Work in progress: Imagining / Designing informal spaces for learning

The paper presents ICAP (interactive, constructive, active and passive) as the theoretical framework to understand the role of informal learning spaces as an active learning tool when students have informal meetings to work on projects. Students in our Engineering school were asked to illustrate poor and active informal learning spaces using tangibles. Data was collected during focus groups with Master-level students from various STEM disciplines. The principles for learning drawn from the imagined spaces were then drafted as recommendations for the architects who are currently designing new learning spaces for 2028 at our school. The added value for using ICAP to carry out a collaborative task is that the student-as-client vision clearly incorporates active learning principles from the outset of their architectural design.