OU Architecture Associate Professor Wanda Liebermann recently announced the release of her new book, Architecture’s Disability Problem.
The book explores the intersection of architecture and disability in the United States from the perspective of professional practice. Liebermann investigates why, despite the huge impact of the Americans with Disabilities Act on the architectural profession, there has been so little interest in design for disability in mainstream architecture.
Using case studies, the book showcases alternative approaches to designing with disability. These examples highlight buildings and design processes driven by disabled people, shaping design outcomes and professional roles.
Combining historical research, formal and discourse analysis, and interviews with people who design, construct, and use buildings, as well as those who advocate for access, the book develops a social understanding of how buildings work at functional, affective, and symbolic levels in relation to disability.
The book argues for an architectural focus on disability—and the body—instead of the dominance of formal, object-oriented approaches. Its aim is a fundamental shift in the way architectural education, policy, and practice engages with disability.
Architecture’s Disability Problem is available for purchase on Routledge’s website.
Telesis, a journal produced by students in the University of Oklahoma Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture, has earned first place in the 2026 Douglas Haskell Award for Student Journals for its seventh volume, “Unfold.” This marks the fourth time the publication has earned recognition for excellence in student architectural journalism. It shares the honor with student journals from Columbia University, University of Michigan, and Cal Poly.
Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture congratulates Thinh "Henry" Duong, a master's student in the Division of Interior Design, for earning first place in the 2026 Robert Bruce Thompson Annual Student Light Fixture Design Competition.
Gibbs College of Architecture Institute for Quality Communities (IQC) Director and Division of Planning, Landscape Architecture, and Design (PLAD) faculty member Amber N. Wiley, Ph.D., recently published a new book, Collective Yearning: Black Women Artists from the Zimmerli Art Museum.
