DESIGN JUSTICE
& EQUITY
Reimagining spaces through collective design, community-led creativity, and architectural inclusivity.
How We BeganMETHODS AND ACTIONS
“We do this by Engaging with Communities, prioritizing Education, fostering Inclusion, thinking Critically, Empowering others, and remaining Flexible in our approach.”
“Design justice rethinks design processes, centers people who are normally marginalized by design, and uses collaborative, creative practices to address the deepest challenges our communities face.”
— Sasha Costanza-Chock, Design Justice, MIT Press, 2020
WHO DOES IT SERVE?
The UDesign Justice Initiative exists to center and serve those historically excluded from shaping the built environment. This includes physically marginalized communities such as people with disabilities, mobility challenges, and diverse physical needs. It also includes socially disadvantaged and underrepresented groups with limited access to resources, low visibility or voice, such as isolated communities and young people in the foster system. Racialized communities, including Indigenous Peoples, Black communities, and other racialized groups, are a central focus.
Immigrant and newcomer communities, such as refugees, asylum seekers, and recent migrants, are also prioritized. The initiative supports neurodivergent individuals with diverse cognitive and neurological experiences, as well as students across educational levels and disciplines. Multi-generational communities are valued for their intergenerational knowledge and collaboration. Care providers, both formal and informal, are recognized for the ways their perspectives shape inclusive environments. The initiative embraces all people and diverse communities, honoring multiple identities and experiences. Finally, it affirms a responsibility to care for nature and all living beings as an integral part of just design.
WHAT DOES IT CHANGE?
DESIGN PRACTICE
Reimagining how design is done by challenging outdated codes, adopting inclusive and iterative processes, and embedding innovation, ethics, and long-term thinking into every stage — designing with communities, not just for them.
EDUCATION AND AWARENESS
Raising public understanding of design’s role in justice, shifting mindsets, and promoting critical thinking through accessible education, storytelling, and knowledge sharing.
INCLUSIVE SPACES
Creating environments that are physically, socially, and culturally accessible; addressing racial bias, affordability barriers, and intergenerational needs; and ensuring spaces honour Indigenous Peoples, disabled communities, and all marginalized groups with dignity and care.
LIFESTYLE AND BELONGING
Strengthening community connections, fostering social integration, and enhancing emotional well-being by addressing isolation and cultivating collective belonging, trust, and safety in shared spaces.
NARRATIVE AND PERCEPTION
Reframe dominant narratives about place by centering lived experience and elevating diverse voices. Challenge the stories that define “who belongs” in certain spaces, and cultivate new ones that reflect the histories, perspectives, and aspirations of marginalized communities.
OUR VALUES
ACCOUNTABILITY
With a commitment to accountability, this approach emphasizes responsibility for actions, systems, harms, and biases, guided by accurate, data-driven insights, feedback loops, and a focus on meaningful impact for communities.
COMPASSION
Rooted in empathy and understanding, this approach nurtures dignity, care, kindness, and hospitality, embracing vulnerability and strength-based connections.
ETHICAL PRACTICE
Grounded in authenticity, humility, and integrity, this approach prioritizes clear, accessible, and respectful communication, transparency, trust, equality, justice, consensus, and consent, while remaining true to values through honesty, sincerity, openness, restoration, data accuracy, and a not-for-profit commitment.
ENGAGING & INCLUSIVE
Rooted in accessibility as a baseline, this approach embraces inclusive, community-driven and community-focused collaboration that values lived experiences, collective ownership, intentional engagement, knowledge sharing, solidarity, and stewardship, ensuring diverse voices are heard and embedded in process-oriented, mixed-use, and open-access designs that meet people where they are.
WELCOMING & RECIPROCITY
Accessible, safe, and welcoming spaces that prioritize relationships, reciprocity, meaningful connections, inspiration, tolerance, and building connections foster inclusive communities.
FLEXIBILITY
Adaptable, be flexible, challenge status quos, change, modular design.
INNOVATION
Creative curiosity, ingenuity, innovative thinking, open-source collaboration, and inventive communication drive progress.
LONG TERM THINKING
Intergenerational responsibility, continuity, investment loops, longevity, and long-term commitment are key to sustaining impact.
REFLEXIVITY
Acknowledging privilege, embracing cultural intersectionality, engaging in evaluation and feedback loops, learning from mistakes, recognizing diverse perspectives, practicing self-reflection, understanding different approaches, and welcoming discomfort are essential to growth.