The versatility of architecture allows us to shape the spatial experience of users through conscientious design practices that seamlessly address their needs. As designers, we have the opportunity to uplift our community by creating welcoming spaces for populations with unique needs, addressing gaps in the current built environment through the use of design frameworks that have been developed with these groups in mind.

McKinney York Architects initiates conversations with the community before the design process even begins, asking questions to understand what is important to stakeholders: What elements will help them grow and thrive? How do they want the project to serve them? Through open design collaboration with building occupants, we create places that resonate deeply with their communities.

Through community engagement, we have discovered that better design for a specific user group leads to better design for everyone. The following projects demonstrate how we have translated our experience with design guidelines developed for a specific user group into an expanded range of applications. Designing to meet code minimums is not enough; architects have a responsibility to create spaces that support healing, advocacy, and belonging among all members of our community.

Design for Healing

The City of Austin Domestic Violence Shelter supports resident recovery, resilience, and connection. This three-story, 15,000-sf building—formerly a motel—has been transformed into a 40-room shelter managed by the SAFE Alliance. This adaptive reuse project is the result of close collaboration between the City of Austin, Austin Public Health and the SAFE Alliance.

Architectural environments have a profound impact on the people who inhabit them. For individuals who have experienced trauma, everyday spaces can be full of elements that unintentionally heighten stress and anxiety. Trauma-informed design is an emerging practice that emphasizes intentionality and specificity in design decisions to minimize trauma triggers. While every experience with trauma is different, research shows that spatial and organizational principles contribute significantly to promoting safety, dignity, and healing. Sensory boundaries, nested layers, and identity anchors are trauma-informed design principles that informed the design of the shelter.

At the shelter’s primary threshold, the former drive-through porte cochere has been reimagined as a welcoming, secure transitional zone. Panelized privacy screens at the entrance create a sensory boundary at the human scale that conveys warmth and a sense of home. Their foliage patterns also act as an identity anchor, transforming a security barrier into a meaningful design element that fosters a sense of place.

 

The lobby and reception areas are designed in nested layers, providing flexibility and balancing openness with comfort. Clear sightlines and intuitive wayfinding in the main space ensure residents can easily orient themselves and identify where to seek assistance from staff. Along the perimeter, intimate seating alcoves provide sheltered moments of refuge, offering varying levels of privacy for those who want to retreat while remaining connected.

The shelter’s private rooms and communal spaces mirror the familiarity of a domestic home, employing thoughtful spatial and visual connections to support natural family rhythms and routines. By organizing living spaces in a pattern of openness, the shelter offers safe sensory boundaries that support socialization and collaboration. Architects can utilize trauma-informed design tools that help individuals connect to themselves, to others, and to the larger community in secure ways. The application of these tools is beneficial in any space that seeks to support healing and recovery amongst its occupants.

Design for Advocacy

Historically, most spaces for the Deaf have been designed and controlled by hearing institutions. The need for architecture that fully serves the Deaf community has given rise to a design approach that addresses unique Deaf values and experiences. This approach, known as DeafSpace, prioritizes spatial designs that create Deaf-centric gathering spaces, provides visual connectivity for communication and environmental awareness, optimizes functionality for Deaf users, and organizes physical environments to support Deaf spatial sensibilities. Our ongoing work with the Texas School for the Deaf (TSD), including the Administration Welcome Center and Early Learning Center, completed in 2021, as well as the ACCESS Learning Hub, set to begin construction in 2026, have been guided and informed by DeafSpace and the Deaf stakeholders of TSD.

The importance of central gathering spaces within Deaf culture, particularly those where food is shared, was a driving design concept for both projects. Each project is organized around a communal gathering zone that functions as the heart of the learning environment. At the Early Learning Center, the kitchen is a place for participation and hands-on learning where students can observe and assist teachers in preparing meals. In the ACCESS classroom building, the “Corner Cafe” space serves a similar role as a hub that draws people together and supports the development of practical skills as students prepare and sell food to their classmates. These central “nodes” act as community anchors, supporting connection, visibility, and shared experience.

