Date/Time: November 6, 2026 | 2:15 – 3:15 pm

Room: TAHOMA 3

Abstract: Most school design processes are shaped by professional expertise, with students positioned primarily as end users rather than contributors to architectural authorship. This session reframes that paradigm, examining how structured student participation can function not as consultation, but as a form of design intelligence capable of influencing architectural intent, spatial hierarchy, and contextual response.

Through the KRESA Career Connect Campus case study, presenters will unpack a multi-day co-design process in which CTE students collaborated with architects, educators, entrepreneurs, and industry partners to generate and present spatial narratives and design propositions. These contributions informed critical decisions regarding program distribution, adjacencies, circulation, site relationships, and connections to landscape and natural systems – demonstrating how non-traditional authorship can meaningfully shape contextual, place-based design.

The session presents a structured yet adaptable charrette framework that intentionally creates space for student choice, curiosity, and exploration. Rather than prescribing a single mode of participation, the framework allows students to pursue areas of interest, define problems, and select modes of representation, resulting in deeper engagement and more meaningful design contributions. Applied to CTE and K–12 contexts, this approach demonstrates how a flexible design process can unlock student agency and generate spatial insights that directly inform architectural strategy, contextual response, and learning environment design.

Rather than focusing on engagement as an outcome, the session interrogates translation: how student-generated ideas are curated, synthesized, and transformed into buildable architectural strategies within the realities of schedule, budget, and governance. Participants will explore moments where student perspectives disrupted conventional assumptions and produced design solutions that professional teams alone may not have conceived.

Attendees will leave with a flexibly structured framework for student co-design and a deeper understanding of co-authorship as a strategic methodology for creating learning environments that are intellectually, spatially, and socially resonant.

The presentation will feature written and video commentary from participants of the multi-day CTE co-design workshops.

Learning Objectives:

1. Distinguish student co-authorship from traditional stakeholder engagement and explain how it influences educational vision, design intent, and architectural decision-making.
2. Identify and evaluate ways student perspectives can uncover new programmatic, spatial, and contextual opportunities during planning and conceptual design.
3. Translate student-generated ideas into viable spatial strategies, adjacencies, and site-responsive design solutions within real-world constraints of budget, schedule, and governance.
4. Apply a scalable co-design framework that aligns pedagogy, community vision, and architectural form in future educational facility projects.