Swiss design studio ZMIK has transformed three corridors at a primary school in Basel into flexible learning-spaces designed to promote a sense of wellbeing.
Called Learning Scapes, the corridors are spread across three floors of the St. Johann school in Basel. The multifunctional spaces were conceived as modern classrooms that provide pupils with more freedom to decide how they want to learn.

Each corridor is divided into five different zones ? two cloakrooms, two learning landscapes and one central recreation area. Each learning landscape is filled with interactive and playful elements such as bouncy stepping-stones, cubbyholes, slides and lookouts.
These elements are spread across different levels with various steps and sloping surfaces that all together form a miniature landscape for children to explore during lessons.
Two large cloakrooms are located at either end of the corridor providing a buffer between the inner corridor and the building's staircases.
Terraced learning landscapes are positioned along the window side of the corridors, hidden behind zigzagging slatted structures. The recreational areas occupy the open central-space between the two opposing cloakrooms and learning landscapes.

The terraced learning landscapes provide the children with different views out of the windows and across the corridor.
The space also includes imaginative areas for privacy such as a cave-like cubbyhole room with a curtain and desk spaces for group and individual working.

A s...