Towards a spatiality of wellbeing

Despite increasing attention to designing learning environments that are conducive to contemporary pedagogy, there is limited understanding about how physical spaces influence student learning in holistic and existential ways. In addition, while research shows an association between student wellbeing and learning, the inter-relationship between these concepts and the spatial and material implications are underexplored. Consequently, this chapter seeks to expand current thinking about learning spaces to support conceptually-informed school design. As a way forward, it brings together a capability approach to education with an existential understanding of wellbeing to propose spatiality of wellbeing as an overarching construct that points to the potential of the physical school environment to have an enduring and profound influence on student wellbeing and learning.