Call to Action:
The presentation will showcase the new campus for Beta Academy, a charter school in Houston that serves disadvantaged and at-risk children. The architecture team and the school’s founder will describe the goals of school and the collaborative design process that helped to deliver on the founder’s vision. After the session, participants will be able to:

1. Cite research examples stressing the importance of joyful rigor in pedagogy and the design of learning environments to spur clients to rethink traditional education design.
2. Consider joy as a deliberate, measurable component in project budgets. This foregrounds playful and exploratory design not as a luxury or contingency but as an essential investment in user experience and student success.
3. Engage and connect with clients, stakeholders, and the community using a collection of interactive tools refined over the course of the project and demonstrated during the presentation which help to better define and achieve the goals of the project.
4. Identify key points in the student experience and brainstorm ways to optimize spaces and practices for improved student outcomes.

Abstract: Play and learning are not mutually exclusive activities. Research shows that for true learning to happen, play needs to be a key ingredient. Accordingly, a ‘fun’ space is not a separate space from a classroom. They can and should be one in the same. This concept is clear to the founder of the Beta Academy in Houston, Latisha Andrews, who is committed to bringing joy back into the classroom. On the school’s website, the mission is clear, “Joy is what we do.” The goal for the school and the challenge to the architects was to combine an engaging, dynamic learning model with an architecture that encourages creativity and exploration. Beta Academy was not only re-imagining of an elementary school experience, but also a re-thinking of the design process to deliver such a project. The new campus for BETA Academy serves disadvantaged and at-risk children in a community in South Houston. The curriculum is intentionally designed to meet each student where they are – academically, culturally, and socially. Teachers engage in “joyful rigor – engaging, dynamic learning that is academically, intellectually, and personally challenging.” The design of the school intentionally mirrors this commitment and mission by counteracting systemic barriers, including those embedded in institutional aesthetics. By designing spaces that spark joy, the school fosters an environment where students and teachers feel comfortable, empowered, and inspired.

Learning Objectives:

1. Understand how the concept of ‘joy’ in educational settings can inform the design process and ultimately the building project.
2. Showcase interactive methods used with the client to streamline the iterative process of design options including models, virtual reality, and animations.
3. Define the concept of ‘joyful rigor’ and explore how it could be used in gaining alignment with stakeholders in the design process.
4. Explore the importance of ‘discovery’ in the educational experience and its impact on learning.