Joel Sanders: Non-Conforming Bodies: Social Equity and Public Space

Joel Sanders, Principal, Joel Sanders Architect; Professor, Yale School of Architecture

Joel Sanders is the Principal of his award-winning New York based studio JSA and a Professor of Architecture at Yale University. Editor of STUD: Architecture’s of Masculinity and Groundwork: Between Landscape and Architecture, Sanders’s writings and practice have explored the complex relationship between culture and social space, looking at the impact that evolving cultural forces (such as gender identity and the body, technology and new media, and the nature/culture dualism) have on the designed environment. Most recently, Sanders is collaborating with transgender historian and theorist Susan Stryker on a design/research initiative to come up with an economical and viable prototype for safe practical gender-neutral bathrooms that will foster diversity. Their co-authored essay “Stalled: Gender-Neutral Bathrooms,” is published in the South Atlantic Quarterly 115:4, Duke University.

JSA projects have been featured in international exhibitions and permanent collections of MoMA, SF MoMA, Art Institute of Chicago and the Carnegie Museum of Art. The firm has received numerous awards, including New York Chapter AIA, New York State AIA, ALA / IIDA Library Interior Design, Interior Design Best of Year, and Design Citations from Progressive Architecture.