Abstract

This thesis investigates the role of transitional spaces in elementary schools and their impact on students’ experiences of clarity, well-being, and belonging. While educational design often prioritizes classrooms as primary sites of learning, this study argues that the spaces between them, including corridors, stairwells, and entry zones, play a critical role in shaping daily experience and supporting student development. Using a comparative case study methodology, three elementary schools in the North Shore suburbs of Chicago were analyzed, each representing a distinct architectural era and educational philosophy: Crow Island School (1939), Wilmette Junior High School (1958), and Sunset Ridge School (2018). Through direct observation and semi-structured interviews with school staff, this research identifies how spatial strategies influence movement, perception, and social interaction within transitional environments. Evaluative criteria such as spatial hierarchy, visibility, circulation capacity, access to daylight, and opportunities for informal occupation emerged inductively through fieldwork. Findings suggest that well-designed transitional spaces support clarity through legible circulation hierarchies and visible landmarks, enhance well-being through access to daylight, material warmth, and sensory modulation, and foster belonging through opportunities for informal gathering and spatial identity at the neighborhood scale. Conversely, poorly articulated transitional spaces can contribute to disorientation, stress, and social disengagement. By synthesizing these findings into a set of design strategies, this thesis positions transitional spaces not as residual or purely functional zones, but as active contributors to learning environments, offering a framework for architects and designers to intentionally shape these in-between spaces as integral components of student-centered school design.

Publication Date

5-5-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Student Type

Graduate

Degree Name

Architecture (M.Arch.)

Department, Program, or Center

Architecture, Department of

College

Golisano Institute for Sustainability

Advisor

Seth H Holmes

Campus

RIT – Main Campus

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