Archinect - News

ACSA issues joint statement on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion censorship in education

2023-09-21T17:39:00-04:00

The Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) has joined its sibling organizations in landscape architecture and planning in opposing the concerted efforts of far-right lawmakers to prevent the inclusion of race and racism topics into curricula in states including Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, South Dakota, and Virginia.

"This united declaration stands as a strong objection to the legislation that silences educators from sharing the histories of the architectural profession. Practitioners, educators, and students must be granted access to the complete narrative. Being privy to only a portion of the story significantly disadvantages us all," Mo Zell, the 2023-24 ACSA President, said in a statement.

"The boards of directors of the three organizations representing university programs and educators in architecture, landscape architecture, and planning — ACSA, CELA, and ACSP, — jointly communicate our opposition to any legislation that prevents educators from teaching and shari...

RIBA's new diversity chair says it's not adequately funding a 'priority' EDI initiative

2022-07-12T16:19:00-04:00

The ability of perhaps one of the world’s most influential architectural organizations, the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), to address issues of diversity and inclusion within the industry has once again come under scrutiny after news that one of its supposedly priority projects has yet to receive additional funding to proceed.

The Architects’ Journal is reporting that RIBA’s Finding and Accessing Architecture group chair, Femi Oresanya, expressed his concerns over an overall lack of funding for a project that a RIBA executive had apparently told him was of top priority during a Council meeting held on June 28th.

According to the Journal, the project was supposed to entail a matching program that provided students with work experience opportunities as overseen by the group and Oresanya. President Simon Allford and chair Jack Pringle reiterated the known financial straits of the organization before the former proposed providing additional funding for the project via a s...