Architecture education environments constitute an important part of students’ everyday academic experience, extending beyond the provision of spaces for acquiring architectural knowledge and design skills. The spatial configuration of studios, workshops, collective areas, circulation routes, open spaces, and connections between indoor and outdoor environments can shape how students perceive, use, and attach meaning to their educational surroundings. Although previous research has examined sense of place in educational environments, much of the existing literature has focused on the evaluation of existing settings and the measurement of users’ perceptions, satisfaction, or environmental preferences. Comparatively less attention has been given to how students mentally represent a desirable architecture education environment and which architectural qualities become prominent in these representations. This gap is particularly relevant in architecture education, where students are continuously exposed to spatial design, visual analysis, critique, collaborative work, and direct engagement with the built environment. Their representations of an ideal educational setting may therefore provide a valuable source for understanding the qualities through which an architecture school is perceived and experienced as a meaningful place.

Accordingly, this study aimed to identify and interpret the qualitative components represented in architecture students’ mental images of a desirable educational environment and to examine their relevance to the experience and perception of sense of place. A qualitative analytical research design was adopted, with a phenomenological perspective used as a conceptual and interpretive lens for understanding environmental experience and perception. Freehand sketches were employed as the primary source of visual data, allowing students to express spatial ideas and environmental qualities without being restricted by predetermined response categories. Following an initial review of the collected material and assessment of data sufficiency, 64 legible sketches produced by undergraduate and graduate architecture students were selected for analysis. The sketches were examined using ATLAS.ti 9 through an iterative process of coding, interpretive reading, comparison across cases, and conceptual organization. The analysis resulted in the identification of 49 qualitative components, which were subsequently organized according to their conceptual relationships and interpreted within the theoretical framework of sense of place.

The findings indicate that students’ representations of a desirable architecture education environment are characterized by an interconnected set of physical spatial, perceptual semantic, and activity social qualities. Among the most prominent components were natural daylight within atrium and central spaces, regular geometry and centralized spatial organization, straight lines and right angles, integration of nature and architecture, spaces supporting interaction and group work, and spatial transparency accompanied by visual connections among educational activities. These qualities frequently appeared in association with one another rather than as isolated architectural features. Natural daylight, for example, was represented in relation to central spatial configurations, collective areas, and connections with the exterior, while the presence of nature was associated with open spaces, visual qualities, opportunities for pause, and social interaction. Similarly, spatial transparency connected architectural organization with the visibility of educational activities, interaction, and a sense of participation within the academic environment. Differences were also observed between undergraduate and graduate students. Graduate students more frequently represented centralized spatial organizations, greater vertical development, and spaces supporting interaction, whereas undergraduate students placed greater emphasis on curved forms, color, and decorative elements.

Overall, the findings suggest that students’ sense of place in architecture education environments cannot be adequately understood through individual physical features alone. Instead, it emerges as a multidimensional experience in which spatial configuration, perceptual and semantic qualities, and patterns of educational and social activity are closely interconnected. The study contributes to the literature by demonstrating the value of students’ freehand sketches as a qualitative means of accessing mental representations of desirable educational environments and by connecting these visual representations with the broader concept of sense of place. The findings provide a basis for further comparative research across architecture schools and educational contexts and may inform design approaches that respond more closely to students’ spatial experience, perception, and expectations.