Nine books. Two decades. One argument — that the spaces we build for children shape the adults they become.
A library written across two decades of practice — through redesigned classrooms, master-planned campuses, and schools in 59 countries. Each book builds the same case: that architecture is not a backdrop for learning. It is learning, made physical.
The Library
From Harvard to Bangalore — the literature behind a global shift in how schools get built.
These books span new editions, original works, co-authored volumes, and contributions from members of the wider EDI team. Together they form the most comprehensive body of work anywhere on the relationship between physical environment and student outcome. Six titles include a free chapter you can download below. The newest — the forthcoming second edition of Blueprint for Tomorrow from Harvard Education Press — is highlighted first.
Books by the EDI Team
Seven titles authored or co-authored by EDI's leadership.
Fall 2026 · Harvard Education Press · 2nd Edition
Blueprint for Tomorrow
Redesigning Schools for Student-Centered Learning
By Prakash Nair
A substantially updated second edition of the book that helped redefine how the world thinks about school buildings. Prakash Nair's original argument is brought into today's context — where artificial intelligence, student well-being, climate resilience, universal design, and place-based learning have made the limits of the traditional "cells and bells" model impossible to ignore. A timely roadmap for transforming new and existing facilities into agile "learning buildings" that support connection, collaboration, belonging, environmental responsibility, and the diverse ways children learn today.
Coming Fall 2026
PublishingFrom Harvard Education Press
2023 · Association for Learning Environments
A New Language of School Design
Evidence-Based Strategies for Student Achievement & Well-being
Editors: Prakash Nair, AIA · Dr. Parul Minhas
Even as the world transforms at breakneck speed, the fundamental tenets of education and school-building design remain stubbornly unchanged. This book argues that the vocabulary of school design must grow to include AI, neuroarchitecture, biophilic design, salutogenic design, and choice architecture — and explores how each idea profoundly reshapes both pedagogy and learning space.
India (ARISE) Edition — Evidence-Based Strategies for Student Achievement & Well-being
Editors: Prakash Nair, AIA · Dr. Parul Minhas
India's National Education Policy 2020 sets ambitious goals for learner-centred, experiential schooling — yet research shows those aims cannot be met without transforming the environments where learning happens. The ARISE Edition introduces a shared vocabulary for architects, school leaders, and educators grounded in psychology, neuroscience, biophilia, salutogenesis, and AI. Through global case studies and concise research summaries, it equips every change-agent with the common language needed for genuine educational transformation.
Designing Learning Spaces for Connection & Coherence
Dr. Parul Minhas · Prakash Nair, AIA · with Kevin Bartlett
A transformative argument for environments that are not merely places of learning, but vibrant spaces that foster connection and engagement. Each chapter offers practical solutions grounded in interdisciplinary research — guiding educators, architects, and policymakers in creating more humane, effective, and genuinely transformative learning environments.
Prakash Nair · Roni Zimmer Doctori · with Dr. Richard F. Elmore
The premise is unequivocal: the physical environments where we learn should reflect our most powerful aspirations about learning itself. The designs showcased here expand rather than contain learning, open access rather than control it, and adapt to differences in modality rather than restrict them. A shift to deliberate design requires a shift in mindset — from predictability to informed choice, from established patterns to flexibility, from accepted truths to inquiry. For everyone who cares about education and its role in building a more fair and just society.
The United States has about $2 trillion tied up in aging school facilities — and spends roughly $12 billion every year keeping that infrastructure going. Yet almost all the new money poured into school buildings reinforces an obsolete model. This book — by one of the world's leading school designers — exposes the hidden messages our facilities send, and offers simple, affordable, versatile ideas for adapting existing spaces to support student-centered learning. Organized by area (classrooms to cafeterias) and richly illustrated with before-and-after features, "smart idea" sidebars, and "do now" suggestions.
A seminal work that defines a new graphic vocabulary synthesizing learning research with best practice in school planning and design. More than a book of ideas, it is a practical tool — and a must-have resource for every stakeholder involved in planning, designing, constructing, and evaluating the educational adequacy of school facilities.
What will it take to create truly contemporary learning environments that meet the demands of 21st-century society, engage learners, and produce graduates prepared to succeed? What skills do teachers and leaders need to build and sustain such schools? Jacobs and Alcock answer through the lenses of three pedagogies — antiquated, classical, and contemporary — and examine every aspect of K–12 education: curriculum, instruction, assessment, and the program structures of space (physical and virtual), time, and grouping. A clear-eyed action plan for a new educator job description.
Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom
Sylvia Libow Martinez · Gary Stager, Ph.D.
Widely called "the bible of the classroom maker movement," this new and expanded edition is one of the most influential education books of the past decade. It now includes coverage of the BBC micro:bit, Scratch, littleBits, Hummingbird robotics, equity issues, and lessons drawn from schools around the world. A practical, opinionated guide to the how, why, and cool-stuff of making — wherever learners learn.
The books are the argument. EDI is the team that builds it.
Schools in 59 countries have moved from these pages to reality with help from Education Design International. If your community is ready to make the same shift, we'd like to talk.
Coming Fall 2026