You might call Education the fun-loving, free-spirited younger sibling of the Workplace. The Education space is revealing itself to be more daring, more experimental and, increasingly, the ‘early developer’ when it comes to testing new ideas and techniques. Where workplace design flowered under a strict regimen of research and careful experimentation, within the education space we’ve found the license to let go, to fly in the face of convention and really tinker with some seriously antiquated concepts and systems.

Here, we wade into one of the most prolifically debated topics out there, that being ‘high-rise education’. With land scarcity and classrooms bursting at the seams, we can no longer go across – we can only go up. But vertical education is a polarising issue. There is a great deal of debate around the impact that it might have on students and their education. What do you think? Flick to page 184, to read more.

We’re not afraid of a little complex thinking and so we’ve happily done our homework on a whole new set of educational typologies. From hub-based designs that support knowledge sharing, to flip-style teaching, crowd-sharing laboratories and the dynamics of one-on-one learning through supportive mentor/mentee relationships.

In the last five years we’ve observed perhaps some of the most exciting developments within the university sector. Here, many universities have devoted impressive budgets toward redesigning their campus’ to embrace a more agile – even mobile – learning and working style. This is largely supported by invisible technology and students’ fluid and flexible consumption of information. Head to page 184 – featuring Monash College International Business School by Jackson Clements Burrows – to see what we’re getting at. This issue it is our intention to confound, confront, debunk and inspire! We invite you to challenge everything you know about education and join us in embracing a larger way of thinking around the spaces that facilitate teaching and learning. It’s time to get out there and shake things up, think big, think bold, and look at the problem a little differently. Enjoy the issue!