Children spend a large portion of their time in school, yet they rarely have any influence over how that space is designed. At times, they may participate as testers of a product that has already been developed or as informants who are briefly observed and interviewed. Still, their input often remains limited and almost entirely controlled by adults. But don’t children deserve a say in shaping the environments that influence their development?
Since the pandemic, one in four students is absent from classrooms every day. These students are missing out on critical academics, socialization, and real-world lessons that regular school attendance provides. In an effort to improve attendance, Co-Designing the Classroom aims to increase student engagement and foster a sense of belonging by bringing students directly into the design process. The design team—composed of nine children and four adults—spent a year exploring how design might reconnect students to school by re-engaging them with the physical and material aspects of their learning environment.
This exhibit shares artifacts from the co-design sessions, the design process, and findings from the research. The project highlights students’ feelings about belonging, their criteria for spaces that foster it, and the proposed design interventions developed collaboratively by the team.
Co-Designing the Classroom is an independent project by Danielle Begnaud and Margot Kleinman, hosted by Pratt Institute’s School of Design.
