Playlist: Designing for Everyone

How to design our physical environments with all in mind? Gary Tinterow, Liz Ogbu, Maria Gaspar, and Daniel Parolek weigh in.

Lots of spaces claim to be made for everyone to share, but it’s rare to find one that’s actually built to make that possible. When does architecture—physical or social—determine who gets access to what, and who gets left behind?

Gary Tinterow has been at this for a while. Long-time curator at the Met and now director of the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, he has been a change agent in the fine-arts world when it comes to encouraging and creating more Inclusive Museums. This requires thinking on a number of levels: infrastructure and physical accessibility; diversity, representation, and artistic innovation; language, voice, and communication; and technology, transportation, and cost, just to name a few. Tinterow joined CHF to discuss the complexity—but also the absolute necessity—of making museums more inclusive.

When people talk about the field of Spatial Justice, they use phrases like “leveraging the power of design to catalyze social impact” and “fostering global poverty reduction through design and innovation” and “mobilizing designers to improve communities through design.” In other words, it’s about insisting that design choices be made mindfully and with foresight, to ensure they enable access for all. Designer and urbanist Liz Ogbu and interdisciplinary artist Maria Gaspar have both made this kind of justice their life’s work—through specific building and access projects, the act of inserting empathy and human-centered research into the design process, or through calling attention to structures of power that are preventing access and equity. At CHF Ogbu and Gaspar explored the work they are doing, and what they see as the next essential undertaking.

What about housing? Architect Daniel Parolek has coined the term, “Missing Middle Housing,” and argues that it’s the key to providing broader access to desirable, affordable housing choices for more people. So what’s the missing middle? Basically, anything that’s not a high-rise apartment, but also not a detached, single-family house. Think duplexes, fourplexes, and bungalow courts—all within walking distance of local shops and public transportation. To Parolek, these are the kinds of homes that are in short supply in America, and also the kinds of homes that will provide answers to the questions at the heart of his own mission as an architect: How do we build walkable communities that support social, mental, and physical health while improving resiliency and promoting equity? How do we foster informed community conversation about local development and provide choice, attainability, and affordability in the housing market?

Header image: Joey Banks | Unsplash