Architecture is integral to the creation of safe, supportive, resilient spaces for teaching and learning. Spaces that move from simply existing to inspiring; from containing student bodies to engaging student imaginations. Spaces that heal, grow, and develop the very neurophysiological architecture necessary for civic engagement, personal growth, and self-actualization over a lifetime. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defines Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) as “potentially traumatic events that occur in childhood (0-17)” (Violence Prevention, 2022). Negative impacts from adverse childhood experiences are not bound by socioeconomic status, have been found to have significant and cumulative impacts to health, wellbeing, education, job potential and life expectancy with the economic and social costs to families, communities, and society estimated in the hundreds of billions of dollars annually (Violence Prevention, 2022). Often, the symptoms of adverse childhood experiences are expressed through negative or inappropriate behaviors in traditional school settings. Within environments attuned to neurocognitive development, prevention, healing centered practice and neurovisceral integration, research also tells us that the negative impacts not only have the potential for repair, but prevention all together.. Regulated through a series of building, safety, and licensing codes that sometimes fall counter to developmentally enhancing design, as well as considerations of scale and budget, healthy neurophysiological development through intentional architecture represents a significant need within the current landscape of schooling today. Through the lens of Urie Bronfenbrenner’s Bioecological Systems Theory (1999, 2005) we explore the impact of various design conditions (light and color, sound, temperature, etc) of significant influence within the existing literature base and unpack how they may enhance or detract from an ACE exposed child’s learning.

Learning Objectives:

1. We will know the impacts of adverse childhood experiences to learning, health, and lifetime opportunities.
2. We will understand how specific design conditions enhance or detract from supportive learning environments in built spaces.
3. We will be able to effectively evaluate our current learning environment for trauma informed, healing centered, brain friendly learning.
4. We will engage in storytelling and collaborative dialogue to incorporate the wealth of knowledge existing within our shared space during the time we are able.