Learning By Design - Children's Design Workshops
In collaboration with teachers at a school or community site, LBD:MA master teachers and visiting architects plan and co-teach student design sessions. Programs are typically offered once or twice a week for 1.5 hours per session. For programs involving more than one class, a LBD:MA master teacher may teach up to three classes per day.
In addition, teachers and community educators with their own architecture and design curriculum in place can request a visiting architect to assist with that program on a per-session basis. An architect can bring his or her professional expertise to a program, demonstrating schematic and CAD drawing techniques; sharing plans and models; leading an architectural walking tour; or discussing concepts like green building techniques or sustainable design.
LBD:MA programs are based on the Design Process as outlined in the MA Curriculum Frameworks, and incorporate learning standards in Mathematics, Science & Technology/Engineering, Social Science, English Language Arts and the Visual Arts.
Which architecture and design program is right for you and your students? Considerations include your curriculum objectives, number of students, and available timeframe. After browsing our program listings, please feel free to contact us. We will help you to determine which program, and how many sessions, will be needed to give your students a successful design experience. See our Resources Section to see a list of past LBD:MA program sites.
Architectural Walking Tour
Grades K–12; one to three sessions
  What can you learn from a walk around the block? A great deal. By observing, measuring, writing and drawing, by taking photographs and map-making, students study architecture and develop a sense of stewardship for their neighborhood. A walking tour is an excellent way to begin the “investigation” phase of many children’s design programs, and to put mathematics, science and arts skills to use in a close-to-home, real-world setting.
 Architectural Walking Tour Program Details + Learning Standards Alignments
Architectural Walking Tour Handout
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Block Design
Grades K–2; four sessions
 This program takes young children’s block play to the next level. After listening to stories about houses and homes, the children use their own process of design to create small scale people, and then use wooden blocks to build houses for their people. Next, they turn their block houses into simple floor plans and 3D models; and then write and share stories about their people and their homes.
Block Design Program Details + Learning Standards Alignments
Block Design Handout
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Box City: a Community-Building Program
Grades K–12
Single-grade projects: four to six sessions
Whole school events: ten to fifteen days
 Box City is an award-winning program developed by CUBE, the Center for Understanding the Built Environment. Students answer the question “what makes a good city?” then work together to design and build a scale-model town from the ground up. As a single class or single grade project, Box City can be the culminating activity for classes learning about community design or architectural history. As a whole-school project, Box City is an inspiring event that simply must be seen to be believed. LBD:MA program staff will coordinate your event, train your staff, and oversee the program from beginning to end.
Box City Details + Learning Standards Alignments
Box City Handout
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Designing Our Community
Grades 6-12; six to eight sessions
 This program show that young people are fully capable of developing solutions for real-world community problems; and that they are eager to communicate their ideas about the remarkable potential of our neighborhoods. In this program students engage in a real community visioning process--developing solutions for a community design project based on a local site.
Students learn to read and use maps and scaled drawings, and then set them to work tackling a local design issue. They visit the site, define their design problem, and develop a solution. They draw scale site plans and floor plans, build scale models, create presentation boards, and often present their final projects to community members. The process is an excellent way to connect community study with mathematics and design.
This community visioning process can be an important part of a community design charrette, where adults and children envision uses for a given site. When students and adults work together on detailed scale models the process can energize on-going community design efforts. In past programs, middle and high school students have developed and shared their ideas for nature centers, city parks, libraries, museums and community centers.
Designing Our Community Details + Learning Standards Alignments
Designing Our Community Handout
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Dream House Design
Grades 3-12; six to twelve sessions
 Students use the design process to plan their dream houses. They use drafting boards, T-squares, triangles and templates to draw ¼” = 1’ scale floor plans; and then build a scale model of that house. Older students can make professional-looking foam core models. Younger students design and build scale models of a Dream Room. Mathematics teachers love this project for its math connections; students love using real tools and communicating their ideas about their homes and their futures.
Dream House Design Details + Learning Standards Alignments
Dream House Design Handout
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Entryway Design
Grades 3-5; four sessions
Grades 6-12; six sessions
 In this project, developed in collaboration with high school math classes, students do in-depth design work by focusing on one entryway in their school or neighborhood. They observe how that entryway—the approach area, the entrance, and the lobby—is used; and develop ways to improve that entryway. They analyze entryways as symbol and as structure; conduct user surveys; measure the entryway using estimation, proportion, modules and “mirror math;” and calculate the slope of stairs. They communicate their ideas for redesigning that entryway through scale plans, elevation drawings, writings and models; and then evaluate and present their designs.
Entryway Design Details + Learning Standards Alignments
Entryway Design Handout
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History through Architecture
Grades 2–8; four sessions
 Roman cities, cathedrals, or colonial post-and-beam timber frames...throughout time, architecture has been a reflection of its people. Tie this hands-on program on structures and materials to an Ancient History or American History unit, finish off the program by creating a historic scale-model “Box City,” and your students will see into the lives of the builders of the past.
History through Architecture Details + Learning Standards Alignments
History through Architecture Handout
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Houses in Literature
Grades K–6; four sessions
 Authors and illustrators communicate their ideas about buildings through words and pictures; architects communicate their ideas through plans and models — all are using the creative process of design. In this program students read stories with a strong sense of place; and then use Art, Mathematics and Language Arts skills to create and write about their own scale-model people, homes, landscapes and neighborhoods.
Houses in Literature Details + Learning Standards Alignments
Houses in Literature Handout I
Houses in Literature Handout II
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Places to Learn / Outdoor Learning Spaces
Grades K–12; four to six sessions
 In this program, created with the help of educational facilities architects, students research and design learning spaces. Students consider who will use the space; what makes a good learning place; where is the site; when will it be used, and why? In the design phase they communicate their ideas through mapping, drawing, model-building and writing. These activities use real spaces, making this a much-needed project for schools experiencing renovation/building projects.
Outdoor Learning Spaces are programs where students measure and explore the ecology, the geometry and the structure of real schoolyards and play spaces. They develop their own ideas for their site and draw scale plans; use common craft materials to build scale models, then evaluate and share those models. A solid design tie-in for classes studying schoolyard eco-literacy or planning a playground redesign, this is “place-based education” at its best.
Places to Learn / Outdoor Learning Spaces Details + Learning Standards Alignments
Places to Learn / Outdoor Learning Spaces Handout
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Structures
Grades K–8; two to six sessions
 How do buildings and bridges stand up? How are our bodies and buildings alike? Your students will answer these questions when LBD:MA brings a wealth of structure activities and resources to your classroom. Children study structures on a walking tour; act out structures with their bodies; and then test structural principles through building projects. Whether you need an architect to enhance an existing bridge-building lesson, or would like us to provide an entire project, structures activities connect science, design and problem-solving in hands-on ways. A session or more on Structures can also be integrated into other LBD:MA Children’s Design Workshops.
Structures Details + Learning Standards Alignments
Structures Handout
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