Abstract

Today, Egypt suffers from deterioration of education quality as a result of
deficient learning spaces, insufficient governmental expenditure and funding, and lack of
proper research in education developmental strategies. Additionally, 21st century learning
requires innovative spaces that connect school, home, and community. Therefore, new learning
spaces should increase flexibility, support hands-on and outside-class learning activities in
order to motivate learners. Furthermore, they intend to encourage extra-curricular activities
beyond conventional learning times. Undoubtedly, comfortable, safe and creative learning
spaces can inspire and motivate users, while ugly/unsafe spaces can depress. Therefore, welldesigned
learning spaces are able to support creative, productive and efficient learning
processes on one hand. On the other hand, ecological design measures became an increasingly
major keystone for modern sustainable learning-spaces. Thus, learning-spaces’ design process,
form, components, materials, features, and energy-saving technologies can yield well-educated,
environmentally-literate, energy-conscious, and innovative future-generations.
This paper represents a preliminary phase of an ongoing research project that aims to create
a framework for an Innovative Sustainable Learning Environment (ISLE) in developing
countries, the Middle East region, and Egypt in particular. This project aims at encouraging
constructive relationships between users, buildings, ecosystems and to improve quality of
learning through intelligent and ecologically well designed learning-spaces. The paper
proposes the concept of modular Eco-Class as a framework of learning spaces and a stepforward
in the direction of ISLE. Moreover, this Eco-Class aims to educate and provide
balance between building’s environmental sensitivity, high performance, initial cost, and
lifecycle costs without harming the surrounding ecology. The Eco-Class not only intends to
promote a positive environmental impact to improve indoor air quality and energy efficiency, it
also provides on its own an environment that educates learners and elevates environmentalawareness
between future generations. Finally, the study and the ongoing research project of
Eco-Class aim to provide validated design-guidelines for sustainable educational buildings, and
to achieve the optimum innovative and sustainable learning environment in Egypt for effective
and creative future-generation learners, parents, staff, and communities.