Childhood can be hard even in the best of times. Children are inherently at a power disadvantage, still learning how to manage their emotions, and at the will of adults for food, shelter, and emotional regulation. Frustration, failure, and conflict are unavoidable, but not necessarily bad for children in the long run.

But children today face some uniquely difficult conditions, from school shootings (or the threat of them), to the looming threat of climate change, to the pandemic uprooting their sense of structure, control, and predictability. The accumulation of these overwhelming events, occurring on a regular basis—not to mention the additional very real challenges that many children face at home—could contribute to what some call “small T-trauma” (a term I admittedly don’t love). This can in some cases alter the structure of a child’s brain to be hyper-alert to attempt to control their environment or avoid future pain.

What Do We Mean by Trauma, and How Does it Impact the Brain?

Trauma is often misunderstood as impacting just a small subset of the population, but it actually may be much more common than people realize. Approximately 64 percent of adults in the United States report having experienced at least one adverse childhood experience (ACE) before age 18, and one in six individuals report having four or more ACEs.

It is also not necessarily the event itself that is traumatic, but the way that event is experienced by the mind and body. Physician Gabor Maté often says, “Trauma is not what happens to you, but what happens inside you as a result of what happened to you.” The traumatic stress response is characterized by physiological dysregulation, which can cause a cascade of symptoms that include hypervigilance, increased heart rate, shallow and rapid breathing, warping of time, and severely reduced ability to control fear, emotionality, and perception.

While current definitions of trauma symptoms fall primarily under the heading of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), there is a growing recognition of a related condition, complex PTSD (C-PTSD). Unlike PTSD, which is typically the product of a singular extremely traumatizing event (e.g., a war or a violent attack), C-PTSD is the product of chronic conditions (e.g. ongoing abuse, domestic violence, or neglect), and is often linked to early childhood trauma. Adverse childhood events can underlie these conditions in some cases.

It’s important to remember that just because someone experiences an adverse event, it doesn’t necessarily mean they will develop a diagnosable trauma-related disorder; however, it does make it more likely.

Designing Places That Are Trauma-Informed

Humans spend approximately 90 percent of our time indoors—meaning that the built spaces we inhabit have an outsized impact on our lives. The places where we spend our days can offer wonderful ways to soothe us and help people cope with triggers—or they can exacerbate existing struggles and make it even harder for people to feel OK.

Trauma-informed design is a design process intended to help people regulate their bodies and minds to support the processes and practices that take place within the building. It can be applied to therapeutic spaces but also schools, workplaces, homes, and beyond.

Trauma-sensitive design is a step towards normalizing self-regulation as a part of coping with stressful environments. Trauma-informed design can benefit most people, not just those who have been traumatized, since its principles are rooted in evolutionary psychology and the biology of human well-being. Although it will likely be years or decades before we fully understand how the pandemic, climate change, and ongoing school shootings have affected today’s children, there are many who believe the need for trauma-informed design will only increase in the coming years.

Here, I’ll focus on schools and other places of learning for children, from early childhood to high school. I’ll outline six core themes to consider when designing spaces with a trauma-informed approach, based on the trauma-informed principles defined by The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), as well as specific evidence-based design strategies and examples to help any parent, teacher, school administrator, designer, loved one, or community member advocate for schools that support the mental well-being of children. It’s my hope that this article helps explain what trauma-informed design means, why it matters, and how it can be used in schools.

Faux green wall creates biophilic element. Clear wall creates transparency and openness with auditory control. Drop lights support coziness and comfort, with natural light streaming in on the wooden beams of the ceiling.

Source: HKS INC.

1. Safety

Creating a feeling of safety and comfort is essential for children to learn or, for that matter, for any of us to focus on anything besides our immediate survival. This is especially true for individuals who have experienced trauma and who have difficulty feeling safe or regulating their nervous system. The environment can help support this through numerous means, including the following strategies.

• Sensitive and predictable: Attention to sensory needs and sensitivities (e.g., loud noises, lighting glare) and transitions. This includes adequate lighting on paths of travel, parking lots, bathrooms, etc.
• Calm corner: Provide an area of reduced stimulation where students can go to regulate themselves. Features like a soft area rug, a pillow, and soft lighting can help offer a feeling of safety.

