Joy is What We Do: Designing Schools That Spark Creativity

AIA Continuing Education Provider

PENDING

Date/Time: October 31, 2025 | 9:45 – 10:45 am

Room: 153-154

Furnished by: Smith System

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

Smith System

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.

Core Competency

Educational Facility Implementation, Project Management / Project Delivery
Successfully delivering a project that meets the needs of the community, district, and students.

Luisina Basilico, AIA
Luisina Basilico, AIA
Principal, Page

Luisina is known for her commitment to projects, client goals, and knowledge of their building types. She has experience on a variety of higher education facilities, residential, healthcare, science and technology and commercial. The combination of her academic training and building experience has fostered her ability to seek innovation in design while keeping practical matters in mind. Luisina enjoys being part of a studio that aspires to improve living conditions by challenging prescribed ideas and persistently striving to stay abreast of advances in the architecture and construction industry. She is a strong advocate for the users while remaining committed to designing within the budget and to the programmatic constraints of the project.

Latisha Andrews
Latisha Andrews
Founder, CEO & Superintendent, Beta Academy

Latisha graduated Summa Cum Laude from Capella University with a Master of Business Administration. She is a passionate leader focused on bringing exceptional education to her community. Once reprimanded for “dreaming too big”, she is on a mission to provide a world-class educational opportunity to all children in pursuit of their dreams. With her heart for the community, she brings over sixteen years of educational leadership experience and volunteer tutoring services to the community’s disadvantaged and at-risk children. In 2010, Latisha successfully launched a private K-6, low-cost tuition school in an economically disadvantaged area of Houston, Texas. Relentlessly focused on the educational needs within the community, she partnered with Responsive Education Solutions in 2013, successfully launching a charter school in an adjacent community. In its first year of operation, that new campus earned four Distinct Designations: Top 25% Closing Performance Gaps, Top 25% Student Progress, Reading / ELA Academic Achieving, and Math Academic Achievement. On her quest to offer a tuition-free school to her own neighborhood, Latisha opened the first Beta Academy Charter School in the fall of 2015. The school has been recognized with several distinct designations each year and is named on the Texas Honor list. In addition to her work with The Beta Foundation, Latisha serves on the board for the College of Science and Engineering at Houston Christian University and is a director with the Texas Business Hall of Fame, further demonstrating her commitment to leadership and community development.

Chris Pine
Chris Pine
Founder, CEO & Superintendent, Page

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