The purpose of the study reported here was to investigate the iterative design development of an Academy for 11-18 year olds focusing on the following research question: "What are the features of the multi-disciplinary interactions and associated modelling techniques, which lead to the development of an Academy proposal which meets its Education Brief?" A case study approach bounded by time and focus group was adopted (Cresswell, 1998). This approach was adopted in order to create a rich picture of the social setting and to illustrate the complexity of the process referred to as "learning led design" from in depth analysis of the education brief, through iterative development in consultation with key stakeholders to the presentation of final proposals. Findings illustrate that collaborative interactions are an important feature of effective design development with cross disciplinary creative collaboration being the key to the development of successful outcomes. (Contains 15 figures and 4 tables.)