Activities and space-use in today's Danish folkeskoler are reported following a brief review of the history of architectural planning offolkeskoler. On-site observations of learning situations in classrooms and common room locals were conducted in four schools of different plan types. Analyses of space use patterns, studying combinations between contents of activities and spatial settings, showed that there was much individual or group differentiated work which mostly took place in normal class teaching settings in contrast with Japanese open-schools where often any type of individual or group work takes place in non-classroom settings. The patterns suggest that space was used according to practical needs of the task in the Danish cases rather than the size of instructional groups as is often the case in Japanese schools. The paper is concluded by a discussion on spatiality, cultural patterns in relations with space, as a factor for the difference in space-use.
