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Designed as a comprehensive resource on spatial thinking, experimental pedagogy, and academic practices, this archive serves as a record for reference and critical analysis. 

More than a traditional institutional repository, it is envisioned as an "Archive of Ideas," structured to mirror the conceptual and intellectual framework of SEA. The platform captures specific engagements, explorations, and pedagogical reorientations, expressing the school's distinct set of practices constituted by its students and teachers. 

The collection encompasses intellectual articulations—from course books and objectives to studio briefs and lectures—alongside a  documentation of student work, field studies, and thesis projects. Through this structure, the archive navigates complex inquiries into typologies, ontologies, and genealogies, while exploring themes of environment, urbanisation, futures, and ethics. It serves as a space for rethinking geographies and histories of type, offering the school's co-learning experiments and its ongoing articulation of space and form.


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Of curricula and learning spaces: Delhi’s learning environments

Institution and Typology
Manasi Thacker, 2019


How does space affect learning? What is the relationship between curriculum and space design?

To understand what really are the aspects of the curriculum that play a role towards designing of space, I have chosen schools as my sample. Learning spaces are often designed according to administrative convenience. Students are divided into grades depending upon their age and further into groups for class allocation. The space too, is typically divided into formal classrooms, admin and common rooms. The approach taken towards design is that of logistical segregation and problem solving and not value centric. I chose to conduct my fieldwork in and around Delhi, more specifically, in the areas of New Delhi, Gurgaon and New Okhla Industrial Development Authority (NOIDA). My rationale for the selection of schools is that I wanted to compare how different educational philosophies, both in the public and private sector schools and across different boards, shape the spaces of learning. I, therefore, chose the following schools that cut across all the above categories, and to which I could find access to conduct primary field research: St. Charles School (Convent, ICSE), Shikshantar (ICSE), The Heritage school (Experiential, CBSE & IB), Mothers international Montessori, Ukti (Waldorf, CBSE), Simple Education Foundation (PPP, MCD, CBSE), Shaheed Anusuya Prasad (government school, CBSE), Delhi Public School (CBSE).

The fieldwork was conducted through three methods: interviews, visual observation and participant observation. After the field work, I analysed the curriculums and drew a comparative study of all the samples. These categories are analysed in two parts which will have sub parts to further relate them with one another. They are: curriculum and typology.

Based on this I came to the conclusion that space does affect learning. Indeed, it plays an important role as the physical environment if thought through well, can translate the philosophy into its physical manifestation. This helps students embody concepts better. Secondly, the curriculums aren’t rich across all categories and hence a mere translation of their curriculum is not enough. They need to be updated and thought through in a more nuanced manner after which they can be translated into physical spaces. Therefore, I ask the question: How can learning environments in Delhi’s state schools be better such that they respond to the diverse structure of the curricula? What kind of architectural strategies could help the spatial environments of the school to respond to the curricula?




Read also under ‘Institution and Typology’:

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Architecture of Transactions


Institutions and Typology
Akshata Shenoy, 2018
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De-schooling Architecture


Institutions and Typology
Anjali Agrawal, 2021
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Urban heritagization: conserving memory of the city

Institutions and Typology
Anjan Kudtarkar, 2021
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Architecture and power: a case in public buildings

Institutions and Typology
Archiit Chhatterjee, 2018
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Degrees of exclusivity in educational campuses


Institutions and Typology
Helee Doshi, 2021
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Publicness of research ‘space’



Institutions and Typology
Parth Solanki, 2021
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Architecture of Jain religious institutions


Institutions and Typology
Pooja Temkar, 2019
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Urban temples: synthesis of emerging worship spaces in urban environment

Institutions and Typology
Radhika Rathi, 2019
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Learning ecologies and spatial form: the case of municipal schools in G (S) ward Mumbai


Institutions and Typology
Sandeep Saive, 2018
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