Date/Time: November 5, 2026 | 9:00 – 10:30 am

Room: TAHOMA 1

Abstract: Educators shape learning every day—but they are rarely empowered to shape the environments where learning happens. As a result, many classrooms remain misaligned with contemporary teaching practices and student needs.

This interactive workshop explores how emerging AI-assisted design tools can help architects, planners, and school leaders engage educators as active co-designers of learning environments. Participants will see how teachers can quickly generate visual scenarios of classroom layouts, learning zones, and furniture configurations aligned with their instructional practices—without needing architectural training.

During the session, participants will use the tool to generate and evaluate alternative classroom design scenarios, exploring how spatial choices influence collaboration, independent learning, movement, supervision, and student well-being. These rapid visualizations create a powerful bridge between professional design expertise and educator insight, enabling richer conversations about what learning spaces should support.

Rather than relying on lengthy surveys or abstract discussions, this approach allows educators to see and test spatial ideas in minutes, helping design teams surface needs, preferences, and teaching patterns much earlier in the planning process.

Participants will leave with practical strategies for using AI-assisted visualization and participatory design methods to accelerate engagement, deepen collaboration, and produce more responsive learning environments. The result is a faster, more inclusive design process—one where educators become creative partners in shaping spaces that support diverse learners and evolving pedagogies.

Learning Objectives:

1. Explain how participatory design methods can engage educators as co-designers in the planning of learning environments, leading to spaces that better support health, safety, and student well-being.
2. Use AI-assisted visualization tools to generate alternative classroom design scenarios that align spatial layouts with different teaching practices and learning modalities.
3. Evaluate how classroom configurations influence key HSW factors, including safe circulation, supervision sightlines, ergonomic furniture arrangements, and environments that support student well-being and neurodiversity.
4. Apply a rapid co-design workflow that enables architects and planners to collaborate with educators more efficiently, generating richer insights and more responsive learning environments earlier in the design process.