JSA/MIXdesign

JSA/MIXdesign is an inclusive design studio dedicated to considering the needs of a broad segment of the population that the discipline of architecture has traditionally overlooked: people of different ages, genders, races and abilities that fall out of the cultural mainstream. We collaborate with institutional clients to develop design recommendations, prototypes and guidelines geared to making public spaces and everyday building types including restrooms, university campuses, and art museums foster a sense of safety, accessibility and belonging for all. Our office is composed of two overlapping branches: JSA, established in 1989, a full-service architecture studio with a portfolio of award-winning institutional and residential projects, and MIXdesign, an Inclusive Design think tank and consultancy. Unlike most accessibility standards in the USA that tend to focus on people with physical disabilities alone, we consider the intersecting needs of a broader spectrum of the population based on the conviction that human experience, including that of the LGBTQ+ community, is constituted by a variety of intersecting factors. For this reason, we consider the relationship between disability (people with physical, sensory, intellectual, and developmental disabilities), neurodiversity, gender (women, trans, non-binary folk) and culture (spatial requirements associated with race and religion.) We offer an alternative to the “separate but equal” approach characteristic of most accessibility standards which tend to provide separate accommodations, like accessible entrances and ramps, that isolate and as a consequence stigmatize people who are different than the norm. Instead, our objective is to create spaces that allow the maximum number of people—individuals, friends, families, and caregivers—to share the public spaces that shape our daily lives while also providing options for people who have unique functional, religious, or privacy needs. Hence, our name MIXdesign.