Designing for Better Learning: Dave Broz Presents Research at Global Education Summit

Dave Broz, Associate Professor of Interior Architecture at Columbia College Chicago, is an educator and designer whose research explores how the built environment affects cognition, stress, and student success.Dave Broz, Associate Professor of Interior Architecture at Columbia College Chicago, is an educator and designer whose research explores how the built environment affects cognition, stress, and student success.
Associate professor of Interior Architecture Dave Broz presented research at the researchED Education Summit in Brisbane, Australia.

Associate professor of Interior Architecture Dave Broz recently presented at the researchED Education Summit in Brisbane, Australia, sharing new insights on how the physical design of learning spaces affects cognition, stress, and student success. 

Broz co-presented remotely with Dr. Lennie Scott-Webber, founder of INSYNC Education Research + Design, in a session titled “We Must Do Better in Designing Our Learning Environments.” The pair discussed how neuroscience and environmental design intersect—and why the quality of classrooms and studios directly influences mental health and learning outcomes. 

Over the past three years, Broz and Scott-Webber have collaborated to connect the neuroscience of how the brain learns with the physical attributes of learning environments. Their research is guided by five key performance standards—Visual, Audible, Ergonomic, Physiological, and Belonging—each with three measurable criteria. “If those 15 criteria aren’t met,” Broz explains, “learning can literally shut down.” 

At Columbia, Broz is bringing those insights into practice. In his senior design studio this semester, students are using the performance standards as a checklist to evaluate and rethink learning spaces on campus. “It’s a way to help these future design professionals think critically about how design affects cognition, mental health, and stress,” Broz says. 

By applying this framework to real environments, Broz and his students are helping advance the conversation around how design can support learning equity and student well-being—both at Columbia and in classrooms around the world. 

 

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