FOCUS
Maddison works to integrate cultural competency, humility, and safety into the design of the built environment, contributing to the creation of healthier Black communities. Place-based policies and community development initiatives do not require culturally competent urban planners, architects, and designers to inform the design process. Predominantly Black neighborhoods are designed in a way that reduces physical activity, promotes poor nutrition, and exacerbates racial health disparities. Maddison seeks to understand how the deficits in the built environment of Black communities are attributed to structural racism in design professions. Her research examines how the race and social psychological factors of architects influence the design of the built environment at multiple scales and across multiple sectors in Black communities. With culturally competent architects and designers, Black communities can design a built environment that strengthens their Culture of Health.
MORE ABOUT MADDISON
As a New Orleans native and a Black woman within architecture, Maddison’s life experiences reflect how design and health intersect, reinforcing inequity in Black communities. Her perspective looks beyond buildings at what makes architects agents of health (in)equity, complicit in maintaining structural racism in the built environment.
