Recent editions

Green Thinking Review

Edition 85

Design for Everyone

Can We Really Design for Everyone?

A practical examination of inclusive and universal design—asking how buildings can accommodate more human difference with dignity, adaptability and care across time.

8 pages PDF · 1.0 MB High-resolution PDF · 21 MB
Cover of GTR 85: Design for EveryoneEdition cover · web-ready PDF available

Why this edition matters

A question with consequences.

Every design begins with assumptions about people, yet the average user does not really exist. Age, mobility, perception, culture, income and family circumstances vary—and change over time. Designing for more people means reducing avoidable exclusion while ensuring that access, affordability, maintainability, participation and belonging survive beyond handover.

Inside GTR 85

A complete conversation, in one focused edition.

01

Seven dimensions of designing for more people

02

Five questions before we call a place inclusive

03

Conradie Park: designed for diverse lives

04

2040: buildings that change with us

Cover story

Beyond the Average User

Look beyond the imagined average user.

Case study Conradie Park, Cape Town, South Africa

Ideas become useful when they meet a real place, a real challenge and the people shaping what comes next.

GTR reflection · Shareable thought

“Inclusion is not one design feature. It is the quality of the relationship between people and place—and that relationship must remain meaningful across time.”
— Green Thinking Review, Edition 85

How to cite

Reference this edition.

Green Thinking Review. “Design for Everyone: Can We Really Design for Everyone?.” GTR 85, 25 September 2026. https://www.greenthinking.sheltagroup.com/issues/design-for-everyone

Permanent edition link

Original edition published by Green Thinking Review. Page summary and reading links are provided for discovery and accessibility.