The Pivotal Balance for Innovation: How Well-Being and Future-Ready Learning Drive New Design Paradigms

With so much to process and so much pressure to achieve in today’s fast-paced, data-inundated world, the need to help students find balance is greater than ever. Designed to replace an existing facility originally built in 1955, the new Barton Elementary School doesn’t simply shift curriculum or pedagogy to prepare students for a healthy, fulfilling future. Instead, it uses the built environment as a tool to unlock future-ready learning. By combining a human-centered approach with technology-rich learning environments, Barton supports academic success while prioritizing well-being.

Holly Teague, Huckabee, a MOREgroup Brand  |  Idaliza Camacho, AIA, NCARB, Huckabee, a MOREgroup Brand

How AI Is Driving the Future of School Design

With AI transforming how students learn, teachers instruct, and administrators plan, schools now face demands for flexibility that historic models aren’t equipped for. The “Adaptability Model,” creating schools that can evolve alongside instruction rather than remain fixed in time, addresses this need. With AI at the forefront of societal and educational transformation, the challenge is clear: adapting schools to meet today’s realities while anticipating tomorrow’s changes.

Ray Bordwell, JCJ Architecture

How Extreme Weather is Impacting Children and Schools

The challenge of extreme weather is no longer a future concern — it is a present-day reality profoundly impacting our communities, and most crucially, our schools and children. Weather-related disasters are increasing in both frequency and intensity, posing a long-term disruptive threat to educational trajectories. This escalating problem demands that we view schools not just as places of learning, but as essential safe havens and support systems that are fully prepared for a spectrum of threats including intense storms, wildfire smoke, intense heat, and flooding.

Jeannie Haubert, LEARN

Get to Know Your New EDmarket Chair: Dr. Deborah Kerr

Dr. Deborah Kerr, Superintendent of the St. Francis Public School District, began her term as the 2026 Chair of the Education Market Association on January 1. Read more about her 46 years of experience in education and her goals for enhancing the association's role as a platform for networking and professional growth that helps members connect, learn, and grow together.

EDspaces Recap The Place to Be for Innovation, Connection, and Inspiration

The industry gathered in Columbus, Ohio, November 4-7, 2025 for the first time to share best-in-class educational opportunities, knowledge experts, school and college tour sites, and products to make learning come to life. Enjoy some of the photo highlights! And

Meet Architect Aimee Eckmann, Perkins&Will

Aimee Eckmann, FAIA, ALEP, LEED AP is the Firmwide PreK-12 Practice Leader at Perkins&Will based in Chicago. She is a member of the EDmarket Architect & Design Council and has been actively involved in A4LE for many years, currently serve as the Midwest Great Lakes Director on the A4LE Global Board. As a member leader in both organizations that are merging over the next 12 months, Aimee offers a unique perspective.

Beyond “Vo‑Tech”: Designing CTE as the Engine of Regional Opportunity

Career & Technical Education (CTE) has evolved from a narrow vocational track into a platform for authentic, real‑world learning that fuses academic rigor with industry experience. To unlock its full impact, leaders must re‑envision the spaces where CTE happens — making them flexible, transparent, and deeply connected to local economies.

Charles Tilley, REFP, AIA, Quinn Evans  |  Tracy Hucul, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, Quinn Evans

Designing with Nature: How Balance, Momentum, Growth, and Efficiency Shape the Future of Learning Environments

The spaces where students learn are far more than a backdrop for education — they actively influence how students feel, behave, and engage. The built environment shapes emotional regulation, focus, collaboration, and a sense of belonging. Much of that influence is defined by the furniture that shapes how students sit, move, gather, and engage throughout the learning day. As schools continue to rethink what future-ready environments should look like, one truth has become increasingly clear: the most effective learning spaces are not static. They are responsive, intuitive, and human-centered. They move with learners rather than confine them.

Katie Pool, Paragon

DLR Group + DPSCD: Reimagining Education and Building Detroit’s Future

Detroit Public Schools Community District is rewriting the future of education for its students. Through a visionary partnership with DLR Group, the district crafted a 20-year facility master plan and educational specifications that fuse research, innovation, and inquiry-based learning principles. It is more than upgrading and replacing aging facilities. It is about creating dynamic environments that empower students, engage communities, and redefine what learning looks like for the future of Detroit. DPSCD is proving that when vision meets strategy, significant transformation follows.

Troy Glover, DLR Group

Outdated by Design: Why It’s Time to Rethink School Restrooms Once and For All

If you close your eyes and picture a school restroom, chances are the image comes quickly: a row of toilet stalls, possibly urinals separated by small partitions, and sinks with mirrors on the wall. This template hasn’t changed much in decades. It’s so familiar that we rarely pause to ask if it’s worth repeating. But here’s the truth: the multi-user restroom model isn’t just outdated — it’s bad design. For generations, school restrooms have been designed for efficiency and cost savings, not for students’ real needs. And that design choice has consequences: restrooms are some of the least safe, least supervised, and least dignified spaces on campus.

Kerri Brady

Beyond Quiet and Calm: Designing (and Measuring) Spaces Students Can Use to Regulate Learning

For many learners, especially neurodivergent students who experience sensory input more intensely or process information differently, this gap between “I can’t start” and “I know what to do next” is the difference between a functional school day and a constant sense of failure. This article looks at that gap through the lens of self-regulated learning and emotion regulation and asks what it would mean to design learning environments that actively help students manage both.

Dr. Renae Mantooth, WELL AP, HKS

Environmental Design & Heutagogical Culture The Shift — In Real Time…

Today, in a time where education is rapidly transforming to meet increasing demands of every kind, the concept of heutagogy — or self-determined learning — is emerging as a powerful framework. Heutagogy spotlights: Learner Autonomy, Capacity Building, and Capability Development, representing a significant necessary evolution beyond traditional teaching methods.   While attention has been previously devoted to curriculum, technology, and other educational innovations, one critical element is often overlooked: the physical environment. The design of learning spaces plays a pivotal role in enabling or constraining self-determined learning that heutagogy seeks to foster.

Hannah Tejeda, NorvaNivel