A flying house, a year that feels impossibly far away, and a teenager who proves that architectural design starts with trying something new. We sit down with Marcel Wolosik, a 16-year-old architecture student from Sussex County Technical School in New Jersey and a dual enrolment student at Sussex County Community College, to talk about his Architecture Week 2026 design challenge: a futuristic home set in 2150, floating above the ground and powered by next-generation energy ideas. What makes this conversation special is how honest it is about the real work of creativity: making lots of options, choosing the boldest direction, and then pushing through the tricky parts until the drawing is finished.

We dig into Marcel’s design process step by step, from quick crayon sketches to more detailed pencil perspectives, then into colour using pen and watercolour markers for the first time. We also connect analogue making to digital architecture skills, including AutoCAD for precision drafting, learning Revit, and using Photoshop to polish a render. Along the way we swap inspiration, from Frank Lloyd Wright and Fallingwater to the visionary 1970s ideas of Archigram, and we talk about why looking closely at everyday places can train your designer’s eye.

If you are a student, parent, or educator searching for practical architecture education ideas, you will leave with clear starting points: build with Legos or blocks, sketch what you see, visit cities, and notice details like train stations, signs, and streets. Subscribe to the Architecture for Kids podcast, share this with a curious young designer, and leave a rating and review so more listeners can find it.

A high school design brief asks a simple question with huge consequences: what would you build if an extinct animal could come back, and people needed a place to study it, care for it, and learn from it? We sit down with Grace to unpack how she takes that Architecture Week challenge and turns it into a research and rehabilitation centre concept that feels bold, organic, and surprisingly practical. From the start, she’s thinking about more than a cool form she’s thinking about how a visitor arrives, what they see first, and how the building’s key spaces connect.

Grace shares her journey from an arts background into student architecture, including AP Art portfolio work and the moment she realises architecture is a way to turn pen-and-paper creativity into spaces people can actually use. We talk Revit, curved geometry, façade decisions, and the reality of the design process: you don’t “get it right”, you iterate. She explains rebuilding major areas again and again, learning how scale and proportion can drift, and discovering that determination matters as much as talent.

The conversation also gets into the technical and ethical side of design: accessibility, lifts, stairs, awkward angles, and making a beautiful building function for everyone. Grace compares walkable, detail-rich European architecture especially her time in Portugal with more car-first places in the US, and makes the case that buildings shape mood, community life, and how we feel day to day. If you care about architecture, design thinking, or how to start as a young designer, you’ll leave with concrete lessons and a lot of motivation.
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A public square can be a living room for a city or a blank patch of concrete people rush across. We sit down with Lucas Zhu, a high school student with a sharp eye for how design shapes behaviour, safety, and belonging, to unpack what happens when civic space stops working and what it could become instead.

Lucas shares the moment architecture clicked for him while travelling and shadowing an architecture professor in China, where sketches and field research revealed buildings as part of human culture, not just “columns and concrete”. From there, we talk about Architecture Week 2025 and why the American Institute of Architects and Architecture for Kids want K-12 students to feel welcomed into architecture, design thinking, and the creative industries. Lucas explains what it means to present work publicly, learn alongside other young designers, and start building a real pathway into the profession.

The heart of the conversation is Lucas’s proposal to reimagine San Francisco’s UN Plaza as a multi-layered civic space: easier to use every day, safer and more inclusive, and better able to handle rallies and major events without blocking ordinary city life. He walks us through an elevated garden level inspired by the Salesforce Transit Center, a market level influenced by Hidalgo Market in Mexico, and a modular arch system drawn from places like the Doge’s Palace and the Juilliard School. We also touch on Fallingwater as a must-study reference for any student interested in materials, landscape, and user experience, and Lucas closes with a strong argument for architecture as a high school elective.

Subscribe to the Architecture for Kids podcast, leave a rating and review, and share this with a student or teacher who cares about better public space and better design education. What would you change in your local civic square?

Architecture can start with one great teacher, one school project, and one moment where a building suddenly feels alive. We sit down with Jack McMahon, a young designer from Las Vegas, Nevada, to trace that moment and follow it forward, from an inspiring high school architecture programme to studying architecture at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Along the way, we talk about why Jack calls architecture “art with logic and people behind it”, and how that mix of creativity and rigour becomes a real pathway into the creative industries for K-12 students and emerging designers.

We also unpack one of Jack’s Architecture Week submissions, the Elkhorn Community Centre, and the challenge of fitting a complex brief together like a jigsaw puzzle. Jack shares what he wanted people to feel as they move through a community hub built for gathering, connection, and everyday use. We explore early sustainability thinking too, including a green roof concept adapted for the realities of a desert climate, plus how influences and the AIA Framework for Design Excellence themes can shape decisions about wellbeing, integration, energy efficiency, and ecosystems.

The most useful advice is also the simplest: learn architecture by experiencing spaces. Visit buildings, pay attention to comfort, light, movement, and mood, then bring those observations back into your own design work. If Architecture Week 2026 has been on your radar, this is your nudge to put yourself out there, submit work, ask questions, and meet people. Subscribe to Architecture for Kids podcast, share this with a student or educator or parent / guardian, and leave a rating and review so more young designers can find their way in.

Architecture can feel like a closed world until someone hands you a brief and says, “Try.” I’m joined by four guests who prove that one week, one competition, or even one sketch can change how a young person sees their future, and how they see the places they live. With Architecture Week 2026 (12 to 18 April) as our backdrop, we talk about making architecture education visible, welcoming, and genuinely exciting for K-12 students across the United States.

Architect Brandon Farley shares what makes a great high school design competition brief, including why playful storytelling can unlock serious thinking about sustainability and the climate crisis. He also tackles a common worry head-on: you do not need fancy modelling software to belong in design. Michael Rowe brings lessons from a 76-year-running AIA Toledo student competition built around real clients, real sites, weekly advisors, and a mid-competition “Rendering Day” that connects students to universities and industry sponsors. 2025 Student finalist Ilia Prytup explains what the process feels like from the inside, from learning digital tools to finding confidence, community, and a clearer path into architectural engineering.

Finally, Devon Davis, AIA’s senior manager for K-12 initiatives and engagement, lays out what Architecture Week offers and why the “A” in STEAM must include architecture. We also share simple ways to take part, from virtual read alouds to donating supplies and amplifying programmes online. Subscribe, share the episode with a teacher or student, and leave a review to help more young designers find their way into architecture.