Deanna Van Buren
Architect & Designer | Reimagining Justice Through Restorative Spaces
About
Deanna Van Buren is an architect and designer who is transforming criminal justice through innovative restorative justice centers. As the co-founder and Design Director of Designing Justice + Designing Spaces, she works with communities to create environments that support rehabilitation, healing, and accountability.
Van Buren's award-winning designs have been featured in the New York Times, Fast Company, and Architectural Digest. Her TEDx talks have inspired audiences to rethink the role of architecture in creating a more equitable and humane justice system.
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What a world without prisons could look like
Deanna Van Buren designs restorative justice centers that, instead of taking the punitive approach used by a system focused on mass incarceration, treat crime as a breach of relationships and justice as a process where all stakeholders come together to repair that breach. With help and ideas from incarcerated men and women, Van Buren is creating dynamic spaces that provide safe venues for dialogue and reconciliation; employment and job training; and social services to help keep people from entering the justice system in the first place. "Imagine a world without prisons," Van Buren says. "And join me in creating all the things that we could build instead."
| Event | Year | Location |
|---|---|---|
| TED | 2017 | 🇨🇦Vancouver, Canada |
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