The International Institute of Lancy, Geneve, Switzerland and Steelcase Education have joined forces to challenge the traditional classroom set up with innovative spaces and furniture. The students of the 21^st century are passionate adopters of new technologies and hi-tech devices have become a common presence in every school, but classroom interiors haven’t changed accordingly.

For Steelcase Education the challenge was to transform classrooms into spaces of their times. “The traditional lecture-style classroom with a blackboard and the teacher up front leaves little room for creativity. Creativity needs space and mobility such as you might find in a start-up or modern office building,” says Norbert Foerster, General Director of IIL.

Steelcase brought in what classrooms were missing.  

Mobile, intuitive and flexible furniture designed to encourage students to practice skills like collaboration, critical thinking and digital education, which are not easy to acquire in a traditional learning environment.

The Steelcase Node school chairs were the main focus of the classrooms’ transformation. Swivel seats allow students to shift focus throughout the room while books, laptops and other information remain at their fingertips. After the Steelcase redesign, the mobile personal work surface allows teachers to take on the role of a coach with their students, guiding them towards autonomy and practice an active learning pedagogy where technology seamlessly blends in.

Source of article: Steelcase Education case study, about the International Institute of Lancy .