Co-creating school streets through participatory design-build: a transnational workshop with children and architecture students in Palermo

Purpose: Children have a right to shape the spaces they inhabit, yet remain systematically excluded from the decisions that determine them. This study presents the collaboration between 79 children (aged 8–11) from ICS Rita Borsellino in Palermo and 26 architecture students from the University of Portsmouth in the co-creation of an extended play area adjacent to the school entrance, documenting the design-build process and investigating how and what participants learnt.

Design/methodology/approach: A mixed-methods approach integrated qualitative and quantitative techniques to analyse the Via Libera! workshop, which brought together students and schoolchildren to collaboratively design and build playful urban furniture for the pedestrianised area in front of the school. Research was conducted in three phases: pre-workshop design and data collection, participatory construction workshop and post-workshop evaluation and data analysis, including questionnaires with children and semi-structured interviews with architecture students.

Findings: Four interconnected outcomes emerged: children reframed the street as a playable common anchored in safety; high enjoyment coexisted with fragile confidence; learning was situated in collective making, with intercultural exchange as its most valued dimension and architecture students shifted from autonomous designers to mediators. Together, these suggest participatory design-build processes can simultaneously generate spatial transformation and mutual learning among those who collaborate.

Research limitations/implications: The study involves a single school in a specific socio-cultural context and captures only immediate post-workshop effects; longer-term changes in spatial perception remain unknown. Further research should extend to additional settings, age groups, and national contexts, with longitudinal follow-up, regulatory analysis and explicit attention to the transnational dimension.

Practical implications: The study guides architects and urban practitioners in co-creation of school-adjacent public space, showing that short-term, low-cost interventions can reshape children's perception and use of streets when safety and inclusion are prioritised over aesthetics. Architectural pedagogy should systematically embed participatory design-build, preparing students for roles of facilitator and mediator rather than author.

Originality/value: This study is distinctive in its transnational design-build structure, enabling children to be active co-producers rather than consultees, and producing a tangible spatial transformation with demonstrable perceptual effects.