Restorative Design in Practice
Session Description
What if belonging is not something we design for, but something we cultivate? Desirée Gonzalez, founder of Restorative Design and the Restorative Design Association, and Isabella Thomas, co-founder of the Restorative Design Association, explore this question through two case studies spanning restorative practice and architecture. Desirée shares her work with incarcerated women, where re-storying personal narratives and shaping restorative environments created opportunities for agency, healing, and belonging within the constraints of a jail. Isabella draws from her master’s research on the architecture of belonging to examine how the built environment can nurture connection and social-cultural relationships. Together, their work reframes design as an ongoing process of cultivation—creating conditions for people and communities to reclaim their stories, reshape relationships to place and one another, and imagine more intentional futures. Join us for this stories and strategies session and receive tangible examples of how to implement Restorative Design in practice.
Â鶹ÊÓƵ Desiree Gonzalez
Desirée Gonzalez is redefining the meaning of aesthetic intervention—her work frames space as a vessel for healing, justice, culture, and ecology. By weaving together restorative justice, depth psychology, trauma awareness, and cultural belonging, she offers a replicable design model that centers dignity, resilience, and liberation.
Â鶹ÊÓƵ Isabella Thomas
Isabella is an Outreach and Engagement Designer with AmeriCorps VISTA, a Junior Architectural Designer at Sky Langan Studios, and a design professor at George Fox University, holding a Master of Architecture and a BA in Management.