• Biophilia and nature: Opportunities to connect with and view nature and natural elements naturally calm and ground us.

2. Trustworthiness and Transparency

Trust and transparency are important to support the building and maintenance of healthy relationships and experiences at school. The environment can help support this through numerous means, including the following strategies:

• Welcoming: This could include an entryway that offers a degree of transparency or visibility to feel like you know what you are going into and that you’re welcome there.
• Wayfinding: The school design supports the ease of finding one’s destination, including signage, color, and symbols that are age-friendly to help you navigate.
• Storage: Ample storage to allow for supplies to be put away in an orderly way helps to reduce visual clutter, which can be overwhelming for someone who is in a chronic state of hypervigilance.

3. Peer Support

Peer support is about opportunities for people going through similar experiences to support each other. Part of any good design is its ability to facilitate the best coping mechanisms humans have: connection with one another. The environment can help support this through numerous means, including the following strategies.

• Adaptable furnishings: Space provides flexible layouts that allow for multiple small or large group arrangements, and customization of the space.
• Shared space: Creating shared outdoor and indoor spaces that are designed for mixing and collaborating on external learning and play activities (e.g., art, sports, reading), can be a great way to overcome barriers and connect.
• Equitable provisions: Avoid creating a hierarchy between parts of the school, which can make certain students—for example, those with limited mobility or who use assisted meal programs—feel othered or excluded.

4. Collaboration and Mutuality

Integrating students, teachers, parents, and administrators is important to help people feel a sense of mutual respect. The environment can help support this through numerous means, including the following strategies:

• Better together: Times when the teachers or administrators can come out from behind a desk, office wall, or podium, and instead join the students in reading circles, playful activities, and vulnerable moments, to support an understanding that we’re all in this together.
• Accessibility: Does the space support ease of mobility for all occupants including those with mobility impairments and other disabling conditions (e.g., compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act and beyond)?
• Human scale: Creating thresholds, niches, and spaces that help children big and small to feel safe and comfortable in their space.

Small reading nooks provide a great example of human scale for children at the Smithfield Elementary School.

Source: HKS INC.

5. Empowerment, Voice, Choice

This is about how an individual’s strengths and experiences are recognized and built upon. Creating small opportunities to control one’s environment and demonstrate mastery is helpful. The environment can help support this through numerous means, including the following strategies:

• Flexibility: The ability to customize the lighting, where one sits, or how loud a space is allows us to feel a measure of control that helps all of us regulate and feel calm.
• Play and movement: Does your school have outdoor and indoor spaces for movement, play, and exploration (e.g., gym, climbing, swings) to allow students to move throughout their days?
• Choice and options: Do you feel like engaging with others, or not? Do you need to get out of your own head, or do you need to have a space that’s your own? This is why environmental choice is so important.

6. Cultural, Gender, and Historical Context

Policies, protocols, and processes should be responsive to the racial, ethnic, and cultural needs of individuals served by the organization. Look for ways to represent student artwork, for example, or create cultural recognition of different student backgrounds in murals around the school. The environment can help support this through numerous means, including the following strategies.

• Identity anchors: People should see themselves literally or metaphorically in a space; this helps to combat isolation and enhance a sense of belonging.
• Inclusion: Does the space have representation or cultural artifacts from the nondominant culture to signal safety and belonging to members of those cultures in the space?
• Gender affirming: Is the space sensitive to all genders, including people who do not identify with a specific gender? Nongendered bathrooms are one of the most effective ways to do this, but it’s also important to consider other ways to reduce stigma and increase safety for those who are trans, nonbinary, or genderfluid.

As we move forward in applying trauma-informed design approaches to schools, we can help by learning more, leaning in, and being open to seeing the world differently. Most people do not want to see themselves as victims; rather, trauma-informed design is about seeing us all as humans in need of mutual understanding, belonging, and safety.

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An at-home cervical screening product, mushroom-leather shoes, and a bench designed to encourage socialising also won awards.

New Designers has announced the winners of its 2023 awards programme, with a graphic art self-help book designed to appeal to the five senses taking one of the top accolades.

The design fair runs for two weeks showcasing 3000 design and innovation projects completed by recent graduates from the UK. Designers working in textiles, fashion and costume, ceramics, contemporary design, craft and jewellery present in week one. Week two features work from designers working in furniture, product design, industrial & spatial design, graphic design, illustration and animation, and motion and digital arts disciplines.

