Florian Kretzschmar

As a certified Learning Space Developer, a teacher at a school in Winterberg, and a co-creator of the “Educational Architecture” project at QUA-LiS NRW, Florian Kretzschmar explores how pedagogical concepts and spatial design can work together to create future-ready learning environments. In his work, he connects school practice with insights from learning-space research and advocates participatory planning processes that equally take into account the needs of learners and teachers. His focus is on developing flexible, sustainable, and pedagogically effective learning landscapes.

Presentation Topic

Under the title “Build schools, not walls: Future-oriented learning space design”, Florian Kretzschmar shows why innovative teaching concepts often fail due to unsuitable spatial structures, and why learning spaces, as the “third teacher”, should be integrated into school development processes from the outset. His lecture focuses on activity-based learning space design, the importance of participatory planning processes—especially Phase Zero—as well as the intelligent repurposing of existing school buildings. The aim is to create sustainable, flexible, and future-oriented learning environments that support contemporary educational processes and enable schools to adapt in the long term to the requirements of a changing society.