Re-inventing Co-op Education in Light of COVID-19

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As the COVID-19 Pandemic has disrupted how we learn and work, questions about how knowledge and skills are acquired within architecture education have become more urgent than ever. This paper examines the framework and results of running the FutureLab, a participatory project-based learning environment situated in-between academia and practice. Wentworth Institute of Technology requires two mandatory co-op experiences. During the unfolding of the COVID-19 pandemic and the initial disruptions, students had difficulties securing regular co-op jobs in the summer of 2020. Designed to offer a co-op alternative, the FutureLab connected students to industry and community leaders across different disciplines. For 13-weeks Innovation Fellows worked in teams initially diverging into different verticals such as healthcare, sustainability, future of work, and communities among others to get inspired and jumpstart broad innovative thinking. Using a variety of innovation methodologies and tools such as Future Scenarios Planning, Design Thinking, interviews, research and data analysis as well as visualization, teams identified an area of need and a concrete agenda of intervention based on their interests. Students participating in the Future Lab honed interdisciplinary, innovative, strategic and future thinking and strengthened their employability well beyond their discipline knowledge. Reflecting the process, impact and participants’ experiences revealed that learning environments such as the FutureLab could provide a path forward in an ongoing or a post-COVID-19 world especially during a time of reassessing higher education. While based on a non-hierarchical design studio model augmented with innovation tools and methodologies, the FutureLab goes far beyond the authority and competence of one professor or one specific assignment. This paper documents phases, tools and outcomes of the FutureLab as a model for alternative co-operative learning that has potential to complement work-based learning in design firms.