KEYNOTE: Trauma-Informed Design – An Aid to Recovery or Mere Window Dressing?

Synopsis

In this keynote presentation, prison design expert Yvonne Jewkes will draw on her acclaimed book The Architecture of Hope: Reimagining the Prison, Restoring a House, Rebuilding Myself (Scribe, 2024) to explore the meanings of trauma-informed practice in the design of institutional settings. Despite having done much to promote trauma-informed design in prisons around the world, Yvonne has ambivalent feelings about trauma-informed practice because, while it rightly recognises the unimaginably awful lives many people in custody and care settings have had, and aims to create the right conditions for recovery, the way it’s implemented in architecture and design often amounts to little more than superficial window-dressing. Yvonne will describe examples of good and not-so-good practice from her own professional experience, and will explore the contested terrain of both trauma-informed design initiatives and ‘trauma’ itself.