2021 Ideas Competition
The Classroom of the Future: Creating Safe Spaces for Learning in the Aftermath of COVID-19
Over the past year, our entire learning landscape shifted. Schools pivoted to online learning and families shifted to support learning at home. While we have begun to shift back to in person learning, it is clear that the outbreak of COVID-19 has triggered a moment of reflection on what it means to create a safe space for learning.
This competition is envisioned as an opportunity to broaden the conversation around how we teach and learn, and the environments that support the same. As we work to move beyond the current pandemic, this moment can serve as a springboard to re-envision our learning environments. Participants are encouraged to think big picture about the long-term implications of creating safe space in terms of space, technology, materials and more.
What do spaces look like that support the needs of students, teachers and communities during this time and into the future? How has our response to COVID-19 changed our thinking about what it means to create a resilient and flexible classroom and school environment? What activities need physical space and how do the virtual and physical classroom function together?
Participants are encouraged to submit a vision for the classroom, school or campus of the future with an eye to the following potential topics:
- > Community building
- > Equity
- > Health and wellness
- > Personal vs shared space
- > Flexibility and resilience
- > Technology
Submitting, Deadlines, Entry Fees, + Eligibility
Submit your entries through available at the button below. You will need to sign in to AIASF's Submittable account to access the form fields; if you do not already have a user login with AIASF's Submittable account, you can register for one here.
- Early Submission Deadline: Friday, June 18, at 1 pm Pacific
- Final Submission Deadline: Friday, July 16, at 1 pm Pacific
Entry fees are non-refundable. Submissions must be fully completed and entered on or before the Early Submission Deadline in order to qualify for the discounted submission fees rates.
Submission is fully electronic through the portal here. Entrants are encouraged to submit support materials in a variety of formats, which might include digital or hand drawings, images of 3 dimensional models, video or other formats.
This competition is open to anyone and everyone interested in the topic. Teams can be formed for a maximum of 5 people. The registration fee is per team, regardless of the number of team members and based on the entrant categories below:
Pre-College Students, with ID and/or transcript (grades 6-12)
- $5
Full-Time Architectural and Design Students, with ID and/or transcript (college-level)
- Early deadline: $15
- Final deadline: $25
Post-college, working professionals
- Early deadline: $25
- Final deadline: $40
Winners will be announced in August. Each winning submission will receive a $333 gift certificate from Steelcase and will be featured in our fall Symposium on Tuesday, September 21, from 12 to 1 pm Pacific in conjunction with AIASF's Architecture + the City festival.
Jury
Mark Cavagnero
Principal, Mark Cavagnero Associates
Mark Cavagnero, FAIA, founded Mark Cavagnero Associates in 1993, after he left the New York office of Edward Larrabee Barnes Associates. Since that time, the design-centered practice has grown to a staff of 60+ to serve clients internationally, without losing focus on its strong social commitment to generating a body of award-winning, public serving projects. His work embodies a timeless quality, visible in a broad range of renovation and new construction work for various building types from education, museums, civic buildings, theaters, and residential buildings. Throughout his career, Mark has deliberately developed and honed his talent for preservation. Adhering to this philosophy by carefully investigating the cultural roots and social patterns of each place, his design approach always considers its context. Mark is a socially and environmentally conscious architect, with a significant contribution to the context and quality of civic life. His projects are known for careful attention to balanced natural light through all parts of the building, in support of activities and wellness of the occupants. His approach is often modest, in finding the balance between character, form, and richness of materiality. Mark Cavagnero Associates’ approach in design has garnered the firm more than 100 awards from international, national, state, and local organizations.
Dr. Shabnam Koirala-Azad
Dean of the School of Education, San Francisco State University
Dr. Shabnam Koirala-Azad is the first female dean of the School of Education at the University of San Francisco, and in 2018, was recognized as one of the Most Influential Women in Bay Area Business by the San Francisco Business Times. Her leadership is informed by a strong background in educational research and scholarship. For more than a decade as a faculty member in the School of Education and as department chair for the Department of International and Multicultural Education, she added a strong global education component to the curriculum and co-founded the first degree program in Human Rights Education in the United States. As a scholar, she has made new conceptual and methodological contributions to the field of international and comparative education, migration, and diaspora studies. Specifically, her work with South Asian immigrant students and families brings a transnational lens to concepts of identity, belonging, citizenship and civic participation, disrupting misconceptions, and offering critical possibilities for grassroots collaboration across borders. The Center for Humanizing Education and Research (C-HER), known to be one of the newest innovative educational research centers focused on justice, launched under her leadership and vision
Tom Rockwell
Senior Creative Director for Global Collaborations, Exploratorium
Tom Rockwell is Creative Director at the Exploratorium, San Francisco’s museum of science, art, and human perception. Since joining the Exploratorium in 2005, Tom has led the exhibits and media departments, the development of new galleries for the museum's move to the waterfront in 2013, as well as the Geometry Playground exhibition and other National Science Foundation supported projects. His interests include exhibiting the human sciences, mathematics, and fundamental physical phenomena, as well as exploring the relationship between science, art, and religion. Prior to coming to San Francisco, Tom founded and ran Painted Universe, Inc. where projects included exhibitions such as It’s a Nano World, The Enchanted Museum: Exploring the Science of Art, and illustrations for The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene.
Brett Schilke
Faculty, Singularity University
Founder, Irresistible Futures Lab
Education Strategist, Center for Humane Technology
Brett is a social architect and storyteller for the future with deep experience in human behavior, intercultural dynamics, and education. His background includes time as a psychological researcher, startup CEO, and head of a development agency in Siberia, and his work today focuses on addressing social structures and paradigms that stand in the way of change.
He has advised and led projects with various government organizations (including the US Congress, UAE Ministry of Education, Interamerican Development Bank, and the G20), and his academic research on the evolution of human psychology in times of change has been published internationally.
Additional jury members will be announced soon.
