Architects are among the most creative people I know. Their creativity is evident in everything from their unique handwriting to their skill in sketching, thinking divergently, and bringing ideas to life in impactful, tangible ways.
The raw material for their design efforts originates from client engagement - by understanding the climate and culture of the organization they are partnering with and by uncovering the organization’s need for a design solution. This begins in the initial part of the design process, known as Discovery. Architects use the information from Discovery to create design drivers, which become the foundation for developing concept designs. The concept designs represent plausible solutions and range from typical to innovative and safe to bold, among other scales. Concept designs are presented to the client, and one or a combination moves forward throughout the remainder of the architectural process.
Architects face the challenge of crafting school designs that align with the client’s vision and culture while introducing innovative elements that can improve the school experience now and in the future.
I believe architects and designers are responsible for proposing forward-thinking concepts that push the boundaries of educational space design, creating dynamic environments that enrich learning, foster active participation, and support student success. However, a key challenge is overcoming educators' preference for familiar, traditional designs rather than embracing bold, transformative ideas that move the needle.
The questions are: To what extent are architects prepared to advocate for designs that push beyond traditional boundaries? How comfortable are they in challenging the norm, and how interested would they be in actually doing that? If they were, how might the design process be reimagined to foster deeper collaboration between designers and clients, enabling bold and innovative ideas to be explored, refined, and realized?
The answer is twofold. First, educators need support in expanding their mindset to appreciate how divergent design ideas can create transformative school experiences. Second, architects must refine their processes to support the development of generative dispositions in educators, most likely early in the design process (probably as part of Discovery). This approach would help educators develop the necessary mindset and lenses that would enable them to consider, contribute to, evaluate, and advocate for creative designs.
So, what strategies can be employed to modify the Discovery process to add opportunities to create the conditions for transformative school design?
Begin during the Interview
Start by explaining how a new iteration of Discovery differs from traditional approaches, emphasizing the opportunity to cultivate educators as creative contributors. Clearly outline how experiences during Discovery would encourage educators to expand their creativity, enabling them to envision new directions and capabilities that will lead to more innovative and future-focused outcomes. Tell the potential client that you are committed to adding time to the process to develop the creative ability of educators. Explain the purpose of this and that this will enhance and improve the design process and the outcome. Use this to differentiate your firm from others that are also interviewing. Get educators ready for new ideas.
Commit to new, intentional collaboration.
Replace rushed after-school committees (educators are not fans of committee work) with dedicated school design teams that meet in off-campus locations. Require administrators to participate. By creating a space removed from the usual siloed school environment, team members can break free from existing thought patterns and engage more openly and creatively in the design process. Dedicate days for this - not an hour after school meeting when people are tired after teaching an entire day. Have design team members be the point people for communicating with their peers about the progress of design to develop teacher leadership around spatial design. And during design charettes, no laptops for checking email or paper grading are allowed!
Expand perspectives through diverse visitations.
Step outside the traditional K-12 bubble by visiting diverse spaces like public libraries, higher education campuses, corporate offices, coworking spaces, and innovation centers. These visits should be designed to foster fresh perspectives, enabling clients to see how varied environments can inspire adaptable, innovative school design. Visitations should be intentionally designed to help reshape how educators see space. Seriously, avoid visitations focused on seeing what cool space some schools have so they can be replicated in your client’s design. Expect more from visitations and use them to expand how people see the importance of the relationship between space and experience. Minimize the focus on the library’s corner makerspace, furniture, and other spatial elements. How are you using visitations to make people more capable of processing new and innovative ideas?
Host Discovery sessions focused on visioning, norm-setting, and building generative capacity.
Guide the design team through experiences that allow them to establish both personal and collaborative norms around spatial design. Encourage creative thinking, boundary-pushing, and the exploration of new perspectives that will drive the vision for the future of education at their school. Add this to the other charettes you already do and do this first so that the outcomes can impact other events. Include other educators where possible to expand your efforts beyond the design team.
Get serious about student voice.
All architects I know work with students; it's a given. Generally, it's a 1-2 hour workshop that checks a box. Spend serious time with a cross-section of kids, and no, I don’t need to speak just with the student council. Create a student advisory team, and work with them to support the process and vet your designs. Get serious with kids and commit to their involvement - it is their school after all. Tell potential clients about this during the interview process and set yourself apart from other firms. Combining a student advisory team with an educator design team will create a competitive advantage in the interview process and support the development of a co-designer environment between you, faculty, and kids.
I’ve personally seen it too many times: Architectural teams develop really good ideas that can set the stage for a transformative design solution. These are presented and met with cool stares and then pushed back on—ideas that are just beyond the expectations, experience and worldview of educators. Meanwhile, the world moves on with compelling spaces that bring people together in interesting ways. The time of the double-loaded corridor is over.
Spend time—no, invest time—in preparing educators to see things differently. Make them your creative partners rather than just asking them to respond to your creativity. Doing so will change how school design is done and result in potentially remarkable, creative, and the most human of designs.