Natural Pod™ LIVE Episode Six is available to watch! If you are in any way connected to educational architecture, design or planning, this episode with Kate Mraw, Design Director at LPA Design Studios (LPA), is an absolute must watch! Kate shares so much insight...
This week, a project that I know well and is close to my heart won an Education Facility Design Award. Presented by the AIA (The American Institute of Architects) and its Committee, the benefactor is LPA Design Studios for the creation of the Environmental Nature...
COVID-19 has directly impacted students through widespread school closures, loss of learning, and widening disparities. It has also had consequential indirect impacts on students. A troubling rise in child neglect (Thomas et al., 2020), stress related to food...
As 2020 comes to a close the Natural Pod team have been reflecting on all this year has unexpectedly brought, including the successes and triumphs of educators and students over the last 12 months. To inspire you to stay in a place of creativity going forward into...
The pandemic has hit many organizations and businesses hard, with women disproportionately feeling the negative impacts. Yet, many organizations with women at the helm are not only surviving – they’re thriving. We’re honored that Natural Pod’s CEO and...
With a new year comes new and re-energized conversations about the direction of education. Due to the unexpected additional challenges that developed because of covid, these conversations are encompassing even more facets than usual and a heightened sense of...
Sustainability and student equality are interlinked; one cannot succeed without the other. Sustainability in education is not only about being green, but lives at the intersection of ecological, economic and social sustainability; it’s that combination that has the...
It happened in the blink of an eye. One day, schools were packed with kids shuffling down hallways between classes, teachers chasing down homework assignments, and administrators fielding parent requests and student events. Then everything changed. The halls were...
COVID-19 has changed our world in many ways. How we shop, work, govern, and attend school have all been altered due to this global pandemic. Education has been hit particularly hard. Closing out the 2019 – 2020 school year was a chaotic and disjointed effort for most...
Our world is in crisis: a global pandemic, economic inequality, racial disparities, and…climate change. Although climate change may not move as fast as COVID-19 or have immediate consequences, it too threatens human lives and the global economy in real and dramatic...
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought with it a time of reckoning for our country’s institutions, including schools. Our response to this crisis must include bold, new ideas for what schools should look like and prioritize. Now more than ever, schools must focus on...
Over the last few months we’ve been asking educators and administrators what they need in place to create a safe, physically distanced learning space that also provides an engaging environment that their students are inspired by and want to be in. These...
Photo shows from left to right: Aliki Gladwin, interior designer for the project; Candice Harper and Carol Choi from Union Gospel Mission, responsible for setting up the new center; Sharon Gregson, child care consultant and provincial spokesperson for the $10 a day...
As schools assess how to return to school safely and navigate guidelines, helpful resources are being offered that address possible solutions for the three re-entry models of Full Return, Alternating Return, and the Flexible Return. Fielding International – an...
Our very own Michelle Carpenter, Chief Strategy Officer of Natural Pod, is A4LE SchoolsNEXT Southeast Chair, National Co-Chair, and committed to the future of the SchoolsNEXT student design competition. Last year she documented her participation experience in the...
We are often building and creating spaces for an audience we rarely interact with. Even scarier, we are often building based on our own experiences, some of which we had 10, 20, or dare I say 40 years ago. A few things have changed a wee bit since then. So, how...
Almost every aspect of life has changed over the last few months, and education has really been turned on its head. There are many ways to approach how we navigate these times, but the one myself and many others are advocating for, is to look for the opportunities and...
As schools are planning their reopening and educators, families and students are figuring out how teaching and learning will look going forward, we recognize the experience will be different for everyone. How we can help is to offer solutions from a place of...
The unfortunate truth is children are born into systemic injustice, inequality and racism. By the time they enter school they are already acclimatized. If we don’t stand up and call out racism where we find it, it will continue and continue, to the next...
Today, June 8th, is World Oceans Day – As the challenges to the ocean continue to grow, so does the need for novel solutions and the people driving them. To that end, the theme of UN World Oceans Day 2020 is ‘Innovation for a Sustainable Ocean.’...
Turning Care into Change: Natural Pod at Champions Retreat 2026
