Empathic Design
Perspectives on Creating Inclusive Spaces
Perspectives on Creating Inclusive Spaces
208 pages
6 x 9
40 photos
Book Description
How do you experience a public space? Do you feel safe? Seen? Represented? The response to these questions may differ based on factors including your race, age, ethnicity, or gender identity. In the architecture and design professions, decisions about the articulation of public spaces and who may be honored in them have often been made by white men. How do designers rethink design processes to produce works that hold space for the diversity of people using them?
In Empathic Design, designer and architecture professor Elgin Cleckley brings together leaders and visionary practitioners in architecture, urban design, planning, and design activism to help explore these questions. Cleckley explains that empathic designers need to approach design as iterative, changing, and shifting to say, “we see you”, “we hear you”. Part of an emerging design framework, empathic designers work with and in the communities affected. They acknowledge the full history of a place and approach the lived experience and memories of those in the community with respect.
Early chapters explore broader conceptual approaches, proposing definitions of empathy in the context of design, disrupting colonial narratives, and making space for grief. Other chapters highlight specific design projects, including the Harriet Tubman Memorial in Newark, The Camp Barker Memorial in Washington, D.C., the Freedom Center in Oklahoma City, and the Charlottesville Memorial for Peace and Justice.
Empathic Design provides essential approaches and methods from multiple perspectives, meeting the needs of our time and holding space for readers to find themselves.
Review Quotes
"What becomes evident is that, for years, decisions have been made about public spaces without insight from the majority of those who are affected by and would possibly benefit from those decisions, if given the opportunity. The photographs and drawings are black and white but give a clear indication of the problems that still exist and potential ways of hopefully solving them."
Choice
"In this generous collection of essays, curated by Elgin Cleckley, designers and planners share why and how they make places for multiple voices by engaging in deep listening that recognizes differences in experience of communities across the neighborhood and around the globe. The principle of empathic design draws from place histories to share the diverse ways in which communities are nurtured reminding planners and designers to slow down, engage, and listen if they are to truly serve the people and land to which they are accountable."
Thaïsa Way, Dumbarton Oaks, Harvard University
"Empathic Design is an eye-opening book. It is a clear, concrete exploration of what 'equity and justice,' and 'shared emotion' can mean in the public spaces we build. Professor Cleckley has brought together a group of sophisticated professionals who are actively designing and building places that speak to, and support underserved Black and Native American communities. Training themselves in deeply empathetic approaches to design, they weave stories of hidden histories and living culture into the life of cities."
Robert Lamb Hart, architect and chairman Emeritus of Hart Howerton. Author of 'A New Look at Humanism: In Architecture, Landscapes, and Urban Design'
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Elgin Cleckley
Chapter 1: From Empathy to Ethics
by Christine Gaspar
Chapter 2: Making Space for Grief
by Liz Ogbu
Chapter 3: Unseen Dimensions of Public Space: Disrupting Colonial Narratives
by Erin Genia
Chapter 4: Renewing Spatial Agency for a Community: The Freedom Center, Oklahoma City
by Cory Henry
Chapter 5: The Harriet Tubman Memorial, Newark
by Nina Cooke John
Chapter 6: Materializing Memory: The Camp Barker Memorial, Washington, D.C.
by Katie MacDonald and Kyle Schumann
Chapter 7: Practicing _mpathic design: The Charlottesville Memorial for Peace and Justice
by Elgin Cleckley
Chapter 8: Incorporating Empathy: To Middle Species with Love, Columbus, Indiana
by Joyce Hwang
Chapter 9: Teaching Empathic Community Engagement Using Storytelling
by C.L. Bohannon
Afterword: Planning with Purpose: Repairing Past Harm with Empathy
by Mitchell J. Silver
Notes
About the Editor
About the Contributors
Index
Events
Community Engagement & Empathy: Designing for Change with Black Communities
Wednesday, 21 February 2024 - 2:00pm
Overview
Join UVA’s Lifetime Learning and the School of Architecture to learn about the intersection of design and community engagement, supporting the untold stories of marginalized communities and the histories of our public spaces, especially in the American South. School of Architecture’s faculty experts will lead this discussion: C.L. Bohannon, Associate Dean of Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion and Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture; and Elgin Cleckley (BS ARCH ’93), Assistant Professor of Architecture, Education + Health, Undergraduate Program Director, Director of Design Thinking, and past Director of Design Justice at UVA’s Equity Center. UVA School of Architecture’s Dean, Malo A. Hutson, will set the stage for this engaging conversation.
This program is a partnership with the School of Architecture.
Speaker Biographies
C.L. Bohannon, is an Associate Professor in the Landscape Architecture Department and the Associate Dean of Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (AD JEDI). Bohannon is a nationally recognized scholar and educator in the areas of community-engaged design and pedagogy, social and environmental justice, and African American landscapes, especially in the American South.
Elgin Cleckley, Elgin Cleckley is an Assistant Professor in UVA’s School of Architecture with an appointment at the Curry School of Education and the School of Nursing. He is a designer, director, and principal of _mpathic design – a design thinking pedagogy, initiative, and professional practice focusing on intersections of identity, culture, history, memory, and place.
Malo André Hutson, Dean and Edward E. Elson Professor at the University of Virginia’s School of Architecture. He is a nationally and internationally recognized expert in community development, climate resilience, environmental justice, and urban health. As a scholar, teacher, and practitioner, he focuses on the nexus of environmental, architectural, and urban equity practices. He is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including the Salzburg Global Fellowship, two Mellon Fellowships, and a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Scholar Fellowship, among others.
Educator Resources
Read the annotated table of contents below or download it here.