Newly Released: Empathic Design by Elgin Cleckley

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Editor: Elgin Cleckley, Assistant Professor of Architecture
January 2024
Island Press

In Empathic Design: Perspectives on Creating Inclusive Spaces, designer and architecture professor Elgin Cleckley brings together ten leaders and visionary practitioners in architecture, urban design, planning, and design activism. In this collective volume, Cleckley and the authors show how to take an empathy-based design approach to translate the generational lived experiences of marginalized communities into built form.

As part of an emerging design framework, empathic designers work with and in communities affected by violence, racism, displacement, spatial injustice, and sexism. Empathic design acknowledges the complete history of a place, even when that history is painful, and addresses the lived experiences and memories of community members with respect. Through empathic design, people can better connect with the ongoing history of a place and develop deeper relationships with nature and the land. 

Empathic Design provides essential approaches and methods for designing inclusive public spaces with respect for communities' history and lived experiences. This work ensures that all people, especially those marginalized and harmed by systemic oppression, are represented in their built environment.
 

I believe that if we design with empathy,
we can begin to rethink, rebuild, reckon, and reengage
with public spaces that have untold narratives.

Elgin Cleckley, Editor of Empathic Design: Perspectives on Creating Inclusive Spaces

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Editor

Elgin Cleckley, NOMA, is an Assistant Professor of Architecture at the University of Virginia School of Architecture and the founding principal of _mpathic design, a multi-award-winning pedagogy, initiative, and professional practice.

Contributors

C.L. Bohannon, UVA School of Architecture
Nina Cooke John, Studio Cooke John
Christine Gaspar, former executive director, Center for Urban Pedagogy
Erin Genia, Erin Genia Studio
Cory Henry, Atelier Cory Henry
Joyce Hwang, University of Buffalo SUNY // Ants of the Prairie
Katie MacDonald, UVA School of Architecture // After Architecture, Before Building Laboratory
Liz Ogbu, Studio O
Kyle Schumann, UVA School of Architecture // After Architecture, Before Building Laboratory
Mitchell J. Silver, McAdams, former commissioner of New York City Parks

Critic's Review

Empathic Design is an eye–opening book.
It is a clear, concrete exploration of what
'equity and justice' and 'shared emotion' can mean
in the public spaces we build.

Robert Lamb Hart, Architect and Chairman Emeritus of Hart Howerton
Author of A New Look at Humanism: In Architecture, Landscapes, and Urban Design