Homeplace Studio is a creative social practice focused on exploration and design. It is the place where design, connection, and curiosity come together to create new worlds anchored in love, joy, and community.
The term Homeplace comes from ancestor bell hooks, who asserts the homeplace as a site to “return for renewal and self-recovery; where we can heal our wounds and become whole;” a place to affirm “our beings, our blackness, our love for one another;” and, a space with a “radical political dimension.” Homeplace encompasses the private and public worlds people navigate: it is the physical structure that provides shelter for us and our things and it is the outside environment where strangers become our beloved community.
ABOUT HOMEPLACE STUDIO.
Understanding how an individual experiences belonging and emotional connection to their community is essential in understanding how a place shifts from being just a place to being home. That shift in understanding enables us as designers to create more thoughtful processes and mindful decisions; it enables to shift from strangers to a beloved community; and it instills greater pride and joy for the places we move through.
Homeplace Studio is where you come to interrogate what home means through immersive experiences, conversation, and co-creation. We provide the physical space to feel at home when away from home; design the emotional environment to reflect and feel connected, affirmed, and renewed; and, host the gatherings where you create with your neighbors and take with you this sense of home out into the community.
create with us
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make people feel workshop
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Jazz : community cohort 1 (2026)
Meet the founder
Alexis Harrison is an urban planner, facilitator, and community strategist with a deep commitment to equity, joy, and collective care.
With a Master's in City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a background in Environmental Design, she’s spent the last decade designing new models for community development, local food systems, and community health equity in New York City. While at MIT, Alexis studied participatory methods for engaging communities to meaningfully collaborate in planning and design processes to honor community as the true decision makers and designers of their community. Her experience includes leading partnerships and programs at organizations like IDEO.org and Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation, where she supported cross-sector collaborations rooted in community leadership. Whether facilitating a neighborhood visioning session or co-creating a health initiative, she brings warmth, structure, and intention to every space she holds.
In addition to her professional accomplishments, Alexis was named One to Watch by 500 Men Making a Difference and 40 Under 40 NYC Food Policy. She is an active member of the Central Brooklyn Food Coop (previously serving on the board as Treasurer and Fundraising Chair), a 2021 Environmental Leadership Program Fellow, and a 2022 Brooklyn Communities Collaborative Economic Democracy Fellow.
Enjoying the poetics of life on morning walks and long bike rides, Alexis is committed to continuously learning about the way things work and how we live in right relationship with ourselves, our community, and the natural world.