Invisible in the City: How to Overcome a Blind Faith in Evidence-Based Design That Fails People at the Margins

Abstract

Evidence-based design (EBD) offers a promising model for shaping the built environment and is often touted as a tool for advancing equity goals. Yet, overly relying upon and trusting data at face-value glosses over the need to account for meaningful group differences, which disproportionately harms people who are often already relegated to the margins: Black Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC), women, LGBTQIA+, people with disabilities, and the oldest and youngest among us, to name just a few. While it’s understandable to want a straightforward approach—something like a formula, template, checklist, or prescription that guarantees good design—the truth is, we don’t have a one-size-fits-all solution. The only surefire strategy for good space design is a rigorous and inclusive fact-finding approach that engages a wide cross-section of the population through a variety of methods and adjusts, as needed, to address biases. Ensuring that our research approaches are conscious, expansive, and inclusive leverages the opportunity of EBD to truly deepen our understanding of the connections between place and people’s well-being.