Integrating Critique as a Game Changer: Using Universal Design (Design for all) to inform the Scholarship on Public Space

Niraj Verma; Corey Nolan

Authors

Dr. Niraj Verma Virginia Commonwealth University
Corey Nolan, MPA Virginia Commonwealth University

Published

2024-07-14

Issue

Vol. 36 (2024): GAME CHANGER? Planning for just and sustainable urban regions - book of abstracts

Section

TRACK 08: PUBLIC SPACE

License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

As an avowedly interdisciplinary area of inquiry, the scholarship on public space has been informed not just by urban design but also by the social sciences, public health, engineering, law, and other disciplines. Such a marriage of traditions has changed the game multiple times and, in some cases, eventually transformed the field. This paper will explore how this game-changing might become more systematic – an arranged marriage rather than an extended courtship! -- so scholars and practitioners studying public space might effectively integrate tensions and criticism from related fields.

Our example comes from universal design (also called design for all) and urban design’s critique of its rigidity and one-size-fits-all stance (Nelischer and Loukaitou-Sideris (2023). The critique mocks the universal design of physical, tangible spaces that facilitate access and use by people of any age and ability (Lynch et al. 2018). But, while an imaginary, generic user may not be appropriate, embracing inclusivity and access is certainly consistent with urban design’s ethos. How might our thinking on public space credibly address this criticism without dismissing it altogether? How might we endogenize this conflict within our scholarship?

We respond to this in three parts. First, drawing on previous scholarship (Verma 2011), we use Sunstein’s idea of incomplete theorization to develop a set of dialectical tensions or dilemmas between urban design and universal design. Next, we address these dilemmas and cast them as “essential tensions” for the scholarship on public space (Verma 1995). Finally, using the case of fair housing laws in the United States (Nolan 2023), we illustrate how these ideas might help to include some lessons from fair housing in the design of public spaces.

Author Biographies

Dr. Niraj Verma, Virginia Commonwealth University

Niraj Verma is an expert in urban planning and management. He joined the Wilder School in 2010 and served as its director and first dean until 2016. Under his leadership, the Wilder School became a stand-alone school at VCU directly under the provost and gained several new faculty roles in teaching, research and administration. Prior to joining the Wilder School, Verma served as professor and chair of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the University at Buffalo. He began his academic career at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, where he directed doctoral programs in the School of Policy, Planning and Development as a tenured faculty member.

Verma’s scholarly work has been contributing toward a theory of planning and governance that draws on the philosophy of American pragmatism and particularly the philosophy of William James. He is the author of Similarities, Connections, Systems: The search for a New Rationality for Planning and Management (Lexington 1998) and the editor of Institutions and Planning (Elsevier 2008) as well as several articles and contributions to edited books. He serves on the editorial board of several academic journals including Planning Theory, Planning Theory and Practice, S, Town Planning Review and Urban Design International.

Verma's research, teaching and education have been recognized internationally. Most recently, he served as a Visiting Fellow at the Judge Business School at Cambridge University and was awarded a Fulbright-Nehru Award for Academic and Professional Excellence. He has also been awarded fellowships by the Rotary Foundation, the German Academic Exchange Service and the Zumberge Foundation. Verma was the only North American urban planning scholar invited by the National Academy of Engineering to the 2002 Frontiers of Engineering Conference and the only U.S.-based academic invited to supervise the 2001 doctoral workshop of the Association of European Schools of Planning held in Lodz, Poland. His contributions to doctoral education include serving as the chair of the American Collegiate Schools of Planning doctoral committee for more than five years and as a member of the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration doctoral committee. Many of his doctoral students are now academics at major research universities or are otherwise engaged in successful research careers.

Verma's research has been supported by the Federal Transit Administration, the Department of Transportation and by several foundations and international organizations, including the Alexander Humboldt Foundation, Rotary Foundation, German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, and several other organizations. Professionally, his work includes large-scale projects such as technology planning for an integrated steel plant in India and developing a master plan for the state of Hawaii’s library system.
Corey Nolan, MPA, Virginia Commonwealth University

Corey Nolan holds a bachelor's degree in political science and a master of public administration from Virginia Commonwealth University. While pursuing a Ph.D. in public policy and administration, she serves as a graduate teaching assistant and federal government contractor.

Her work experience administering HUD's Fair Housing Accessibility FIRST design and construction resource center informs her research interests. Her research interests include housing policy with respect to disability and housing affordability.

References

Lynch, H., Moore, A., Edwards, C. and Horgan, L. (2018) Community Parks and Playgrounds: Intergenerational Participation Through Universal Design. National Disability Authority. [Online].

Nelischer, C. & Loukaitou-Sideris, A. (2023) Intergenerational Public Space Design and Policy: A Review of the Literature. Journal of planning literature. [Online] 38 (1), 19–32.

Nolan, C., OLH Technical Services., HUD. (2023) 'Fair Housing Act: Common Violations and Solutions.' [Online]

Verma, N. (2011). ‘Urban Design: An incompletely theorized project’, in Tridib, B & Loutkaitou-Sederis, A. Companion to Urban Design. 1st ed. London: Taylor & Francis Group.

Verma, N. (1995) What is Planning Practice? The Search for Suitable Categories. Journal of planning education and research. [Online] 14 (3), 178–182.