If we take seriously the notion that school buildings present students with powerful messages about what society values, then school architecture needs to be radically re-thought. For a century and a half, we have built schools that lack adequate light, good furniture, inviting entryways, and green spaces. This is the time to do it: we are in the midst of a major surge in school construction. For the next several years, construction will begin on two new schools every day in the United States alone, and that doesn't even take into account school renovations. But many schools are aesthetically and environmentally deficient, and these schools sap the life right out of students and teachers and everyone else who goes there. Indeed, when adults are invited to think about their lifelong passions, learning that they willingly pursue, most identify something associated with the arts, the body, or the natural world. And yet, very few adults will say that they learned about the thing they love most (cooking, kayaking, playing the guitar, weaving) at school. How is it that our lifelong learning has so little to do with schooling? This book makes the argument that school architecture, even more than curriculum, delineates what students will learn at school.

Rena Upitis is the founding president of Wintergreen Studios, a retreat located in the Frontenac Arch where much of the photography in The House the Spirit Builds was done. She is living in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, during 2018–2019 and lives permanently in Yarker, ON.

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