2024-05-22T13:31:41-04:00 https://archinect.com/features/article/150163426/architect-deanna-van-buren-on-designing-beautiful-spaces-that-amplify-self-care-love-restoration-and-respect Antonio Pacheco 2019-10-08T07:00:00-04:00 >2019-10-08T09:20:24-04:00 <img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/88/88f26236c455945241d55ed25daa28f5.jpg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=1200" border="0" /><p><a href="https://archinect.com/firms/cover/150078043/designing-justice-designing-spaces" target="_blank">Designing Justice + Designing Spaces</a> (DJDS) is an Oakland, California-based architecture and real estate development non-profit that is working to end mass incarceration by "building infrastructure that attacks its root causes: poverty, racism, unequal access to resources, and the criminal justice system itself," according to the firm's website.</p> <p><a href="http://designingjustice.org/" target="_blank">DJDS</a>&nbsp;is led by Deanna Van Buren, an architect who "designs spaces for peacemaking, inside and out" that is working to <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/deanna_van_buren_what_a_world_without_prisons_could_look_like" target="_blank">envision a world without prisons</a>, and&nbsp;Kyle Rawlins, a real estate developer.&nbsp;The firm's necessary work involves upending America's blatantly unequal and inherently violent criminal justice system by proposing spaces that strive to instead achieve justice, healing, and reconciliation through alternative, human-centered means. The firm's work takes place both within correctional facilities through educational and self-care initiatives that help incarcerated people retain their humanity, as well as outside prisons, by helping re...</p>