Deanna designs Justice
Interview by Mike Nicholls | Photography by Pamela Torno
Edited by Louis Rawlins
Deanna Van Buren is a visionary and radical architect focused on ending mass incarceration through restorative justice. She is also co-founder of Designing Justice + Designing Spaces, an Oakland-based nonprofit architecture and real estate development firm. In 2021, we sat down with Deanna, to discuss her design process and perspective on the re-imagining of justice.
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Mike Nicholls: Do you ever dream of spaces? In what way does your imagination play into your practice?
Deanna Van Buren: Yeah, I dream about spaces a lot and a lot of re-imagining of spaces. I think and dream about them more when I’m really in a project. For example, right now we’re designing our LOVE Campus in Detroit, which is three buildings across several sites. I’m imagining what those buildings might be like, feel like, and feel like to be on the campus.
Are you imagining how a particular person would be in that space and visualize their overall experience?
It depends on the scale of the project. Our LOVE Campus is a multi-site large scale project, working with hundreds of thousands of square feet of space. This is for the community and a civic space that a lot of people are going to be coming to. So the creative process is, “hey, let’s imagine together.” You’re gonna be living here, working here, playing here, bringing your kids here, so I need all of you to imagine with me.
What is that first step when you design? Do you sketch or make a mood board?
The first step is to talk to the community. I go into a project with no ideas—the clearer your mind is the better. When I start talking to the community, I invite them to sketch or make a mood board. Any time I’m in conversation I’m usually drawing, because that’s how I think and then I start to pull on thoughts and ideas of what I’m hearing from the community.
One thing I love about your work is that you’re working with the people. Do you feel like you’re teaching design practices?
Absolutely, and we call it co-learning, which is a reciprocal practice. It’s really, really important that during the process, we are teaching communities about design, real estate development, and finance. Designing Justice + Designing Spaces is working on our theory of change right now. How will communities be different and feel a sense of agency and ownership over their built environment? The only way is through learning and understanding exactly how buildings get built. It’s very important for us to teach what we know, democratize learning, and in turn, communities teach us what they know.
Do you find yourself doing much of the rendering yourself or do you have architects, who you work with?
Well, the architectural visualization of space, we do in-house. Back when I was in school, I did them by hand with graphite which was hours and hours of slow madness. But now we have people on our team to get in there and work on the visualization of the design work. We like to keep control of it, because we want it to look and feel a certain way. However at the end of the day, people don’t really understand all the visualizations of the architecture. People understand physical models and that is the only time I find that people truly really understand what you’re proposing.
I always think of your work as a future state, but is there a time period, city or building style, that you draw your inspiration from?
Architectural education is so white supremacist and patriarchal, that you must look beyond it. Later in life, I found great inspiration in looking at the work of architects like Anna Heringer, who are using mud brick or modern contemporary architecture in India. When I was in school, we ignored architecture from South America and Africa. We need to go back to architecture that’s regional and anchored in our culture, built by us and reflects us. I get inspired by printmaking, I love that kind of aesthetic. How can we make architecture not be so monolithic and industrial looking?
How do you differentiate the practice of architecture, making great buildings while also disrupting white supremacy of the industry? Where do you find balance?
You can’t. You have to operate in the systems and structures in place. The creation of my own architectural practice is with a mostly Black and Brown firm. This is one way in which we have control over our own projects and do it in ways that are more equitable.
This is already dismantling white supremacist patriarchy. I remember working at a large corporate firm and wanted to do this process of community engagement by talking to students and the teachers." And they were just like, “Oh Deanna, no one’s going to want to do that.”
Our business model allows and funds us to do a deep level of work and research. We make sure our work is led by ideas that are generated from the community. The only way to do that was to start my own practice as there was no way I could do it in an existing one. I tried, and they were all led by White dudes primarily. Now we’re seeing more women-led firms doing beautiful, beautiful work, but people are still operating in these old paradigms. We still have to operate in a lot of them. I can’t break them all.
Designing Justice + Designing Spaces website states, “Restorative justice seeks to restore people and relationships impacted by crime.” How do you convey the work that you’re doing visually in restorative justice? Are finance, real estate and design the three needed components?
Yes, finance as it relates to real estate development is primarily what we’re doing. They’re kind of one in the same. The design piece is just a means to an end. Restorative justice through our lens is the real definition as it’s a philosophy that seeks to repair harm that’s been done. So when we say we’re designing for restorative justice, we are designing actual programs that do that. Restorative justice design is designing environments, furniture, graphics, for the process of restoring justice for someone who’s been harmed and then someone who did the harm. It is coming together to try to repair what has happened in the community. So the work that we’ve done so far, represents that of Restore Oakland, Syracuse Peacemaking Project, the School on Wheels, and more. They all look different depending on where you are and who you’re with.
“The Design piece is just a means to an end. Restorative justice through our lens is the real definition as it’s a philosophy that seeks to repair harm that’s been done”
What geometric or structural shapes best represent restorative justice? Walk us through the process of determining what is the best space to have these very, these challenging conversations?
When you’re in restorative justice, you’re in a circle. In this (dominant) culture, we’re not used to being in circular spaces. The reason we’re not is because the system of architecture production does not create those kinds of forms. You could see how the built environment physically manifests the beliefs and values of that system. If you look at Indigenous restorative justice spaces, like the Hogan people in North America, they are circular. But, in the European model, people didn’t live in circular things. People don’t build in circles, people don’t organize that way, right? In a perfect world, you are sitting in a non-hierarchical form and a circle is ideal for that. We would have to get used to being in that kind of relationship spatially. Currently we’re not used to that.
This is hard work you’re doing and this has been a hard year. How do you find or make time to restore creatively, emotionally? What is your restorative justice for yourself?
Getting a dog was very helpful. I’ve been trying to carve out time for creative thought. It’s literally called My Creative Carve Out on Friday mornings, and nobody’s allowed to put a meeting in it unless it’s about being creative. So that’s a thing I’ve started doing. Resting is not working on the weekends or past a certain time. My days are intense and full in a whole new way.
What is your favorite space to feel connected and safe? Is it home? Is it outdoors? Where is the space for you, like okay yeah, this is what I need?
Home has been good since I’ve been living alone. I’m also a forest person. I like to be in that environment. I miss my deciduous forests of Virginia where I grew up. I like to go mushroom foraging as this is a great season for it. So I’m so happy when I’m in the forest. That’s very restorative for me. That’s time well spent in my book.
Awesome, well, this has been great Deanna. If there’s one thing that you would want to leave off with, even for this conversation. What is that one take away you want people to leave with?
Since this is a publication about design, art and culture for Black and Brown folks, I think that now is such a time for us to be leading the radical re-imagining of our society. We as designers have a really valuable role to play. Artists too as I don’t like to bleed and blur all those things together. Designers are very practical in a way and solutions-focused. We need new images, new places, new representations of a future, we need to be unlocking our elastic thinking, so that we can come up with new solutions. And Black and Brown people have got to lead it because, “Look who’s been leading and it ain’t working out.” [chuckle] Our creative people are essential, so are our policy makers and our activists. Design needs to be part of the conversation. Individually, each of us contributes towards imagining and then creating the kind of world where we’re actually treated right. [chuckle] Respected, loved and cared for. Yeah, we have a lot to do. And a role to play. U
To learn more about Deanna’s work visit designingjustice.org
