Critical Theories in the Assessment of University Facilities for Learning

COPYRIGHT © 2010 MIKAEL POWELL. All Rights Reserved)
My domain of study is the assessment of university built environments for learning. I am especially interested in how one determines the effects of the physical space on learning in higher education arts and design facilities. Contemporary methods for building assessment employ criteria developed by the university administration. A building assessment sensitive to critical theories should empower the users of the space. Kowaltowski, et. al. (2004) discovered that evaluation respondents are often unaware of key conditions. In the Brazilian schools, students had to be taught the concept of environmental comfort (thermal, acoustic, and functional comfort as well as good lighting conditions) and learn to relate it to their life experiences before they could effectively rate their school environment. Therefore, my questions are

How do you train assessors (the users of the space) to be sensitive to these issues?

What are the steps that Freire says are needed to recognize the oppression (especially that promoted and facilitated by the physical environment)?

How does oppression affect individual learning outcomes?

What do other authors say about these issues (Foucault, Piro, Hebdige, Dewey, others)?

The PANOPTICON was proposed as a model prison by Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832), a Utilitarian philosopher and theorist of British legal reform.