Creativity in the Classroom: Chapel Hill-Carrboro Students Explore the Built Environment

At Phillips, Smith, Culbreth, and McDougle Middle Schools, creativity is reaching new heights. Thanks to support from the Public School Foundation, Prism Design Lab brought Exploring Architecture workshops to Chapel-Hill Carrboro City Schools, giving students a hands-on introduction to the world of design.

The workshops kicked off with an interactive presentation by a local architect, who took students on a global tour of iconic architecture. Then, it was their turn to dream big. In small groups with buckets of Legos and their imaginations, students created their own architectural visions.

Back at the Prism studio, students’ Lego models and design ideas were transformed into vivid images using AI—offering them a powerful glimpse of what their designs could look like in real life.

The result? A powerful reminder that imagination has no age limit, and future architects are already sketching the world they want to build.

The Exploring Architecture Workshops were made possible by the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Public School Foundation.