Landscape Processes Discussion Series: Alexa Vaughn-Brainard

Alexa Vaughn-Brainard of OLIN will discuss her work as part of the Landscape Processes online discussion series. Vaughn-Brainard is a Deaf landscape designer in OLIN’s Los Angeles office and a 2020-2021 LAF Olmsted Fellow. She attended UC Berkeley for both her BA in Landscape Architecture (2016) and her Master of Landscape Architecture (2018). Her research began with a focus on designing for the Deaf community, and she is now researching ways to include the broader disabled community as stakeholders and experts in the design process, with a living toolkit of resources to be released this year. She has served as advisor to the ASLA Universal Design Guide and is actively involved in OLIN’s People Lab (one of five branches of OLIN Labs), which focuses on social practice.

Her original work, “DeafScape: Applying DeafSpace to Landscape,” published in Ground Up Journal, has been widely featured. She views Universal Design and Human-Centered Design as creative tools, which can be used to design more accessible and inclusive public spaces beyond the bare minimums of the ADA Standards.