Quardean Lewis-Allen: Spatial Justice: Using Design and Tech for Tactical Urbanism

Talk Topic

Title: Spatial Justice: Using Design and Tech for Tactical Urbanism

Bearing in mind the ever changing faces of communities, the challenge becomes how occupiers of space can ground their narrative in and advocate for the places they are connected to. Lewis-Allen will explore what this looks like for his community design center practice, both spatially and as a dialogue with stakeholders, to design for an inclusive future.  

Bio

Quardean Lewis-Allen is the Founder and CEO of the nonprofit youth creative agency and innovation hub, Made in Brownsville, which provides a gateway for young people in his native Brownsville community to access mentorship to tackle underrepresentation in STEAM professions, cyclical poverty,  and to address the need for place-based community revitalization. He has over a decade of interdisciplinary design experience working across public and private sectors at the intersection of tactical urbanism and social advocacy through community-led design.

Lewis-Allen is a Something-In-Residence at NYU ITP and serves on the Board of Brownsville Community Development Corporation. He is an Emerging Leaders Fund recipient of Claneil Foundation, Crain’s Under 40, Forbes Under 30, America’s Promise Alliance’s People of Promise Awardee, Echoing Green Black Male Achievement Fellow, and Amex Ngen Leadership Award Finalist. He holds a Bachelor of Science from SUNY Buffalo and a Masters in Architecture from Harvard Graduate School of Design.