Prizes differ depending on the award, with some winners taking home a cash prize and others winning paid internships or mentoring.

New Designers of the Year Award

Northampton University Graphic Communication Design graduate Tabitha Dudley. Credit: Mark Cocksedge

The New Designers of the Year Award is the highest accolade in the programme, indicated by a £1250 cash prize. Northampton University Graphic Communication Design graduate Tabitha Dudley took home the award for her design of a 220-page graphic art self-help book, which looks to move away from traditional wellness tropes.

Each of the chapters is dedicated to one of the five senses and contains interactive text as well as QR codes that lead to webpages and animations also designed by Dudley. It aims to help readers articulate themselves during tough times.

The second New Designers of the Year Award went to Falmouth University’s Beth Somerville, who designed two textile collections that experimented with modern techniques. One was a process-led fabric collection inspired by mountains while the other utilised digital embroidery.

Loughborough University Industrial Design and Technology graduate Ellen Callaghan. Credit: Sam Frost

Runners-up for the award were Loughborough University Industrial Design and Technology graduate Ellen Callaghan, who created an at-home cervical screening tool in a bid to encourage more women get regular screenings, and Hereford College of Arts’ Joe Shevelan with his collection of hand-forged rocks, which are also wearable jewellery. Each runner-up won a £700 cash prize for their projects.

Callaghan’s project also won the Anglepoise Abandon Darkness Award, which includes a £500 cash prize, mentorship and an Anglepoise lamp.

The Habitat Future Design Award

Sheffield Hallam University’s Harvey McKellar’s winning project. Credit: Sam Frost

Sheffield Hallam University’s Harvey McKellar created a park bench that aims to be more than a functional or decorative furniture piece by having a positive impact on mental health. It is a subject he is especially passionate about, as he experienced a suicide in his family in his teens.

The design employs 25-degree-angles which mean users can see each other in their peripheral vision. It is intended to encourage conversation and combat feelings of loneliness.

An interiors collection designed for an Agatha Christie-inspired café by Nottingham Trent University’s Millie Farley also won a Habitat Future Design Award. Both winners will benefit from a six-month paid placement at the Habitat studio.

Creative Conscience & New Designers Ethical Makers’ Award

Bath School of Design Furniture and Product graduate Rosie Lee Hood. Credit: Mark Cocksedge

Seeking to spotlight the versatility and natural beauty of wool, Bath School of Design Furniture and Product graduate Rosie Lee Hood designed and made three lamps with woollen shades. Her motivation was to combat the fact that wool has become less desirable and valuable over the last 50 years, costing less per kilo that it costs to farm it.

Judges described them as “beautifully made products”, adding that they “love its local focus” and recognise the project’s potential to “expand and create a sustainable and profitable business”.

Manchester School of Art’s Martha Wiles. Credit: Mark Cocksedge

Manchester School of Art’s Martha Wiles also took home the award for her project Regenerative Appetite. It comprises a collection of ceramic trophies and medals, each dedicated to a different food waste organisation in Manchester for which she has volunteered, aiming to raise awareness of food waste issues.

Hood and Wiles will have access to Creative Conscience’s Creative Impact Programme worth £1000, eight weeks of online training from design industry experts and live mentorship support with a social or environmental impact project for three months.

The Affinity Digital Design Award

Nottingham Trent University graduate Anna Elias’ winning project. Credit: Mark Cocksedge

A project called Mellea by Nottingham Trent University graduate Anna Elias won the Affinity Digital Design Award. Elias created a range of sustainable walking shoes made from sustainable mushroom leather, as well as the bespoke branding for it.

The project’s name comes from the Latin name for honey fungus, Armillaria, , referencing the mushroom material. Judges said it was a “cohesive and comprehensive body of work with a clear visual voice and very professional standard already”.

The prize includes a MacBook Air, Affinity software and £1000 in cash.

DCA Futures Award

Northumbria University graduate Gruff Jones’ project. Credit: Mark Cocksedge

Northumbria University’s Gruff Jones designed and made a set of three products – a thermostat, smart assistant and light controller – that aim to disrupt the smart tech category. With understated design at the heart of the concept, Jones made the products out of terracotta and incorporated features that look to encourage more emotive interaction.

