At the School of Design , interior design faculty Elif and Alp Tural teach students how empathy, accessibility, and well-being can shape the spaces designers create.
After earning their degrees at Arizona State University, the Turals moved to Blacksburg, where they now help prepare the next generation of interior designers in the College of Architecture, Arts, and Design . Their approach asks students to think carefully about how spaces affect the people who use them every day.
"Many of our students enter the design program with the idea that they want to design for people," Elif Tural said. "Our job is to help them understand that they are designing with people. We are not the experts on others' experiences. We have to listen, respond, and work collaboratively."
She currently serves on the evaluation team for the Mount Rogers Community Services Smyth Campus Expansion, a behavioral health facility. Her work on the project is grounded in trauma-informed design, with particular attention to how interiors can support the emotional well-being of clients.
"We are approaching it from a trauma-informed design perspective," Elif Tural said. "From the interior side, we are considering how design, including spatial layout, lighting, providing natural views, can support clients' well-being when they come to the facility, knowing that many of them arrive carrying significant trauma.”
Alp Tural 's research addresses another critical dimension of human-centered design: visual accessibility. He studies how visual perception shapes the way people experience interior environments, focusing on details that are often overlooked, such as carpet patterns and levels of light and color contrast. Those choices can significantly influence whether a space feels legible and comfortable.
"The project I am currently working on focuses on visual accessibility and how to make spaces easier to perceive for a broader population," Alp Tural said. “Most of the time, we do not fully consider the wide range of visual perception when designing environments."
The Turals recently published a research article connected to that work in Architectural Science Review, titled " Low-light analyses in senior residential environments: a mesopic- and HDR-based workflow to improve safe navigation at night in ."
Although visual decline is often associated with aging, Alp Tural's work takes a broader view, recognizing that visual challenges affect people of all ages.
"We all experience some form of visual limitation, whether that involves reduced acuity or the use of corrective lenses," he said. "Being able to navigate an environment easily and perceive potential obstacles, whether on stairs or along circulation paths, is essential."
Those values also shape the way he teaches. As co-instructor of the Senior Interior Design Studio, he guides students in bringing together everything they have learned, from building codes to spatial planning, while designing with close attention to users’ needs.
"The fourth-year studio is the culmination of everything students have learned so far," Alp Tural said. "It brings together building codes, spatial design, and the ability to respond empathetically to the functional, aesthetic, and psychological needs of users."
Written by Emily Southern, a senior majoring in multimedia journalism and student writer for Virginia Tech Marketing and Communications
Original study : doi.org/10.1080/00038628.2026.2641514
Low-light analyses in senior residential environments: a mesopic- and HDR-based workflow to improve safe navigation at night
11-Mar-2026