Deanna Van Buren
Deanna Van Buren , MArch
Co-founder, Design Director | Designing Justice + Designing Spaces

Deanna Van Buren is the Co-founder and Executive Director of Designing Justice + Designing Spaces. An architecture and real estate nonprofit working to end mass incarceration through place-based solutions, DJDS builds infrastructure that address its root causes: poverty, racism, unequal access to resources, and the criminal justice system itself. Van Buren has been profiled by The New York Times  and has written op-eds on the intersection of design and mass incarceration in outlets such as Politico, Architectural Record, and Stanford Social Innovation Review. Her TEDWomen talk on what a world without prisons could look like has been viewed more than one million times. She is the only architect to have been awarded the Rauschenberg Artist as Activist fellowship, and she is also the recipient of UC Berkeley’s Berkeley-Rupp Architecture Prize and Professorship. Van Buren received her BS in architecture from the University of Virginia and her MArch from Columbia University, and she is an alumna of the Loeb Fellowship at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. 

Courses

card_membership Included in subscription
Included in subscription
Trauma Informed Design: Designing for Justice-Impacted Individuals

Tuesday, April 8, 2025  |  2:00-3:00pm ET

Individuals with justice system involvement or individuals impacted by the justice system are among the most disadvantaged populations in the U.S. They often experience complex challenges and harmful stigmas that prevent them from successfully reentering society. These challenges include accessing education, employment, affordable housing, substance abuse treatment, health care, and family services. 

Architects have a unique opportunity to help. Learn how the key principles of trauma informed care can inform trauma informed design and create environments that actively address these challenges. Trauma informed design has the potential to significantly improve the health, safety, and well-being of justice-impacted individuals—creating spaces, residences, and facilities that help them become contributing members of society.  

1.0 LU|HSW
Live course date: 04/08/2025 | 02:00 PM