To help architects and school leaders respond to complex social conditions, this dissertation project will demonstrate ways to design and promote social equity and belonging. This dissertation will focus on applying research to design in the setting of higher education, specifically looking at the informal spaces outside the classroom in public urban schools. The existing structural challenges facing college students are many, including limited financial resources, mental health/wellness, family responsibilities, identity formation, and cultural patterns. College campuses have an ever-increasing amount of pressure on their resources, too, and this is particularly true for public colleges. Using the theoretical framework of education as a liberatory process, this dissertation looks at how to understand and design educational facilities to support radical inclusion, rather than further reinforce inequity. In this research, the social construction of learning environments is linked to the importance of informal learning spaces on a campus and how some school facilities can (intentionally or not) create alienated students. Research methods from psychology, anthropology, geography, education, phenomenology and architectural practice all play a part in framing the path for designers and school leaders to address both design form and design processes in settings where structures of inequity are often hidden.