Empathic Design: Perspectives on Creating Inclusive Spaces

In his new book Empathic Design: Perspectives on Creating Inclusive Spaces, Assistant Professor of Architecture Elgin Cleckley brings together visionary architects, urban designers, planners and design activists to rethink how and for whom we design public spaces. Join Cleckley and several of the book’s contributors for a discussion about design equity and inclusion. Copies of the book will be available for purchase.

This event also marks the launch of _mpathic design, a research lab, initiative, and design practice created in 2016 by Cleckley. The lab guides the School of Architecture's annual Edward Wayne Barnett / Audrey Spencer Horsley Design Research Studios. Currently, the lab is centered on a new international exhibition visualizing untold narratives of the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

SPEAKERS

Elgin Cleckley, NOMA, is an Assistant Professor of Architecture with an appointment in the School of Education and Human Development and the School of Nursing. He is the Undergraduate Architecture Program Director, Director of Design Thinking, and the Director of Design Justice at UVa’s Equity Center (Democracy Initiative Center for the Redress of Inequity Through Community-Engaged Scholarship), where he leads the school’s NOMA Project Pipeline: Architecture Mentorship Program. Cleckley is founding principal of _mpathic design, a multi-award-winning pedagogy, initiative, and professional practice. 

Nina Cooke John is the founding principal of Studio Cooke John Architecture and Design, a multidisciplinary design studio that values placemaking as a way to transform relationships between people and the built environment. Studio Cooke John’s Shadow of A Face, the new Harriet Tubman Monument in Newark, NJ was unveiled in March 2023. The studio was awarded a 2021 AIA Merit Award for the public art installation, Point of Action, commissioned for the Flatiron public plazas in 2020 and currently on view at the Wassaic Project. Nina was named a 2022 United States Artists Fellow. 

Christine Gaspar is a designer and planner with over fifteen years of experience collaborating with marginalized communities to shape the places where they live. From 2009-2022, she was the Executive Director of the Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP), a New York-based nonprofit that co-creates educational materials and tools that help people access public services, legal rights, and political power. Prior to that, she was Assistant Director of the Gulf Coast Community Design Studio in Biloxi, Mississippi, where she provided architectural design and community planning services to low-wealth communities of color recovering from Hurricane Katrina.

Mitchell Silver, FAICP, is principal of urban planning at McAdams in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, where he is responsible for providing advisory services in urban planning, land use, parks and public space planning with an emphasis on diversity, equity and inclusion. He is an award-winning planner with more than 35 years of experience and is internationally recognized for his leadership and contributions to contemporary planning issues. Prior to joining McAdams, Mitchell served as the commissioner for the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation; Chief Planning Officer in Raleigh, NC and served as president of the American Planning Association (APA).

This event is supported by the Office of the Dean.