Mariposa Pavilion

The Power of Peer: Youth-Driven Design-Build

In a unique summer collaboration, twenty high school students from Lawrence Tech’s architecture camp joined forces with youth from Freedom Dreams EcoVillage, a Detroit-based Regenerative Neighborhood Development initiative, to design and build a pavilion on Detroit’s east side. Over one afternoon, students brainstormed, sketched, and voted on ideas—ultimately developing a butterfly-roofed “Mariposa Pavilion” that captures rainwater and reflects principles of universal design.

Freedom Dreams, which empowers youth through gardening, carpentry, and reflection, partnered with LTU to blend academic and community-based learning. The project culminated in hands-on construction where youth overcame physical remnants of Detroit’s blight-era demolitions—literally breaking through buried foundation walls to raise new ones.

This collaboration modeled the power of peer learning and design as a democratic, community-rooted process. LTU’s pre-college program and Freedom Dreams created a cross-institutional network where young people designed with, not for, each other—merging institutional access with local expertise. It was about more than a pavilion; it was about forging trust, ownership, and real-world learning.

As Jasmine Noble of ComeUnity One Stop reflected, “When they come back, it is my hope they will feel a sense of pride in how they contributed to the neighborhood.”