Designing Together: Leveraging Collaborative Design Thinking in Planning Education Spaces

AIA Continuing Education Provider

PENDING

Date/Time: October 30, 2025 | 1:30 – 2:30 pm

Room: 160-161

Room Sponsor: Artcobell

Audience: Architects, Engineers, Educators, Facility Personnel, Contractors / Suppliers / Manufacturers, Consultants

Artcobell

Call to Action:

  1. Transform school design with collaboration. Use Design Thinking to engage stakeholders, build consensus, and create impactful learning spaces.
  2. Reimagine existing spaces. Invest in community-driven solutions that enhance learning environments and foster long-term success.
  3. Design with, not for. Empower students, teachers, and parents through participatory workshops to shape the future of education.

Abstract: Discover how to use the Empathy-Define-Ideate workshop to gain vital insights often overlooked in facility planning. Based on Design Thinking, a well-known human-centered approach, this workshop facilitates a collaborative endeavor: designing with, rather than for, end users. This tool captures qualitative input from stakeholders and transforms it into tangible solutions. Learn how we applied the Empathy-Define-Ideate workshop at the Uruguayan American School to uncover unexpected insights that drove the design for their school-wide renovation.

Learning Objectives:

  1. First-hand experience of the Empathy—Define—Ideate workshop model. Participants can use it to solicit and collate information and ultimately create consensus among a large and diverse group of stakeholders.
  2. Know how to create an Empathy Map, a simple and meaningful analog tool soliciting often-overlooked qualitative information from a large group of stakeholders to develop a shared understanding of end-user needs beyond a typical space-needs programming spreadsheet.
  3. Navigate the steps necessary to prepare for the Empathy—Define—Ideate workshop, from working with the project’s administrators to identify key stakeholder groups to organizing and preparing the physical materials necessary to ensure the workshop’s success.
  4. Understand the value of using the Empathy—Define—Ideate workshop model and will be equipped to advocate for its importance and role in the earliest phases of a project.

Core Competency

Educational Visioning
Facilitating the translation of educational goals/vision into school design requirements.

Emily Ray, AIA
Emily Ray, AIA
Project Architect, Wheeler Kearns Architects

Emily is dedicated to equity-driven design for nonprofit and community-based clients in education, arts, and social services. A Project Architect at Wheeler Kearns Architects since 2017, her award-winning work includes Broadway Youth Center, Great Lakes Academy Expansion, and the Bernard Zell Anshe Emet Day School Expansion. As a founding member of AIA Chicago’s LGBTQIA+ Alliance, she mentors and advances inclusivity in architecture. AIA Chicago honored her with the 2024 Dubin Family Young Architect Award.

Fabiola Yep, AIA
Fabiola Yep, AIA
Project Architect, Wheeler Kearns Architects

Originally from Lima, Peru, Fabiola is a civic leader dedicated to supporting underrepresented communities in architecture. An Architect at Wheeler Kearns Architects since 2019, she has led award-winning educational projects, including Great Lakes Academy Expansion, Uruguayan American School Master Plan, and Elgin Math & Science Academy. She mentors through Big Brothers Big Sisters, Arquitinas, and ACE. Her leadership earned her the 2023 Driehaus Design Impact Award and 2024 GOLD Award from Ball State University.

Matt Beatta
Matt Beatta
Project Architect, Uruguayan American School

Matt has directed the Uruguayan American School since 2015. Prior to UAS, he was the Middle School Principal at Nido de Aguilas in Santiago, Chile for ten years. Matt earned his B.A. summa cum laude in English Language and Literature from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, an M.A. in English Language and Literature from the University of Michigan, and a Masters in Educational Leadership from Lehigh University.

LearningSCAPES 2025 Conference in Phoenix, Arizona

Venue

Phoenix Convention Center
South Building
100 North Third Street
Phoenix, AZ 85004

Dates

October 29-November 1, 2025

Contact

Email: donna@a4le.org
+1 480.391.0840