MakingSPACE for Youth Perspectives

School ecosystems are microcosms of society: with inherent hierarchies, cultures, micro-cultures, policies, and governance structures. Students hold the least power within this ecosystem and their perspectives are often unheard. How can the built environment be leveraged as a tool to visually capture youth perspectives and awareness of their local environments? And how may spatial explorations become a catalyst to empower youth to be agents of change? We show how design research methods can be leveraged in design activism in the classroom. Our paper presents our MakingSPACE research collaboration with youth from the Detroit metropolitan area that makes tangible structural inequities and exclusions physically and spatially manifested in the built environment. MakingSPACE direct engagement with youth aged XX to YY, our empower students to visualize these connections, and use their tacit knowledge to show how they may enact change towards a more equitable and inclusive future. We discuss how MakingSPACE mapping exercises allow youth expression and their visualization of their daily experiences. Students reported that a workshop-based exploration of concepts of belonging and equity, comprising a series of participatory design activities, allowed them to reflect on the impact of their physical and perceived school spaces on their daily lives. Their critical reflection and analysis of these daily environments lead to collective identification of opportunities for change. These activities are inspired by Equitable Futures, a 9th-grade social justice curriculum developed by the Center for Education Design, Evaluation, and Research (CEDER) at the University of Michigan’s School of Education.