The Homeroom Myth: Why Confinement Is Not Connection
Featured
No. 01 September 7, 2026 School Design

The Homeroom Myth: Why Confinement Is Not Connection

By Prakash Nair · President & CEO, Education Design International

Every school accepts that the timetable can change and that teaching can be shared. Then someone asks what happens to the homeroom. The feeling behind that question is right, but the mechanism it assumes is not: one adult and thirty children confined to a single enclosed space works against the very things the homeroom was created to deliver. This essay argues that nearness is not the mechanism of knowing, and sets out what to build instead.

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School Architecture: The Hidden Curriculum
No. 02 July 5, 2026 School Design

School Architecture: The Hidden Curriculum

By Prakash Nair & Dr. Parul Minhas · Education Design International

Long before a lesson begins or a teacher speaks, the building has already begun to teach. This EDI whitepaper explores the school building as the silent teacher — how color, light, proportion, and connection to nature speak directly to a child's nervous system, and why every architectural decision quietly teaches children who they are and how much they matter.

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Outgrown: The Missing Landscape of Adolescence
Perspective
No. 03 August 12, 2026 Learning Environments

Outgrown: The Missing Landscape of Adolescence

By Dr. Parul Minhas · Director of Research, EDI

We spend a great deal of time asking why teenagers are always on their phones, and almost none asking what we have given them to do instead. For younger children we design for climbing, exploring and play; when they become teenagers, that thinking quietly disappears and what remains is sport, some seating, and whatever space is left over. This essay argues that adolescents have not outgrown play — they have outgrown playgrounds — and that a school landscape which needs its students is a different proposition from one that merely accommodates them.

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The Architecture of Identity: How the Environments We Learn In Shape the Way We Work
White Paper
No. 04 August 14, 2026 Research

The Architecture of Identity: How the Environments We Learn In Shape the Way We Work

By Dr Parul Minhas & Ar Bimal Desai · Education Design International & DSP Design Associates

The environments in which we learn do more than support education. They quietly teach us how much agency we have, whether our voice matters, whether effort is safe, and whether we belong. This joint white paper from Education Design International and DSP Design Associates follows these spatial and social imprints from childhood into working life and asks what design can do to shape them differently.

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The Classroom Is Obsolete: It’s Time for Something New
No. 06 December 26, 2024 School Design

The Classroom Is Obsolete: It's Time for Something New

By Prakash Nair · President & CEO, Education Design International

Most students across the globe spend most of their academic day inside a classroom — a relic of the Industrial Revolution that was built to deliver basic skills to a large workforce. Decades of research in cognitive science, learning theory, and environmental psychology show that classrooms cannot deliver the personalized, creative, agile education the 21st century demands. This essay lays out the case for moving beyond the classroom, and the principles that should guide the schools we build instead.

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The True Purpose of Education Is Not Learning
No. 07 February 1, 2025 Education Policy

The True Purpose of Education Is Not Learning

By Dr. Parul Minhas · Director of Research, EDI

When we think of education, the word "learning" instinctively comes to mind — the centerpiece of centuries-old systems that measure success by academic achievements and test scores. But is learning, as we currently define it, really the ultimate purpose? This essay argues that the true purpose of education is not learning itself, because learning has no value if it does not contribute to the wider wellbeing of the learner and the world they live in.

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Designed to Fail?
Perspective
No. 08 July 1, 2026 School Design

Designed to Fail?

By Prakash Nair & Dr. Parul Minhas · Education Design International

India’s NEP 2020 and NCF 2023 promise inquiry, joy, and holistic development — yet the typical school building still delivers sealed rooms, bells, and adult-controlled days. In this open letter to India’s school builders, Prakash Nair and Dr. Parul Minhas argue that a curriculum cannot outvote the architecture it lives inside, and that the leap India wants to make in education will never happen from inside a cell.

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The Child at the Edge
No. 09 June 9, 2026 Learning Environments

The Child at the Edge

By Dr. Parul Minhas . Director of Research, EDI

There is a boy sitting alone in a red alcove at the edge of a busy room. Around him, the floor is full. Children kneel over puzzle pieces and picture books, shoes left in a neat row behind them. Two more share a seat with a magazine between them. The space hums. He is not […]

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Not All Teachers Will Survive
No. 10 February 4, 2025 Teacher Practice

Not All Teachers Will Survive

By Dr. Parul Minhas · Director of Research, EDI

In a rapidly evolving educational landscape, a recurring conversation revolves around the role of teachers in an increasingly technology-driven world. Many argue that AI-driven learning platforms and online resources will make teachers obsolete. This essay argues the opposite: the only teachers who will become dispensable are those who function like robots — content dispensers rather than facilitators of learning. For true teachers, the role is becoming more critical than ever.

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