Designing inclusive learning spaces through participatory design

Context & challenge

The university was reviewing a number of learning and communal spaces that were not adequately utilised nor supporting the needs of all students. While well intentioned, existing designs were outdated and reflected how spaces should be used, rather than how they were experienced by students in practice.

Students from diverse backgrounds - including neurodivergent students, students with accessibility needs, and those who felt marginalised within the existing environment - reported barriers to participation, comfort, and belonging. These issues were often subtle and difficult to address through standard design or facilities processes alone.

The challenge was to create spaces that were inclusive by design, without resorting to one-size-fits-all solutions. This required engaging students directly, translating qualitative insight into actionable guidance, and balancing inclusivity with operational and spatial constraints.


My role & lens

The project was delivered with a multidisciplinary project team, working closely with students, academic staff, and professional services. My role focused on leading the participatory design approach and ensuring that students' lived experience was meaningfully surfaced and translated into actionable concepts.

The work was framed as a sense-making exercise rather than a purely spatial redesign. Diverse perspectives were synthesised to identify common patterns across lived experiences from students and staff, and insights were shaped in ways that decision-makers could engage with within real operational and spatial constraints.

Throughout the project, emphasis was placed on balancing empathy with pragmatism - ensuring student voices were represented, while maintaining clarity around feasibility and long-term impact.


Approach

The work began with research into inclusion and engagement, combining desk research, interviews, and on-campus observations to build an understanding of how students experienced learning spaces in practice. This surfaced three themes shaping student experience: environment, connection, and classroom.

The project focused specifically on learning experience, with the aim of creating a stronger sense of equality within physical teaching spaces. To address this, a collaborative 'design intervention' was facilitated, bringing together university adminstration, students, and educators to work through the challenge collectively.

A clear plan was established to guide the intervention, outlining goals, participant roles, and responsibilities. This structure helped balance open participation with direction, ensuring insights could be translated into practical outcomes in a short timeframe.


Methods in practice

- Desk research into inclusion and learning-space design within higher education
- Interviews with students, educators, and professional staff
- On-campus observations to understand how learning spaces were actually used
- Synthesis of insight to identify the core experience themes
- Design and facilitation of structured cross-functional workshops
- Production of interior design drawings and architectural-grade plans
- Creation of internal policy and structural design guidelines


Outcomes & impact

The interior design drawings and architectural-grade plans provided a tangible basis for discussion with facilities, academics, and decision-makers, demonstrating how relatively targeted spatial changes could improve equality and engagement in an entire building. These artefacts enabled more informed consideration of future refurbishment and space-planning decisions.

The internal guidelines established through the project created a reusable reference for inclusive and flexible learning space design, influencing how similar spaces could be approached beyond this single intervention. More broadly, the project demonstrated the value of participatory design in institutional contexts, showing how student insight can be incorporated into spatial and policy decisions in a structured, workable way.