‘What could we build instead of prisons?’: New projects at the intersection of abolition and design

Prism – August 28, 2025

Wallpaper* USA 400: The people shaping Creative America in 2025

Wallpaper* – August 11, 2025

Inside San Francisco’s new restorative justice hub

Axios – August 4, 2025

At This Bay Area Nonprofit, Restorative Justice Starts With Design

KQED – July 29, 2025

SF restorative-justice hub offers clients ‘a place where they belong’

San Francisco Examiner – July 27, 2025

Innovative company builds designer furniture using surprising materials: ‘It’s a beautiful cycle of renewal’

The Cool Down – July 7, 2025

Designed for a Second Chance, These Tables Support Women After Incarceration

Design Milk – June 25, 2025

Oakland-based Designing Justice + Designing Spaces Launches Table Collection

ABC7 – June 13, 2025

The Donation Collection Gives Formerly Incarcerated Individuals — and Fallen Trees — a Second Chance

Nice News – June 9, 2025

New table collection supports women’s reentry after incarceration

Furniture Today – June 2, 2025

Healing through design: Limited-edition tables support formerly incarcerated women

Designers Today – June 2, 2025

Making Space for Peace Recap

Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design – January 13, 2025

Making Space for Peace Designer Talk

Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design – November 12, 2024

See What Happened When One Museum Asked Artists to Define ‘Home’

Smithsonian Magazine – November 4, 2024

The Pop-Up Village Offers a ‘Constellation’ of Community Resources in San Francisco
KQED – April 10, 2024

Meet the designers changing what abolition looks like

Fast Company – April 13, 2024

Core City buildings could be spared from demolition amid pushback
Bridge Detroit – February 28, 2024

Designing Justice + Designing Spaces calls for radical reimagining in architecture

Wallpaper* – December 22, 2023

Detroit Month of Design events for people who are overwhelmed by it all

Detroit Metro Times – September 15, 2023

Deanna Van Buren, Architect and Analogue Immersive Installation Artist, 2023 USA Fellow

United States Artists – August, 2023

BIPOC Design Matters

Panel at Gensler – February 16, 2023

The Care(ful) Work of Abolishing Prisons

yes! Magazine – February 27, 2023

100 Women: Architects in Practice

Riba Publishing – January 12, 2023

This architect went from creating luxury malls to imagining a world without prisons

MSNBC – March 29, 2022

Reimagining NYC’s borough-based jails

Epicenter NYC – March 29, 2022

Unbuilding racism: Activists confront injustice in Washtenaw County’s built environment

Concentrate – February 16, 2022

Do Prisons Deserve a Second Chance?

Bloomberg CityLab – November 9, 2021

Architects See Promise in Integrated Practice Models, Pre- and Post-Katerra

Architect Magazine – October 27, 2021

Can Architects Help End Solitary Confinement?

Solitary Watch – October 7, 2021

Does Building Better Jails Go Far Enough?

The New York Times – September 24, 2021

Bay Area developer looks to address mass incarceration with Detroit buildings

Outlier Media – September 15, 2021

Developers see new data analysis and gathering tools as key to more equitable development

The Architect’s Newspaper – August 9, 2021

In New York City, New Jails Threaten Dreams For True Community Spaces and Restorative Architecture

Shadowproof – July 28, 2021

California Attorney General Rob Bonta, Author Julie Lythcott-Haims On ‘Adulting,’ And Architect Deanna Van Buren

KALW’s State of the Bay – June 7, 2021 (Deanna’s segment starts at the 47:00 minute mark)

Remodel, rebuild, reimagine: Group submitted plans to close, repurpose Atlanta city jail

NBC Atlanta’s 11 Alive – May 26, 2021

Designing safe and supportive spaces for recently released incarcerated people is essential to real justice

Prism Reports – May 6, 2021

Meet the architect imagining a world without prisons

Financial Times – March 7, 2021

Community know-how and design expertise reinforce one another at this Detroit hub for social justice

The Architect’s Newspaper – March 3, 2021

Paying Community Members for Their Time

Shelterforce – February 26, 2021

How Oakland architect Deanna Van Buren’s passion for restorative justice manifests in her work

NBC News – February 26, 2021

Reconceiving Justice

Oculus, AIA New York – Winter, 2021

Take No Prisoners

Alta Journal – February 17, 2021

Blue Walls, Big Windows: A New Generation of Justice-Oriented Spaces

California Magazine (CAL Alumni Association) – January 27, 2021

Think Beyond the Stocking — AN’s 2020 Giving Guide

The Architect’s Newspaper – December 11, 2020

Free your mind, and good design will follow

Fortune – December 1, 2020

Restore Oakland

Archello – 2020

Restore Oakland

Architect Magazine – November 30, 2020

Commentary: Decarceration and Designing to Divest

Architectural Record – October 5, 2020

AIANY Advises Members To Stop Designing Prison Projects, Focus Instead On Restorative Justice

