my-child-167043" target="_blank">steady replacement of traditional school</a> designs from the industrial age with spaces designed for flexibility.</p>
<figure id="attachment_33974" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-33974" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="wp-image-33974 size-medium" src="https://www.schoolnews.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/AdobeStock_677849965-300x188.jpeg" alt="" width="300" height="188" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-33974" class="wp-caption-text">© piai- stock.adobe.com</figcaption></figure>
<p>Those industrial age schools were themselves products of changes in the second half of the 20th century. Since the <a href="https://www.theprow.org.nz/society/early-nelson-college/" target="_blank">first school opened in 1843</a>, school architecture in New Zealand had evolved significantly. Early schools featured cramped <a href="https://teara.govt.nz/en/1966/architecture-school-buildings" target="_blank">six-metre by four-metre classrooms</a> which could accommodate more than 30 students.</p>
<p>By the 1920s, the <a href="https://teara.govt.nz/en/1966/22837/primary-school-taranaki" target="_blank">“Taranaki” and “Canterbury” models</a> included a more generous minimum classroom size of eight metres by seven metres. There was a greater emphasis on light and ventilation. Their larger spaces also recognised changes in teaching styles that encouraged more active and participatory learning.</p>
<p>By the 1950s, classroom size had grown to ten metres by seven metres. The “Nelson” and “S68” blocks of the 1950s and 1960s provided <a href="https://teara.govt.nz/en/1966/architecture-school-buildings/page-4" target="_blank">small self-contained blocks</a> of classrooms that reduced student movement and corridor noise.</p>
<p>Changes to New Zealand school buildings also reflected global trends. <a href="https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED539480.pdf" target="_blank">Open-plan schools emerged in North America</a> after 1960. At the same time, there were signs English schools would replace their traditional Victorian-style buildings with classrooms considered more <a href="https://www.e-flux.com/architecture/education/322671/the-democratic-design-of-david-mary-medd/" target="_blank">child-centred</a>.</p>
<p>The goal was to achieve flexible, connected designs to support evolving education philosophies. England’s <a href="https://infed.org/mobi/the-plowden-report/" target="_blank">1966 Plowden Report</a> on primary education significantly aided this evolution towards progressive styles of teaching and learning, leading to the creation of schools that featured <a href="https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/eveline-lowe-primary-school-marlborough-road-camberwell-southwark-london-architects-great-britain-department-of-education-science-development-group/qQFLkmJM8Nlwng?ms=%7B%22x%22%3A0.5%2C%22y%22%3A0.5%2C%22z%22%3A8.689069841739634%2C%22size%22%3A%7B%22width%22%3A1.8635175465948393%2C%22height%22%3A1.2375000000000012%7D%7D" target="_blank">flexibility, connectivity and external-internal flow</a>.</p>
<p>These schools were the forerunners of “<a href="https://theeducationhub.org.nz/category/school-resources/ile/" target="_blank">innovative learning environments</a>” and were considered cutting-edge at the time.</p>
<p>In 2004, the ambitious <a href="https://www.partnershipsforschools.org.uk/about/aboutbsf.jsp" target="_blank">Building Schools for the Future</a> programme was launched in the United Kingdom. It was designed to replace outdated school facilities considered <a href="https://bera-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/berj.3001" target="_blank">unfit for preparing students for the 21st century</a>.</p>
<p>But in 2011, the <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a7a3a18ed915d1fb3cd65b4/DFE-00073-2011.pdf" target="_blank">James Review of Education Capital</a> highlighted a number of issues with the way schools were being built, putting an end to the infrastructure programme.</p>
<p>That report, like the 2024 New Zealand report, suggested replacing government investment in bespoke school infrastructure with a <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1374926/Labours-cherished-schools-building-programme-attacked-wasting-30-cent-cash.html" target="_blank">focus on standardised designs</a>.</p>
<h2>A swing back</h2>
<p>In New Zealand, “modern learning environments” became part of education policy with the Ministry of Education’s <a href="https://ndhadeliver.natlib.govt.nz/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE7417232" target="_blank">School Property Strategy 2011-2021</a>, published in 2011. But the pendulum started to swing back after Labour came to power in 2017.</p>
<p>Departing from the 2011 strategy, the language of “modern learning environments”, “innovative learning environments” and “flexible learning spaces” largely disappeared. It was replaced in policy documents with “<a href="https://www.education.govt.nz/our-work/strategies-policies-and-programmes/property/school-property-strategy-2030-overview#paragraph-224" target="_blank">quality learning environments</a>”.</p>
<p>This shift emphasised physical characteristics such as heating, lighting and acoustics, rather than innovative approaches to teaching and learning.</p>
<p>Since coming to power, the current National-led coalition has focused on embedding a standardised approach to foundational skills in reading, writing, maths and science.</p>
<p>While not directly scapegoating open-plan designs for educational underachievement, Erica Stanford said the reforms would ensure learning spaces were “<a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/567061/watch-minister-erica-stanford-makes-education-announcement" target="_blank">designed to improve student outcomes</a>”.</p>
<p>But as New Zealand moves back to standardised designs, it is worth considering why modern learning environments were introduced in the first place – the flexibility for new technology and space for collaboration – and what students may lose by a swing back towards the separate classrooms of the past.</p>
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<h5><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/leon-benade-380717" target="_blank">Leon Benade</a>, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/edith-cowan-university-720" target="_blank">Edith Cowan University</a></em>; <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/alastair-wells-2251886" target="_blank">Alastair Wells</a>, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/auckland-university-of-technology-1137" target="_blank">Auckland University of Technology</a></em>, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/chris-bradbeer-2251887" target="_blank">Chris Bradbeer</a>, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/the-university-of-melbourne-722" target="_blank">The University of Melbourne</a></em></h5>
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<h5><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/leon-benade-380717" target="_blank">Leon Benade</a>, Professor in the School of Education of Edith Cowan University (ECU), Perth, WA, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/edith-cowan-university-720" target="_blank">Edith Cowan University</a></em>; <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/alastair-wells-2251886" target="_blank">Alastair Wells</a>, Creative Associate and Lecturer, Faculty of Culture and Society, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/auckland-university-of-technology-1137" target="_blank">Auckland University of Technology</a></em>, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/chris-bradbeer-2251887" target="_blank">Chris Bradbeer</a>, Research Fellow, Faculty of Education, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/the-university-of-melbourne-722" target="_blank">The University of Melbourne</a></em></h5>
<h5>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com" target="_blank">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-end-of-open-plan-classrooms-how-school-design-reflects-changing-ideas-in-education-261359" target="_blank">original article</a>.</h5>
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