The opportunity to design new physical environments for learning opens new opportunities to reconceive the way societies construct their understanding of learning, in a least three ways: (1) a movement away from the existing "normal science" of education toward the practice of design, intended to create learning environments based on continuous learning about learning over time; (2) a stronger relationship between the design of learning environments and the emerging discipline of the neuroscience of learning; and (3) the deliberate creation of environments that are built to be continuously modified in light of new understandings and insights about learning. [For the complete volume, "Spaces of Teaching and Learning: Integrating Perspectives on Research and Practice," see ED611164.]