Architect Pennie Liu on Education Design and the Importance of Finding the Story
Pennie Liu’s practice is driven by curiosity, empathy, and storytelling. Understanding the human impact that is intertwined with project outcomes has always been central to her design philosophy, and her career at Multistudio has helped deepen this approach. Pennie’s people-first process is grounded by a unique narrative, which she establishes at the outset of every project and consistently uses as a reference point for the design team, clients, and wider community.
Pennie first connected with Multistudio’s Lawrence office as an intern in her final semester of architecture school at the University of Kansas, joining full-time upon graduating. Over eight years later, she continues to explore and expand her passion for crafting impactful spatial experiences that are tethered to a central storyline.
In 2025, Pennie received an Early Career Distinguished Alumni Award from the KU School of Architecture & Design in recognition of her leadership qualities, community involvement, and significant contributions to design.
She strives to empower the next generation of architects by mentoring interns at Multistudio and supporting architecture students through annual guest lectures, studio reviews, and other engagement opportunities.
As part of our education design sector, Pennie’s interest in connecting with students, teachers, administrators, and extended classroom communities results in work that breaks the mold of traditional education projects. Her design philosophy has developed into a mission to understand the story a community is trying to tell and translate that into the design itself.
We sat down with Pennie to explore how she’s rewriting narratives about education design to create human-focused and story-based learning spaces for students, teachers, and classroom communities.
Pennie Liu: This is something that I've been thinking about for a long time. It's not something that I was taught in school, but I'm finding it’s an important part of what brings meaning to our work at Multistudio.
I think successful architecture is one that has a very strong story because it creates intentionality and, with that, cohesion and clarity. Once you figure that part out, everything else flows from this foundation.
We have to make so many decisions as architects, and there are so many right answers, so many wrong answers, and so many answers that are neither. It is helpful to have a guiding light to determine which path to go down, and having a central core, a goal, a story that is the heart of a project helps us root every single decision back to one main idea.
PL: Pinpointing where design becomes successful is very hard to do because it’s almost intangible. It's the human, magic part of what it all means; what we feel, what we experience, how we interact with a space and each other. Defining that magic is where storytelling comes in.
Creating stories in our minds is what makes us human. It’s something that sets us apart from other animals on the planet—our tendency to piece together information about what we see, what we hear, what we feel, what we touch, and create a story in order to make sense of our world. Humans connect with stories; architectural processes that create space for us to make that connection are a success in my eyes.
PL: One of the best project memories I have is the first time we shared the Washburn Rural North Middle School story with the teachers and staff.
Our presentation was to share look and feel, finishes, and color palettes for the very first time. At this point, the only things they’d seen were floor plans and organizational diagrams. Crucially, I was responsible for relaying the story behind our design choices: What it would feel like to attend school in the forest.
Before we showed any renders or images, I wanted to connect with the teachers’ emotional, imaginative, playful selves through a mindfulness exercise. At the beginning of the presentation, I asked everyone to close their eyes while I walked them through a gentle narration. I said, “Pretend you're moving through a forest on a beautiful day. You can feel the sunlight on your skin and a soft breeze ruffling your hair. Maybe there are birds singing and a little creek by your feet. What can you smell? What do you feel?”
We harnessed that feeling as we shared images of colorful collaboration spaces, the playful library, and the sun-filled main hallway dubbed “The Forest Walk” that runs parallel to the actual forest outside. By the smiles and head nods and positive feedback from the group, I could feel that the story had landed. The connection of our materials and color palette to nature painted a clear picture of the intentionality and meaning behind the design that was not only understood but appreciated.
But finding the story is just one part of the process. We also need to communicate those big ideas and concepts in a meaningful way. The story matters to the design team, but that is secondary to how the story resonates for those using the building. When, two years later, teachers independently used the phrase “Forest Walk” to describe part of their school, that to me is what a successful project story feels like.
PL: In a recent engagement session with elementary school kids, I learned that the worksheets we use and the questions we ask serve more as a framework to connect with the classroom community than as a cut-and-dry feedback system. In addition to the raw data we gather, it’s also about picking up on body language, side conversations, and behavior in their spaces and groups that we can learn from.
That’s why I find in-person engagement really important in the earlier phases of the design process. That’s not just with students, but also our adult stakeholders and decision makers. Noticing small things about how they communicate, receive information, what they care about, or the social dynamics within their group helps improve our design approach. Tapping into that human connection is a huge part of information gathering in addition to the information itself.
PL: When we are designing for everybody, I find it really important to be specific. If we group people together as a monolith, then we lose the “everybody” part. I think that's where the importance of human-to-human engagement and conversation comes from.
Listening to our clients plays the most significant role. During our user group meetings for school projects, we include everyone who interacts with a space. This is not only students and teachers, but everyone from resource specialists and custodial staff to the families and community at large. Our job is to listen and ask questions so that we can capture an accurate and realistic snapshot of who we are serving through our design work.
It's important to think about those sessions as not only opportunities for listening, but also for conversation. We want the design process to be collaborative—we're gathering information, but we're also digging deeper and bouncing back ideas. It's not just a one-way street of listening and then we implement it, but more of a process for discovery from all angles.
PL: For example, if a teacher says, “I don't want windows in my classroom,” it would be irresponsible for us to immediately default to, “OK, we're not going to put windows in your classroom.”
It's up to us as designers to have the conversation and ask more questions to get to the root of what they're really saying. Is it about distraction? Is it about security? Is it about maintenance? It’s important for us to address the actual cause in addition to the symptoms.
Being inquisitive and engaging in a dialogue gives us a richer knowledge base. It is our job and our responsibility as designers to dig deeper and uncover the layers presented to us instead of taking everything at face value.
PL: At Multistudio, the feeling of trust and freedom and exploration is where a lot of magic happens. There is a supportive culture of experimentation and openness that fosters really rich conversations. I love being able to think outside of the box and explore things that I haven’t thought about before or Multistudio hasn’t done before.
The trust that each generation gives the next to explore, iterate, and ask questions is what helps move us forward. Studio culture, mentorship, team dynamics—all those human factors in the workplace—are a huge part of the success of a project.
Being in a space where you can try something new helps reinforce that everyone's on the same team. We're supporting each other throughout the design process so that we can do the best work for our clients and communities.
PL: I’ve seen firsthand how new designers can be intimidated by professional environments, and I am here to tell them it does not have to be that way. I want to help students ease the transition between school and the professional world by fostering an environment within the industry that is full of support, empathy, and connection.
One way I do that is through an annual storytelling presentation at The University of Kansas where I share current project work to demonstrate the processes, strategies, and lessons that go into discovering and communicating impactful stories.
Showing students that they have an opportunity to help write the story of architecture can strengthen that feeling of belonging and possibility, leading to a more fulfilling professional trajectory. Part of mentorship is the technical, industry networking piece. The other, arguably more important, part is sharing things that aren’t always taught in school—like navigating challenges, building confidence and discovering how a strong story can shape project outcomes.