Forbes – September 30, 2020

Atlanta’s Jail Will Close. Here’s How Organizers and Law Enforcement Agreed on What Will Replace It

Next City – September 25, 2020

Building Public Places for a Covid World

The New York Times – September 11, 2020

Community voices come first in reimagining of downtown Atlanta detention center

The Architect’s Newspaper – August 21, 2020

How to Re-design the World for Coronavirus and Beyond

Politico Magazine – July 3, 2020

Why Justice in Design Is Critical to Repairing America

Architectural Digest – July 2, 2020

Q&A: Oakland Architect Deanna Van Buren Is Building a World Without Prisons

Ms. Magazine – June 27, 2020

‘A whole lot has to get built to end mass incarceration’ says Deanna van Buren

Dezeen – June 25, 2020

Racist monuments are coming down all over the U.S. What should replace them?

Fast Company – June 25, 2020

This Atlanta jail will transform into a center for justice and equity

Fast Company – June 15, 2020

Mass Decarceration and COVID-19

Stanford Social Innovation Review – June 9, 2020

Designing Justice + Designing Spaces on ‘Unbuilding Racism’

Archinect – June 5, 2020

Designing for Decarceration in a Pandemic

Architectural Record – May 27, 2020

Space for Restorative Justice (PDF)

Impact Justice and Yale School of Architecture – May, 2020

Can architecture slow gentrification? Restore Oakland wants to show that it can

San Francisco Chronicle – March 10, 2020

What Would a World Without Prisons Look Like?

The New York Times – March 6, 2020

8 Black Designers Whose Socially Impactful Work Challenges the Status Quo

Dwell – February 18, 2020

Design for Equity (PDF, or view online)

Public Art Review, Issue 59 – January 14, 2020

This School on a Bus Is Bringing Education to Everyone (YouTube)

Great Big Story – October 1, 2019

10 Things We’re Talking About — 09: A Neighborhood Haven

Essence Magazine – November 22, 2019

Designing Justice + Designing Spaces builds infrastructure to end mass incarceration

The Architect’s Newspaper – October 30, 2019

Can a building help end mass incarceration?

Curbed San Francisco – October 24, 2019

Architect Deanna Van Buren on Designing Beautiful Spaces That “Amplify Self-Care, Love, Restoration, and Respect”

Archinect – October 8, 2019

This Ingenious New Community Center Is a Powerful Model for Change

Architectural Digest – September 3, 2019

Oakland’s Restorative-Justice Hub Wants to Redefine Public Safety

CityLab – August 23, 2019

Opinion: We Must Plan for a Decarceration Nation

Architect Magazine – May 7, 2019

Rising Stars in Criminal Justice Reform

Freethink – April 17, 2019

You Got Your High School Diploma?

The California Sunday Magazine – March 27, 2019

A socially minded Oakland architect who’s winning attention and awards

San Francisco Chronicle – January 9, 2019

Deanna Van Buren Awarded 2018 Berkeley-Rupp Prize

Berkeley-Rupp Architecture – November, 2018

These Rising-Star Designers Are Making the World a Better Place

Architectural Digest – November 6, 2018

Upstart 50 Creatives: Redesigning justice, one step at a time

San Francisco Business Times – September, 2018

Gerechtigkeit gestalten / Prison Break (PDF)

form 278 – June, 2018

Workers in Progress — Deanna Van Buren and Kyle Rawlins

Architect Magazine – May, 2018

Creating ‘A Service Economy That Actually Serves People, And A Justice System That Is Actually Just’

Fast Company – January 3, 2018

What a world without prisons could look like

TED – November, 2017

Architecture in video games: How real-world designers are helping to build virtual worlds

City A.M. – September 27, 2017

Mobile classroom bus will steer adults toward a diploma

San Francisco Chronicle – June 28, 2017

Designing a Way out of Mass Incarceration

City Lab – December 13, 2016

The Pop-Up Approach to Fighting Mass Incarceration

Next City – October 27, 2016

Beauty, Justice and Alternate Finance

Grantmakers in the Arts – October 18, 2016

Community members and leaders discuss future of Oakland at Impact Hub

Oakland North – September 30, 2016

Designing for Peace: In Conversation with Deanna Van Buren

Skin Deep – Apr 27, 2016

Designing Justice + Designing Spaces

Culturally Responsive Teaching

Artist as Activist: Deanna Van Buren

Robert Rauschenberg Foundation

A New Way to Design and Build Prisons

Prison Law Blog – January 8, 2015

Great Read: What Kind Of Prison Might The Inmates Design?

Los Angeles Times – August 18, 2014

Creating Restorative Spaces with Barb Toews and Deanna Van Buren

Restorative Justice on The Rise – January 23, 2014

Peace Building: Architecture and design as a restorative practice

International Institute for Restorative Practices – August 27, 2013

Restorative Justice: An Interview with Deanna VanBuren

ArchDaily – August 26, 2013