What we did

We did not start with furniture catalogues or room layouts. We started with the learning.

Across the campus, we observed how students, teachers and support staff actually used space: where learning gathered energy, where it became stuck, and where the physical environment quietly shaped behaviour. We looked at three things together: the spaces themselves, the furnishings and equipment, and the attitudes, beliefs and permissions of the people using them.

That gave UNIS Hanoi a practical diagnostic: not just “what should we build?”, but “what kind of learning will this space make more likely?”

Challenge and context: strong learning, underused shared spaces

The campus included generous circulation and communal areas, yet many of these spaces were treated as transitional rather than integral to learning. Students moved through them quickly, and staff lacked confidence to use them for teaching, collaboration or reflection. Leadership recognised that without a clearer purpose, these spaces would continue to represent missed opportunities for learning and community connection.

Insight and approach: making learning visible beyond classrooms

We explored how students and teachers interacted with shared spaces throughout the school day and identified where learning naturally spilled beyond classroom walls. This revealed that small shifts in design, clarity and ownership could dramatically change how spaces were used.

The work led to five design principles for future decisions:

• Design for students, with students
• Bring the outside in
• Strengthen connections
• Inspire in every corner
• Make room to move

These principles came from over 86 hours of observation and interviews, more than 100 formal and informal meetings, and over 240 pages of notes, photographs and videos.

And the design principles shaped design work that treated shared spaces as active learning environments rather than circulation leftovers.

By focusing on everyday behaviours, the work grounded design decisions in how learning actually unfolds at UNIS Hanoi.

Co-design and engagement: building confidence through shared exploration

The work helped UNIS Hanoi move from broad ambition to practical choices.

For each principle, we developed design drivers, design toolkits and pedagogy toolkits. This meant the school could test decisions against the learning it wanted to see.

Would one large screen at the front of the room support student agency, or would several smaller screens around the room create more room for collaboration? Would a classroom full of fixed desks make movement harder? Could corridors, outdoor edges and common areas become places for learning rather than spaces people simply passed through?

These are the kinds of questions that turn a masterplan into a useful component of a school's learning strategy.

Outcomes and impact: what changed?

The final concept gave UNIS Hanoi a shared language for future decisions and a practical toolkit for change. It included:

• classroom concepts for Elementary, Middle and High School
• furniture and layout guidance to support flexible, student-centred learning
• more writable and visible surfaces for peer learning and thinking out loud
• learning zones for collaboration, direct instruction, quiet work and informal gathering
• greener, lighter classrooms using natural materials and views of nature
• ideas for sensory and language support, offices, common areas, canteen, kitchen, social hub and sense of arrival
• a way to prioritise investment by learning impact, not just cost or urgency

UNIS Hanoi now has a way to make future campus decisions with greater confidence using the school’s values, the evidence of how people learn, and a clear view of what each investment needs to make possible.