For example, to warm your home you would cup your hands around the thermostat. Judges noted his “clever use of materials and unique interaction”.

Jones took home a £1000 cash prize.

Other winners

Bournemouth University graduate Jake Leach-Perry’s project. Credit: Mark Cocksedge

A water bottle designed to melt, store and filter snow to help counter dehydration during outdoor alpine activity won the Joseph Joseph Brilliantly Useful Design Award. It was designed by Bournemouth University’s Jake Leach-Perry, who will get a three-month paid internship at Joseph and a £500 voucher for the brand.

Loughborough University graduate Imogen Bags’ project. Credit: Mark Cocksedge

Loughborough University’s Imogen Bags won the Joseph Stannah Award for her ear-piercing aftercare device Helo, which aims to reduce the chance of infection. Bags took home a £1000 cash prize.

Seeking to make slow consumption more achievable and relieve shopping stress, Edinburgh Napier University’s Anna Hardie designed app Tabs. It used RFID (Radio-frequency Identification) tech to create a food tracking system that lets consumers make shopping lists and recipes based on food they already have in their home.

Nottingham Trent University’s stand. Credit: Sam Frost

Nottingham Trent University won the Best Stand Award for its “innovative idea behind the layout of the stand, really fun ideas and great work”, according to judges.

See details of the rest of the winning projects on the New Designers website.

Banner and featured image credit: Sam Frost.

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Maria Signorino credits the Life Design program at Bowling Green State University for her success and path to early graduation. (BGSU photo)

A Bowling Green State University student is crediting Life Design for setting her on a path of personal discovery while also presenting an opportunity to graduate early and with less debt.

As a freshman at BGSU, Maria Signorino eagerly looked forward to her weekly class on Life Design at BGSU.

“I remember always feeling so energized after that class,” Signorino said. “I was always raising my hand, asking questions and participating in the discussions. It felt like my place.”

Signorino was among the first cohort of students introduced to Life Design at BGSU in fall 2020. The program provides students with extra support in addition to traditional advising and academic resources. BGSU is the only university in the nation offering Life Design on such a broad scale.

“I honestly don’t think I would have had the opportunities or experiences I’ve created for myself without Life Design and my coach,” she said. “It pushed me and challenged me. I love that I was given this experience in college that not only focuses on academics but prioritizes living a meaningful life.”

Life Design benefits

In the first-year seminar for Life Design, students create a blueprint of their ideal college experience and learn fundamental design thinking skills to help them navigate any obstacles they encounter.

They’re taught to reframe situations by looking at problems from different angles to discover a new solution or alternative path. Students learn to collaborate, take action and develop skills to adapt and move forward.

Students are also paired with Life Design coaches, who serve as guideposts, pointing them toward helpful resources as they explore, prototype and plan their future.

Now a junior, Signorino said the benefits Life Design provided her during the early weeks of her transition to college were crucial.

“That period of time in your life is such a transformational stage,” she said. “It’s such a big jump from high school to college, and with Life Design, you can really define the truest version of yourself and discover who you are.”

Finding and teaching inner peace

As a part of that self-discovery, Signorino said she developed an interest in meditation and reiki, a hands-on healing technique. After experiencing its many calming and stress-reducing benefits, she became passionate about sharing them with others.

Signorino talked to her Life Design coach, Gabe Dunbar, about leading meditation and reiki sessions for students, faculty and staff.

“I had all these thoughts and ideas bubbling up inside my head and Gabe was able to help me organize those thoughts and turn them into action,” she said. “He connected me with all the right people and encouraged me to get out of my comfort zone.”

In February 2021, Signorino began offering guided meditation and reiki at the Student Recreation Center. She now facilitates sessions twice weekly and offers other mindfulness workshops as requested.

“To be able to help people find calmness and inner peace is equally as fulfilling to me as I feel like it is to them,” Signorino said. “I always feel rejuvenated after leaving those sessions.”

Dunbar said Signorino’s early adoption of Life Design concepts provided a solid foundation that she continued to build upon.

“Maria took action on the concepts learned in class and prototyped them outside of class, which is exactly what we hope students will do,” he said. “She created her own on-campus employment experience focused on meditation and wellness and has also diligently invested in her passion for her major and future career in environmental science.”

