Impact Wrkshp is an interdisciplinary platform for co-design research, education, and practice, centering the people and communities who shape our work.
PEOPLE · PROCESS · PLACEA community-led approach that values lived experience, shared authorship, and participation throughout the design process.
Explore the book ↗Build partnerships, not just projects
Engage, listen, and learn
Develop and test ideas together.
Move toward shared action.
Reflect, learn, and adapt.
Our project archive brings together professional fellowship projects from Impact Wrkshp and academic co-design projects from Pratt Institute’s SoD Co-Design Studio, both led by Irina Schneid.
Collaborative projects, innovative environments, and community-led interventions from our fellowship program.
Explore projects here ↗Interdisciplinary, community-engaged, design + build research projects at Pratt Institute School of Design.
Explore projects here ↗Explore interdisciplinary, community-engaged projects developed through Pratt Institute’s SoD Co-Design Studio and Seminar.
Institutional Attribution: Academic projects presented here were developed through Pratt Institute’s School of Design Co-Design initiative, established by Irina Schneid in her role as Community Engagement Liaison for the School of Design.
A co-designed mobile community kitchen for teaching, cooking, eating, and cultural food events, developed with El Puente students, faculty, and staff. The full-scale teaching kitchen includes a toaster oven, custom HDPE cutting…
Working with ten seventh-grade students, the studio designed and prototyped a deployable, student-run mobile store and transformable storefront for snacks and social gathering. Work included a master plan, structural and material…
A co-created outdoor learning and gathering space at Fort Jay on Governors Island, designed for landscape management students. The master plan includes grower boxes, beds and tables, benches, shade, wayfinding, and a graphic…
Collaborative Futures: Youth-Led Co-Design on Governors Island celebrates 16 youth-led workshops connecting Pratt Institute, Mather High School, and the National Park Service to reimagine learning, making, and growing spaces.
A flexible workshop, open studio, and teaching environment for Mather’s Governors Island Annex. The proposal preserves the historic interior while using an integrated wall system to organize making, teaching, storage, display,…
A sixth-floor library reimagined as a flexible community hub for exhibitions, gatherings, and performances. Modular movable assemblies provide art display, room division, and performance privacy. The studio emphasized deep…
An outdoor-learning toolkit developed with schools in Harlem and Brownsville to activate underused spaces for physical education, recess, and play. The studio combined modular three-dimensional assemblies and semi-permanent…
A selection of projects from Impact Wrkshp's annual summer fellowship program.
Developed through Impact Wrkshp in partnership with Newark Yoga Movement, the Hammock Room at Sussex Avenue Renew School is a mindfulness and art classroom. Interactive textile partitions divide an open-plan room…
COVID KIT proposes a visual language for pedestrian public space that supports movement, rest, and play while responding to physical-distancing needs. Multi-Game Play Circles adapt familiar games for imaginative…
Located at the Michael Conti School, the PS 5 Gallery activates the entrance to the school auditorium as a space of inquiry and engagement through art. Modular gridwall units, plywood panels, milk crates, and zip…
Community Engagement Handbook
By Irina Schneid · Routledge
Explore the ideas, methods, and community-centered principles that shape co-design, alongside real-world case studies contributed by practicing co-designers.
Irina Schneid is an architect, educator, and co-designer working at the intersection of community engagement and design education.
Assistant Professor of Interior Design and Community Engagement Liaison for the School of Design at Pratt Institute, Irina founded Impact Wrkshp in 2014 as a platform to develop new ways for people to participate in shaping the spaces, systems, and decisions that affect their lives.
Her academic work includes developing and teaching the SoD Co-Design Studio, Interplay: Ethics & Tactics of Co-Design, and the SoD Community Engagement Clinic, connecting Pratt students and faculty with community-facing curriculum, resources, and programming.
A selected record of community-engaged publications, presentations, exhibitions, and awards.
| Year | Type | Title / contribution | Venue / publisher |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Publication | The Essential Guide to Co-Design: Community Engagement Handbook | Routledge |
| 2026 | Publication | Transforming K-12 Learning Through Co-Design (with Margot Kleinman) | DELVE Magazine · November 2026 |
| 2026 | Conference | Shared Futures: Centering Community through Interdisciplinary Co-Design | 20th International Conference on Design Principles + Practices · Rome + online |
| 2026 | Award | NYCxDESIGN Award (on behalf of SoD Co-Design Studio) | NYCxDESIGN |
| 2025 | Publication | Collaborative Futures, featured in Building Futures exhibition catalogue | Time Space Existence · Venice Architecture Biennale |
| 2025 | Conference | Living Institutional Values: Co-Design, Community Engagement, Civic Inquiry (co-presenter) | AICAD Engaging Values Symposium · Pratt |
| 2025 | Talks | Participatory Research Practices (workshop lead) | Taconic Fellowship Research Workshop · Pratt |
| 2025 | Exhibition | SoD Co-Design projects featured in Pratt Institute exhibition | Time, Space, Existence · Venice |
| 2025 | Exhibition | Co-Creation Through Play Research | Pratt Research Open House |
| 2024–25 | Award | Taconic Fellowship | Pratt Center for Community Development |
| 2024 | Publication | The Essential Guide to Co-Design, Faculty Curricular Guide | Self-published |
| 2024 | Conference | Bridging Education, Inclusion, Engagement (panel); Mapping Youth-Led Urban Transformation (workshop) | Placemaking Week Europe · Rotterdam |
| 2024 | Talks | Designing Together: Fostering Community Engagement in Design Education | INTtalks · Pratt |
| 2024 | Exhibition | Collaborative Futures: Youth-Led Co-Design on Governors Island | Swale Lab · New York |
| 2024 | Exhibition | Essential Guide to Co-Design Curricular Guide | Pratt Research Open House |
| 2023 | Conference | Building Community through Co-Design | HASTAC Conference · Pratt |
| 2023 | Talks | Community Led Design as Professional Practice | City Tech |
| 2023 | Award | K-12 Faculty Fellowship | Center for Art, Design + Community Engagement |
| 2022 | Publication | Regenerative Debris: Re-collage and the Collective Memory of the Cut | Appropriated Interiors · Routledge |
| 2022 | Exhibition | PS5 Art Gallery in Great Diverse Designers Library | Beyond the Built Environment · Say It Loud Now |
| 2021 | Award | Faculty Fellowship | Pratt Center for Teaching and Learning |
| 2020 | Award | IIDA Impact Stipend Award | IIDA |
| 2019 | Conference | Regenerative Debris: Re-Collage + the Collective Memory of the Cut | Interior Provocations Symposium · Pratt |
| 2013 | Conference | Interchange: Changing Rooms, Changing Roles | Time, Space, and the Body · University of Oxford |
Conversations about research, teaching, workshops, public speaking, and community-centered projects begin here.
An open invitation