January 2022

Having experienced the magic of Faber once before, we felt it would be the perfect setting for our cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary exploration of 'Redesign of schools during Covid-19 - lasting effects worthwhile'. As the world battles with finding a healthy footing in the educational sector, we aim to spread light on how some schools are coping in their everyday life in an attempt to inspire others in their struggle to provide good education in a Covid-19-safe environment. Schools will soon be open in all the four countries we represent across Europe. Belgium, Catalonia, Denmark and Sweden have all reacted differently to the Covid-19 situation. Through the exploration of the physical design, the managerial decisions and the teachers' and students' perception of their workplace, we hope to discover good practices that can inspire across nations, cultures and educational systems.

Starting the project in our own countries, we hope to meet at Faber in Olot to bring it all together in a cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary investigation of the collected data. Being able to meet physically to exchange knowledge and work together would be a requirement for the success of this project. Furthermore, it is our aim to involve and inspire the local educational environment by inviting local educational policymakers and leaders to participate in the discussions of our findings, which would even help us develop our research with further knowledge and a perspective from outside the group.

Our consortium is made up by an educational anthropologist from Denmark, an educational design research fellow and PhD from Denmark and Sweden, an architect specialized in education from Barcelona, and a Catalan architect and researcher on learning environments based in Brussels. The diversity in our professional backgrounds and nationalities along with our professional expertise within educational architecture and practices provide a unique opportunity for cross-cultural and international knowledge sharing of benefit to a wide educational audience.