Four practices.
One discipline.
Educational Visioning & Master Planning, Architectural Design, Feasibility Studies, and Learning Effectiveness Evaluation — a complete arc from the conversations that shape your vision to the measurements that prove it worked.
The same firm. The same team. The whole journey — from idea to outcome.
Most architects design buildings. We design what happens inside them. Our four practices are sequenced to take a school from an unformed aspiration to a measurable, evidence-led learning environment — without ever handing your project off to a third party in the middle.
EDI is the architect. On projects worldwide we serve as architect — and on many, as architect or engineer of record. Where local production and construction administration are best handled on the ground, we partner with an established local firm. This is a deliberate model, not a limitation: production and execution are best sourced locally, from a team with deep code knowledge and permitting relationships, while design leadership stays with the practice that has shaped learning environments across six continents. Clients get internationally recognized educational-design leadership and local execution expertise on the same project.
Core Services begin with Visioning & Master Planning and continue through Facility Master Plans, Program Development, Concept Design, and Schematic Design.
Enhanced Services are as-needed and turnkey solutions that extend the engagement: Education Services (teacher transition, ongoing professional development, coaching, and educational commissioning), Enhanced Design (interiors, furnishings, acoustics, lighting), and full Design Development and Construction Documents where required.
Educational Visioning & Master Planning
We do not draw a single line until your community knows what learning should look like — and how every part of your campus should support it.
Most school projects start with floor plans. Ours start with conversations. Through our facilitated Discovery process, we bring leadership, teachers, students, parents, and board members into a structured set of visioning workshops — translating your community's aspirations, cultural ethos, and pedagogical commitments into a clear, shared roadmap for educational transformation.
That vision then becomes the foundation for a comprehensive Campus & Facilities Master Plan. Working at the scale of the whole site, we define how students will learn, the space and schedule needs that support that learning, and the ethos the campus must express. The plan sequences phasing, identifies which buildings to retain, renovate, or replace, and establishes the educational program, room-by-room space requirements, and a realistic capital pathway from today to the school's long-range vision.
The output is not a slide deck of inspirational language. It is a working document that becomes the brief for everything that follows — a set of guiding principles, learning modalities, space relationships, and master plan diagrams specific to your school, not a generic best-practice template. This is the stage where the most expensive mistakes are prevented. A misaligned vision becomes a misaligned building. We make sure that does not happen.
- Stakeholder visioning workshops
- Site walks and observation studies
- Campus & Facilities Master Plan
- Educational program & specifications
- Phasing and implementation roadmap
- Pedagogical principles document
Architectural Design
We replace "cells and bells" with agile learning communities — applying 28 evidence-based design patterns.
The traditional double-loaded corridor school was designed for a model of education that no longer fits how children actually learn. Our architectural practice replaces that pattern with learning communities — clustered, agile, daylight-rich environments that support a fluid mix of independent work, small-group collaboration, one-on-one mentoring, and full-cohort instruction.
Every plan we produce is built on our library of 28 evidence-based design patterns — each one correlated through our research with measurable improvements in student engagement, achievement, and well-being. This is not aesthetics for its own sake. It is architecture as a deliberate instrument for learning.
We work in close partnership with local architects of record where regulations require it, ensuring the educational vision is preserved through documentation, construction administration, and handover.
- Concept and schematic design
- Design development drawings
- Construction documents
- Learning-community space planning
- Interior design and furniture briefs
- Construction administration support
Feasibility Studies
Before a single dollar is committed, we make sure the project actually makes sense.
A school building is one of the largest capital investments a community ever makes. It deserves the same rigor a board would demand of any other multi-million-dollar decision. Our data-driven feasibility studies stress-test the assumptions behind your project — enrollment projections, demographic shifts, facility condition, regulatory constraints, capital and operating costs, and the realistic comparison between renovation and new construction.
For roughly 60% of our clients, the result is a strategy that keeps the existing building and reclaims as much as 15–30% of space currently wasted on hallways and underutilized rooms. For others, the case for a new campus is clear and quantified. Either way, the board gets the evidence it needs to commit with confidence.
- Enrollment and demographic analysis
- Facility condition assessment
- Space utilization audit
- Renovation vs. new-build comparison
- Capital and operating cost modeling
- Phasing and implementation roadmap
Learning Effectiveness Evaluation
A building is only as good as what happens inside it. Our HSAT tool measures whether yours is delivering.
We are the only education architect worldwide with a proprietary measurement infrastructure. Our Healthy School Assessment Tool (HSAT) — recognized with the A4LE Kelly Tanner Award — measures your environment's actual performance against learning outcomes: engagement, achievement, focus, mental health, and long-term student success.
This service is built for two audiences. For schools considering a redesign, HSAT establishes a baseline — a clear, quantitative picture of how the current environment is performing, and where it is holding learning back. For schools post-occupancy, HSAT closes the loop: it confirms what the new spaces are delivering and surfaces what still needs adjustment.
Twenty-five years of longitudinal data from 200+ schools in 59 countries means our benchmarks are real, not hypothetical.
- HSAT baseline assessment
- Post-occupancy evaluation reports
- Student and teacher engagement surveys
- Space-use observational studies
- Benchmarking against global peers
- Recommendations for continuous improvement
Evidence we have measured, not promises we have made.
Ready to design a school that inspires?
Whether you're building new or transforming existing spaces, our team will guide you from educational vision to architectural reality.