Alexandra Paré

Alexandra is currently a PhD student in the Doctorate Program in Architecture at the University of Montreal under the supervision of Jean-Pierre Chupin at the Laboratoire d’étude de l’architecture potentielle (LEAP). She holds a Master of Applied Science degree from the University of Montreal and a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Design from UQAM. She also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Education from the University of Ottawa.

Her master’s thesis was on Steiner-Waldorf schools architecture, an international pedagogical movement born at the beginning of the 20th century that gave rise to innovative school design. Her doctoral research project now aims to explore the epistemological, pedagogical and aesthetic underpinnings of contemporary school architecture.

Title: Comparative Analysis of the Relationship Between Architectural Strategies and Theories of Child Development in a Canadian Corpus of Contemporary Elementary Schools.

Research Summary: This dissertation focuses on the analysis of the forms and architectural spaces of newly constructed elementary schools in order to identify criteria for assessing the pedagogical and aesthetic value of school building architecture. This research will draw on a series of case studies to examine the relationship between form, spatiality and functionality as well as the role of architecture in child development. It aims to contribute to the development of a theoretical model that will better understand the didacticism of school building architecture as well as the social and cultural issues related to it. Methodologically, it will examine further elementary school projects in Canada that have received architectural excellence awards as well as school design competition.

Keywords: Architecture, School Building Architecture, Architecture Project, History and Theory of Architecture, Architectural Criticism, Education, Child Development, Architecture Competitions, Awards of Excellence