Affective Architecture.

In 2017, Kwan began exploring how built structures influence affective states and subsequent behavioral responses and social interactions for ways to apply this science to the design of justice buildings (i.e., those that house justice system agencies and processes) and other buildings of societal and symbolic importance.

In 2017, as a research consultant for MOCA-PM, Inc. and as part of his Guardian Initiative, Kwan began working to develop an architectural design framework that would builders in creating government buildings that legitimated the state while welcoming and empowering public users.

Empirical investigations examining how the architectural design of justice buildings impacts the public is scant and heavily skewed toward the design of penal institutions. Applying theories of hostile and welcoming building design, this study uses a survey experiment to investigate the impact that welcoming and hostile police station designs have on public affect and behaviorally relevant perceptions. Findings reveal main and interactive effects of architectural design on positive affect. Specifically, building design becomes a significant predictor of perceptions depending on an individual's self-identified racial or ethnic group, where Black and Latino respondents report greater positive emotional responses when presented with hostile as compared to welcoming building designs. However, there was no impact of building design on negative affect or behaviorally relevant perceptions to report crime. The results of this study have potential implications for impacting public perceptions about policing and improving service delivery experiences.

In 2018, Victor St. John, with the support of Kwan and others, developed a correctional design framework aimed at creating spaces that impacted detainees less negatively and were more conducive to rehabilitative and restorative justice processes.

The successful reentry of a person who has spent time incarcerated is dependent on the environments they are housed in and find themselves when released back into the community. This is particularly crucial for the African American community, which is disproportionately represented in the carceral population and, subsequently, among those formerly incarcerated. Using a placial and spatial justice lens, we review how the physical structure of correctional facilities and the spatial distribution of social service resources within African American communities contribute to mass incarceration and provide recommendations to reduce the harms associated with incarceration.

Facilities are important aspects of rehabilitative treatment. To fully understand the impact of a facility on the effectiveness of treatment, the direct perspectives of service providers are critical. We examine four autoethnographic accounts from correctional service providers to determine the role of the facility in their provision of care and organize these into considerations of three central aspects of correctional architecture—space, layout, and setting (SLS)—which play an important role in the efficacy of rehabilitative services. We conclude by proposing how research may advance in this area, especially through the use of practitioner accounts.