Hiking the Appalachian Trail

Signorino, an environmental policy and analysis major, is on track to graduate in fall 2023, a semester early. Signorino said the knowledge and tools she’s gained through Life Design, which aims to help students graduate on time and with less debt, helped lead her to this point.

“I found exactly what I wanted through the life design process,” she said. “I got to live out my passion and create a path to my future career, but now I want to expand beyond this. I want to be out in the real world and test what I’ve learned.”

After graduation, Signorino is embarking on a six-month solo hiking trip along the Appalachian Trail. The trail travels through 14 states from Georgia to Maine and encompasses about 2,200 miles.

To her, the hike is a perfect metaphor for life design.

“Everyone hikes their own hike. Everyone has their own journey,” she said. “You can have people help and aid you along the way, but you’re the one in charge.

“Going through the challenge of hiking up the tallest mountain and feeling so exhausted at the end of the day, but getting up and doing it all again knowing you can is a compelling way to unlock parts of yourself. I’m excited for that process of self-growth, mindfulness and peace.”

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There’s a collective desire for real, transformative change permeating the local fashion industry, and with circular solutions — innovations and systems that design out or repurpose potential waste — considered the future of fashion and gaining traction, it’s an exciting time.

In recent years, we’ve seen local designers (many of whom benefit from the smaller scale and nimble operating common in the New Zealand market) repurposing textiles, incorporating recycling, and eliminating waste.

Sisters and co-founders of the Gattung Foundation Angela (left) and Theresa Gattung. Photo / Babiche Martens

The ambitious, hopeful initiative aims to inspire and support designers to reimagine how they approach and use textiles, and acknowledges exceptional work, underscored by both industry knowledge and mātauranga Māori and holistic and regenerative indigenous practices.

Notably, the awards are “place-based”, with entrants tasked with creating circular solutions to local and regional textile waste. The design brief (which you can find in full detail here) asks entrants to design and create a wearable garment using textile waste — categorised as pre or post-consumer waste, including unwearable clothing, sourced from within Aotearoa — alongside a plan for the garment’s life cycle, exploring and sourcing from their region.

Entry is open to individuals or collectives (all entrants must be over the age of 16, and New Zealand citizens or permanent residents) and the entry fee is $40, or $25 for students.

Up to 10 finalists will be selected and invited to attend the award presentation event, each receiving prize packages valued at $2500, including invaluable mentorship and exposure. Additionally, there are three major awards: creative excellence, innovation with commercial potential, and emerging talent, with winners receiving prizes valued at $7500. The prize pool totals an impressive $40,000 (contributed by the Gattung Foundation, and the awards’ other sponsors and partners).

The awards will be judged by respected industry figures: business leader and philanthropist Theresa Gattung, founder and CEO of Untouched World Peri Drysdale, Viva creative and fashion director Dan Ahwa, stylist and Viva contributor Chloe Hill, textile artist Maungarongo Ron Te Kawa and Emily Miller Sharma, co-founder of Mindful Fashion and general manager of Ruby and Liam.

Maungarongo Ron Te Kawa. Photo / Hohua Ropate Kurene

Mindful Fashion hopes the award programme will resource a cohort of design talent, while also inspiring wider change, shifting attitudes and, most importantly, sharing knowledge.

“The aim of our Circular Design Award is to inspire Kiwi creatives to reimagine how clothing is designed, made and circulated to keep these valuable resources in use,” says Jacinta FitzGerald, chief executive of Mindful Fashion. “Each year, millions of tonnes of clothing is produced, worn and thrown away, with more than 85 per cent not finding its way into recycling or circular systems.”

New Zealanders create our fair share of waste — 220,000 tonnes of textile waste every year in fact — but it doesn’t have to be like this. Textiles can be repurposed, recycled, and a circular economy offers a sustainable, waste-minimising alternative to sourcing virgin materials and the (well-documented) environmental and social issues that this system can cause.

“We are excited to be providing a platform for innovation away from current wasteful systems,” says FitzGerald, and the organisation hopes to create a thriving future for our local industry.

Viva is proud to be the media partner for the Mindful Fashion Circular Design Award, and we look forward to sharing more news about the initiative with our readers in the coming months.

Applications close July 14, with finalists selected November 24 and the awards presentation scheduled to take place in December.

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