It has to be manageable by a single teacher who has command of the entire space. Tomorrow's classrooms have competing requirements, distance and separation on one hand with compactness and flexibility on the other. The support space must take into consideration the use of technology tools, access for the disabled, layout of the teacher's workstation, and circulation space. The perception of separation increases when the perception of space increases. There is a way to increase the amount of perceived space in a given floor area by elongating the space.
Elongation gives an illusion of greater space by providing a longer diagonal dimension.
An elongated room with a 36' x 25' floor area, for example, is perceived as larger than a 30' x 30' foot room, even though both have the same 900 square feet of floor space. We can start by eliminating all manner of ovals, pie shapes, and open polygons with no internal walls. In considering rectilinear shapes, the square and the rectangle both excel on the compactness issue but fail the distance test.