The executive director of the Council of Educational Facility Planners, retiring after 17 years, views the biggest change in the educational planning field as the shift from a "bricks and mortar" mentality to a process that includes the users of the learning environment. (MLF)

Selected comments on Hathaway and Fiedler's paper by a sociologist, an economist, a political scientist, a K-12 facility planner, a campus facility planner, and a school architect precede a discussion of how the paper can serve as a planning guide for school facilities. (MLF)

Using John Naisbitt's "Megatrends" as a guide to learning environments for the future, characteristics for the following spaces are delineated: food service, vocational and technical, language centers, health and physical education, libraries and information centers, commons or people places, arts and crafts, administration, and employee…

Trends in communications, travel, computers and technology, competition, accountability demands, transformation of knowledge, economic instability, integration, and cultural pluralism exert pressures for educational change. Possible scenarios (superindustrial, authoritarian, ecological, crisis, and composite), with the accompanying implications…

With the specific charge of maximum flexibility, fewest constraints, and greatest human responsiveness for educational facilities designs, new technologies are cited in the areas of mechanical and electrical systems, materials and equipment, and interior furnishings and environments. (MLF)