Harvard Business School

The Planning Committee for Aldrich Hall—headed by John G.  McLean, and including young professors named C.  Roland Christensen and Ken Andrews—acknowledged that lectures were used in some courses, but that the case method "predominates throughout the instructional program of the School."  Because rooms designed for the case method would work adequately for lectures but not the opposite, the committee concluded that the design of Aldrich be focused primarily on the "unique requirements" of the case method:

"Analysis of the case method suggests that above all else the room interiors should be designed to facilitate group discussion.  The case method is not a matter of instructor lecturing to students nor yet a matter of students reciting to instructor.  The very essence of the process is a group discussion with the instructor as a leading participant.  It is of the utmost importance, therefore, that the rooms be arranged to encourage triangular discussion among Student A, Student B, and the instructor.  …

"A second general requirement of the classroom interiors (and corridor interiors) is that they should achieve an atmosphere of quiet informality.  All possible care should be taken to avoid the regimented, institutional atmosphere which is so often characteristic of buildings which must accommodate masses of people.  Care must likewise be taken to avoid distractions which interfere with the learning process, such as crowding, discomfort, noise, glare, uneven temperature, and inadequate ventilation."  

Later in the report, the committee provided further specifics about the needs of the case method:

"It is again emphasized that the role of the instructor should be conceived as that of a leader in a group discussion; he will not need, and may even be hampered by, conventional room features which might suggest that he is an infallible authority with the students in orderly rows at his feet.  Intimacy of discussion is likewise important, and features which contribute to either physical or symbolic distance between student and teacher should be avoided."