Architecture and Technologies for Inspirational Learning Environments

IST-2001-33064

The aim of the ATELIER project (Architecture and Technology for Inspirational Learning Environments) is to contribute to inspirational learning environments, which are grounded in an understanding of creative practices within design, architecture and art.

The project starts out from interactions between people and material artefacts in physical places and asks how we should enhance such an environment with digital technologies to turn it into a resource for inspiration and creative learning by an integrated design of learning materials, interactive technologies and architectural space.

The project will:

- Develop, experiment with, and evaluate a design-oriented approach to inspirational learning, based on ethnographic research on creative design work in an architectural master class and an interaction design studio,

- Design, assemble and test architecture and technical components for such mixed media environments, based on ethnographic work on how learners interact with space, artifacts (tangible and digital, present and distant) and materials of mixed media origin and with co-present and distant people. ATELIER is a EU-project within the programs for Future and Emerging Technologies and the Disappearing Computer.

The project, that started on 1 December 2001, lasting for 30 months, is carried out in close co-operation with partners in Sweden, Austria, Finland and Italy. A description of year one is found in workpackages (pdf file, 8MB).