Aligning pedagogical scenarios and interior design through a functional design code for learning environments

Educational interiors often provide mobile furniture and open layouts without specifying how learners can move between individual work, collaborative discussion, presentation, and short breaks. This narrative analytical review develops a functional design code that connects pedagogical scenarios with observable spatial requirements. A purposive set of 21 sources covering design theory, educational environments, studio pedagogy, classroom environmental quality, flexible learning spaces, and attention restoration informs a comparative synthesis and conceptual model. The framework distinguishes a baseline of environmental suitability and regulatory compliance from three functional domains: concentration, social interaction, and provision for attention recovery. Transition buffers connect these domains through spatial boundaries, storage, circulation, and understandable cues for use. The proposed criterion of switchability describes the ease of moving between activity modes; candidate indicators include transition duration, reconfiguration actions, and interference with adjacent activities. Editable matrices translate the framework into design requirements, observable checks, and common failure patterns. A proposed assessment procedure specifies how these indicators could be recorded without combining them into an unvalidated score. The contribution is a coherent language for design briefing and subsequent evaluation, rather than evidence of improved learning outcomes. The model has not been tested in occupied buildings, and the three domains are a design classification rather than an exhaustive taxonomy of learning. Empirical studies are needed to assess reliability, age-specific applicability, accessibility, and relationships between transition conditions and educational practice.