Rosan Bosch

Over the past 25 years, Rosan Bosch has been creating some of the world’s most inspiring learning environments for schools, universities and public spaces. Her designs break with traditions and empower learners. Rosan believes that play is the most important tool for innovation and sees design as a driver of change. We met with the charismatic visionary to discuss the urgent needs for designing stimulating learning spaces for the future today.  

Rosan, your background is in contemporary art, design and architecture. Your latest book ‘Play to Learn – Designing for Uncertainty‘ is an inspiring guide to holistic designs that place the learner at the centre. Maybe we start at the very beginning of your journey, how and why did you get interested in education?

I started to take an interest in education through my children. Young children are naturally inquisitive and engaged but I noticed when my kids went to school that they started to lose their spark and interest in learning. They didn’t want to read so much anymore, seemed demotivated and bored. Just like many other parents, I wondered why they go to school and what school is for, and thought that there is something wrong with our education system. My father was in education and my mum was a teacher, so we had already many discussions about learning and what holds us back from creating environments where children can thrive, be motivated, and chose and follow their interests? On top of it, I always used to question things. I was a rebellious child always interested in the why and the why not at school. I think I have a curiosity in me that is the seed of all my creativity. For me to start thinking professionally about how education can be changed was a natural progression.

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You are running a busy creative agency, the Rosan Bosch Studio that helps schools and universities around the world create modern stimulating learning environments. Can you talk about your approach to designing 21century learning spaces, or as you like to call it learning contexts?

Sure. You are right. Our goal is to create learning contexts, also known as learning environments, that help maximize personal development and the learning potential. We work strategically with designs that create space for new thoughts and change, and we are constantly investigating and monitoring how learning works best today. We collaborate with experts from different fields, like for example professor Simone Kühn, a bespoke Environmental Neuroscience expert at Max Planck Institute for Human Development. Our approach is circular as we combine research and cross-subject experiences with art and design. Most schools have been planned and build a long time ago, following the traditional factory model where someone speaks in front of the class and the students take notes. This teacher-focused model requires lots of tables and space to fit in as many children as possible in one classroom. Does this type of a building and mindset provide the space that’s best for learners today? Of course not. I think we all agree. So, we need to design schools that are stimulating places. This includes spaces that allow students to try things out, to be creative, to explore, fail and adapt, spaces that allow teachers to have a different role in the learning process, spaces for collaboration, differentiation and active learning. There is not just one design solution as learning is not one dimensional and static. It’s a flow, it’s a process and it’s constantly evolving.

The very first school you worked with was Ordrup School in Copenhagen. You surprised the leadership by requesting to move into the school to be embedded. How has your approach evolved over the years, given that you are now working with schools on a global scale?

At Rosan Bosch Studio, we see ourselves as learners. We always want to improve. We typically start by thinking about perceptions and how to change perspectives. When working with a school, the goal is to start with a clean sheet, a blank canvas. Schools in their settings are all unique so there is no point in copying something from other projects. Schools are about the people - not the building. So we like to include the community, students and teachers and collect their ideas and views. We ask a lot of questions and visualize this journey by placing the learner at the centre of all activities. I believe in asking the right questions to investigate with schools what the desired outcome for learning should be and then look at different ways of organising learning environments as a framework for a thriving learning community.

Sometimes you start with a blank canvas, sometimes you build on what’s already there, like at the Western Academy of Beijing (WAB). Empowering the learner seems the overarching theme of your work?

That’s right. WAB was already an innovative school and had done a lot of work on conceptualising the future of learning with their FLoW21 - a community-wide project. Our challenge was to create an environment where this model can flourish. We have replaced traditional classrooms with an open community structure to support student agency and project-based learning. The designs present differentiated and variable spaces that support the school’s FLoW21 vision for team-teaching, flexible learning groups, mentorship and individualised timetables. WAB is an IB school, and we looked at the Theory of Knowledge and how areas of knowledge can be themed across all sections of the school. We wondered how an academic theory can be expressed and supported by imagination, wonder, investigation, sensory and playful learning experiences. We created concepts for spaces that connect students to different learning experiences. As the shift to digital is leading to a change of motor skills of children, we need to design different spaces. My goal is not the design but the use of the space. Sometimes it takes time for schools to own their new spaces and let new learning ideas grow. Changing habits and getting communities to approach things differently is a huge challenge – way bigger than designing new spaces.

Looking ahead, what is needed to create better learning experiences and help transform education globally in the future?

I can clearly see two tendencies. The first one I call the ‘satellite concept’ where learning will be organised differently, more fluently, interdisciplinary, attached to universities or companies. Learning moves out of school buildings, outdoors, closer to the real world. I can also see that schools are starting to repurpose buildings, for example the International Sharing School which has been designed by us in a former office building. Learning through sharing and collaborating was at the heart of our design concept. The second, perhaps more important challenge for the future of education is Empowerment. How do we bring 21century learning skills to everyone around the world? Not just to the privileged. Education is one of the biggest causes of inequality but also the great equalizer when done right. Our recent project ARKUOS, a creative hub for innovative learning in Spain was such an empowering project. It developed a learning environment that motivates self-direction and creativity. It’s open to the public and mentors guide students and young adults through learning experiences initiated by themselves. The ARKUOS project is a good example for empowering learners.

Thank you, Rosan for sharing some of your inspiring projects with us. To learn more about Rosan’s vision and work, check out her latest book ‘Play to Learn – Designing for Uncertainty’ which offers an insight into her future-proof approach to transforming education and learning spaces around the world.  www.rosanbosch.com

Photo Credits: Agnete Schlichtkrull & Kim Wendt