Deaf building occupants have a heightened awareness of their visual environment. Visual connectivity is critical for effective communication in American Sign Language (ASL), safe and intuitive navigation of circulation routes, and for spatial and temporal cues such as weather and time of day. Both the Administration and Welcome Center and the ACCESS Learning Hub housing building are designed around multi-height social spaces paired with areas of extensive glazing to connect building users between floors as well as to extend visual reach to the outside environment.

Classrooms for both age groups ranging from Pre-K at the Early Learning Center to post-secondary 18–22-year-olds at the ACCESS Learning Hub were designed to support effective instruction and conversation. The ACCESS classrooms were designed to accommodate the optimal seating arrangement for visual communication: a semicircle of student desks oriented towards the instructor who is backed by a contrasting blue wall. This strategy was also utilized in the Early Learning Center but modified in scale and arrangement to reflect the more informal atmosphere of early childhood environments.

When walking and signing simultaneously, individuals split their visual focus between their conversation partner and the path ahead, making clear organizational patterns and visual cues essential. At the Early Learning Center, brick recesses and a repeating window pattern provide periodic visual anchors, while a defined pattern of dark bronze accent panels at the ACCESS Learning Hub classroom building supports intuitive navigation and wayfinding. Rhythmic façade elements reinforce the relationship between building and individual, enhancing spatial awareness and connection for hearing and non-hearing users alike. Our designs for TSD are mindful of the day-to-day experiences of students and staff, as explained to us in their own words through extensive community engagement. We believe that DeafSpace guidelines benefit all users by fostering equity and prioritizing connection and communication.

Design for Belonging

Montopolis is a historically Hispanic neighborhood, and its residents are proud of their shared bilingual culture. Through an earnest community engagement process, we discovered that participants valued the incorporation of their cultural identity in a manner that reflects the vibrancy of childhood. We drew inspiration from the traditional Spanish language song “De Colores” to add color, texture, and biophilic design elements, connecting the school with the surrounding neighborhood in a way that is both meaningful and educational.

The school is organized to support intuitive wayfinding for both students and parents. Color blocking on the exterior of the building helps visitors identify where they need to go before they even enter the building; bright colors adorn the volumes containing the entrance, cafeteria and gym, and library. Community spaces are positioned at the front of the school, where large letters mark the front doors. A serpentine light fixture – a nod to the school’s dragon mascot – leads visitors from the entrance to the cafeteria and gym. Bilingual signage and graphics throughout the school increase comfort for native Spanish speakers and normalize learning in both languages.

The classroom wings, each defined by a biophilic theme and color scheme, are organized into “Learning Neighborhoods,” which extend the educational space into additional shared areas for flexible learning. By moving between the classroom, open collaboration space, and small group rooms, students can choose how and where they want to learn. This spatial structure breaks down the school into smaller blocks, fostering a sense of belonging and encouraging age-appropriate independence and responsibility within each secure neighborhood.

Austin is undergoing a great deal of change and redevelopment, and it was important that new construction at Allison did not mean the erasure of its legacy. A dedicated “Memory Wall” near the entrance will showcase artifacts from the school’s past in display cases that visually reference the aluminum windows of the old school. An existing mural from a well-known neighborhood artist will also be relocated from the existing building. The commemoration of cultural memory allows these pieces of the past to continue to educating children in the present and future.

Incorporating unique cultural elements that hold significance within the Montopolis community fosters belonging for the students, teachers, and parents of Allison Elementary. Every public project presents the opportunity to engage with and learn from community members, allowing us to design buildings that speak directly to the values of their users.

What We’ve Learned

The design strategies that originally emerged from our work with specific user groups have now become cornerstones of our design practice. Meeting the needs of these often-overlooked groups improves the experience of all occupants. McKinney York Architects firmly believes in the importance of designing for all. As architects, we lift spirits and transform lives through an architecture where everyone feels that they belong.

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