Can’t quite find a place for this quote in my dissertation but it captures something really important about the constructed world of schools:

“This is not to say that a well-designed school or campus can change everything. But it can do a lot to improve a child’s subliminal reception of a message right now extremely negative. A crisp modern building with long corridors and great, efficient asphalt yards won’t do it. Neither will a stylish, windowless garrison that is safe from the assault of the surrounding community. School must be as exciting as education is exciting, and what comes first — chicken or egg — is really unimportant. The building can be as varied and as colorful as a personal relationship. Above all, it must have intimate scale and a sense of freedom — to look outside, to move about, to choose where and when to study, to think independently, to find one’s special meaning an involvement in a place where life is really lived — whether school, city or home.”

Thompson, Benjamin. “Visual Squalor, Social Disorder or A New Vision of the City of Man ” Architectural Record 145, no. 4 (1969): 161-164