Archinect - News

NOMA leadership echos the need to 'fight all systems of bias, oppression, and prejudice' following the guilty verdict in the Chauvin trial

2021-04-26T17:37:00-04:00

On Wednesday, April 20th, the guilty verdict in the trial of Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd brought a ripple effect of response and emotion across the nation. While this verdict is a step, it is not a "static pivot," explained by NOMA's current President Jason Pugh and former NOMA President Kimberly Dowdell. As the Black Lives Matter movement continues to spark awareness and action, architecture schools, firms, and organizations across the nation responded with support to stand with the Black community and to demand racial justice within the industry.

After hearing the trial results, it led me to reflect on the statements and plans from the architecture community shared in 2020. Since last year, what tangible results have occurred since architects, firms, and institutions addressed the need to dismantle systemic racism and white supremacy? While steps towards anti-racism are a daily affair, how deep can these statements and reform plans go before we see a change?

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The tuition to income ratio is very concerning for all, and terrifying for the Black community

2020-10-09T13:46:00-04:00

Cruz Garcia and Nathalie Frankowski of WAI Think Tank have released some very troubling new data as part of their ongoing work studying structural racism in architecture. Part of their research has tracked the cost of tuition, along with other related typical expenses with student living, with the median household income in a number of cities across the US.

In Manhattan, for example, the annual tuition at Columbia GSAPP, in the M.Arch program, costs over $61k, with additional related expenses adding up to nearly $100k. Meanwhile, the median white household income is around $86k and the median Black household income is only $28k.

Archinect Sessions #158: A Conversation with Nathalie Frankowski and Cruz Garcia of WAI Architecture Think Tank

The "Anti-Liberation Paywall", part of their larger Manual of Anti-Racist Architectural Pedagogy, describes this problem in detail, and discusses the role of academic institutions as instruments of settler-colonial legacies, displacing infrastruct...

South African CEO partners with NOMA and AIAS to offer architecture students a masterclass in community-led design

2020-09-24T11:50:00-04:00

You might remember Wandile Mthiyane from Archinect's recent profile on him, Undoing Apartheid Architecture. In that profile, Wandile talked about a pioneering new program his organization, Ubuntu Design Group, has developed. Called the Ubuntu Architecture Summer Abroad Program (UASA), the new initiative will teach college students a community-centered approach to architecture through a design-build studio course that will be led by Wandile.

Students will experience a unique educational experience to design & build dignified and culturally-influenced homes for resilient families in South Africa. “Students will be designing and building a home for a family that has been affected by apartheid architecture,” Wandile explained. “They will come to South Africa and learn first-hand the role of architecture in systemic racism, it’s history, and what its impacts are today. And they will get to be a part of the solution we are pursuing.”

According to Wandile, partnerships have already been se...