Archinect - Features

Architecture Gets Psychosocial, Socioracial & Sociospatial: A Conversation with Todd Brown, UT Austin's 2021–2023 Race and Gender in the Built Environment Fellow

2021-10-22T14:28:00-04:00

Fellowship opportunities provide design professionals with a bridge to explore and expand their research in an academic environment. Educational institutions have increased their fellowship opportunities for students, graduates, and emerging design professionals. Within these past few years, there has been a distinct push for more social justice, race, and gender-focused fellowships and their relationship to the built environment. Fellow Fellows is a series that focuses on the role fellowships play in architecture academia by connecting with the fellows themselves. For this iteration of Archinect's Fellow Fellows series, we connected with Todd Brown as he embarks on his new role as the University of Texas Austin's 2021–2023 Race and Gender in the Built Environment Fellow.

Brown dives into his eclectic academic background that combines a series of disciplines that are often seen as separate approaches intertwining later in practice. After receiving his Master of Public Health and la...

Undoing Apartheid Architecture with Wandile Mthiyane

2020-07-23T09:52:00-04:00

Wandile Mthiyane’s story captures a special reality about architecture and its unique relationship to people. Growing up in Durban, South Africa, Wandile lived in a community designed as a part of the nation’s oppressive apartheid regime of the past. And while the unjust laws of that history have been abolished, the consequences of its effects remain. Wandile decided early on that he wanted to counteract the remnants of this “apartheid architecture” that loomed over his fellow South Africans, and so he embarked on a journey few would have the grit to see to the end.

Determined to study architecture in the United States, the young dreamer raised himself to a position to eventually gain the support of one of the most powerful men in Durban, a crucial step in his path to realize his vision of a better future for his people. Today Wandile is the CEO and Co-Founder of Ubuntu Design Group, a social enterprise design firm with a non-profit arm that is transforming the lives of families in ...

Archinect's Statement on Racial Injustice

2020-06-03T13:03:00-04:00

The Archinect team has written a statement in support of the powerful protests taking place around the United States (and the world) seeking justice for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and others.

Architects of Social Responsibility: Views of Humanitarian Architecture in Practice

2017-05-24T12:11:00-04:00

Last month, Airbnb announced they had hired former Architecture for Humanity co-founder Cameron Sinclair to lead their project to supply temporary housing to 100,000 people in need, shortly after launching a program to secure refuge for members of Chicago’s homeless community. Users of the online hospitality service can now register as ‘hosts for good’, and architects are stepping in to make that happen. IKEA’s recent drive to create flat-pack temporary homes for refugee camps through their Foundation in collaboration with UNHCR is another example of how companies are exploring philanthropic interests through the medium of architecture. This month’s feature engages with architects adopting a range of business models to pursue social responsibility and looks deeper into ways the profession is engaging with building for a common good.

To each their own home: A peek into the “HOME(less)” exhibition at USC

2016-01-19T09:30:00-05:00

For many of those who regularly navigate the streets of Los Angeles, seeing at least one homeless person is not only common, it’s expected. So normal is the sight of homelessness in the city that residents can easily become desensitized to it, making them less likely to question it, and at its worst, making the homeless population effectively invisible. Local designers and Colorblock partners Sofia Borges and Susan Nwankpa wanted to address this in their co-curated photo exhibition, “HOME(less)”, currently on display at the University of Southern California. The photos raise awareness of L.A.’s glaring homelessness crisis, while simultaneously highlighting the impactful relationship between people and their personal spaces in the urban environment.

Archinect - Features

Architecture Gets Psychosocial, Socioracial & Sociospatial: A Conversation with Todd Brown, UT Austin's 2021–2023 Race and Gender in the Built Environment Fellow​​

Undoing Apartheid Architecture with Wandile Mthiyane

Archinect's Statement on Racial Injustice

Architects of Social Responsibility: Views of Humanitarian Architecture in Practice

To each their own home: A peek into the “HOME(less)” exhibition at USC

Architecture Gets Psychosocial, Socioracial & Sociospatial: A Conversation with Todd Brown, UT Austin's 2021–2023 Race and Gender in the Built Environment Fellow