Throughout the process of designing the Gohar Khatoon girls’ school, we have explored various ways to engage the school community–not only to improve the design, but also to involve the students and teachers in all stages of the project. This is important, because in the end, this building will be their school. Many educational institutions built by aid organizations in Afghanistan over the last few years have remained empty or have been put to a different use after completion, simply because they didn’t meet the community’s needs. Our role as architects is to understand these needs and to respond accordingly.