Archinect - News

Unpacking 2022's highs and lows of social justice, equity, and representation in professional practice and architectural academia

2022-12-25T08:00:00-05:00

As the architecture industry reviews another year filled with a range of ups and downs, it's an important time to reflect on what progress has been made when it comes to important topics such as social justice, activism, equity, and diversity initiatives within architecture. While we've already highlighted this year's controversies, it's important to ask: Has the architecture industry made advances toward social justice, diversity, and inclusion in 2022?

Effective change takes time. Continuing with our 2022 year in review, let's look back at the challenges, obstacles, and successes that the industry faced surrounding inclusive design, diverse leadership, social justice, and representation.

Architecture organizations aiming to make change

Image courtesy of the AIA.

AIA issues a supplementary guide addressing issues in architectural education

The Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) worked together with the American Institute of Architects (AIA) to establish a set ...

AIA issues a supplementary guide addressing issues in architectural education

2022-11-07T12:15:00-05:00

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) together along with the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) has published a new supplement to its Guides for Equitable Practice in order to reflect a renewed focus of university education and institutions.

The supplement, titled Equity in Architectural Education, is intended to provide teachers and administrators with scenarios, actions, and prompts that “inspire discussions about creating welcoming environments to attract and retain those currently underrepresented in academia and in the profession.”

It is also useful to the majority of practitioners whose firms employ student interns and recent graduates, prospective high school students, and others interested in entering the field as its output importantly “defines the concept of culture in architectural education” and subsequent impacts in the working world.

A public apology gone awry, new faculty appointments, and a postponed 50th-anniversary celebration are among the most recent updates to the SCI-Arc controversy

2022-04-07T20:22:00-04:00

Nearly a week and a half has passed since the March 25 Basecamp panel at SCI-Arc that sent shockwaves across the school's community and the architecture industry. Since my initial reporting on the incidents and controversies happening at the institution, discourse regarding academia and labor practices has sparked further conversations around the systemic issues highlighted at SCI-Arc.

With news rapidly spreading across the internet, a wave of responses and comments from the community has surfaced, indicating that this wasn't an issue found solely within this particular school but across the profession. As I stated previously, "Discussions surrounding work and studio culture within the architecture community are nothing new. It would be foolish to say that those working within the industry at both the professional practice and academic levels are unaware of the highly problematic issues of labor and equitable working conditions."

As our editorial team continued to follow the events ...

Controversy at SCI-Arc over labor practices leads to faculty members placed on leave. Isolated incident or a wake up call for the industry at large?

2022-04-01T15:30:00-04:00

On Friday, March 25th, a panel discussion became a lightning rod striking attention to the questionable ethics of architectural academia and professional practice. Depending on what news and social media platforms you follow, keeping track of the events that followed SCI-Arc's Basecamp lectures can appear like organized chaos.

Everyone has an opinion. Everyone has a "take" on the highly controversial and unsettling comments. But before I dive into what's already been documented and shared across the internet, it's vital to address the larger issues. Discussions surrounding work and studio culture within the architecture community are nothing new. It would be foolish to say that those working within the industry at both the professional practice and academic levels are unaware of the highly problematic issues of labor and equitable working conditions.

Ongoing efforts to reform toxic and exploitative work environments have been pushed to the forefront thanks to organizations like Th...

Remembering Prescott Reavis: A champion of Black excellence and mentorship within architecture

2022-02-10T17:57:00-05:00

Within the architecture industry, there are individuals who work tirelessly to not only design impactful buildings but who aim to represent the people, places, and community that their work serves. Prescott Reavis was more than just a Black architect. He was an advocate, a mentor, and a formidable force for equitable design practices. On February 8, 2022, Reavis sadly passed away.

The Oakland-based practitioner was a man of many talents and specialties. For over 20 years, his works as a spatial activist, architect, planner, and educator could be seen throughout his involvement with organizations across the nation, specifically in the Oakland/San Francisco area.

Image of Prescott Reavis as a student at Howard University. Image courtesy of Prescott Reavis' Facebook page.

Reavis was a graduate of Howard University where he received a Bachelor's degree in Architecture with a minor in Education. He also attended San Jose State University where he completed Master's Certificates in Appli...

The Architecture Lobby launches a virtual summer program tackling capitalism, labor, and practice within architecture

2021-04-27T13:23:00-04:00

Advocates of social and structural change within architecture and professional practice, the Architecture Lobby has announced the launch of a new online summer program that will address three themes: capitalism, labor, and collective practice.

The Architecture Beyond Capitalism (ABC School), invites students, faculty, practitioners, and members of various publics in all parts of the world to "interrogate the structures and systems of power." Starting on Saturday, June 19, 2021, each theme will be discussed and broken down into a 2-hr live session every Saturday for six weeks. The Architecture Lobby adds, "each theme has two components: debates stimulated by lessons from people whose work is central to the week's theme and salons for discussing the outcomes of design assignments pertinent to that theme."

Image courtesy of The Architecture Lobby

During a time of much-needed reform and the dismantling of inequitable work ethics, the Architecture Lobby has been champions of change withi...

The Importance of Asking Why: The ACSA's research series, 'Where Are My People?', addresses race and its inequitable relationship with architecture

2021-03-16T19:51:00-04:00

The Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) has dedicated its efforts towards architectural education and research by "empowering faculty and schools to educate increasingly diverse students, expand disciplinary impacts, and create knowledge for the advancement of architecture."

2020 sparked a resurgence in the importance of addressing the social and political injustices within architectural academia and professional practice. Last year, ACSA Director of Research and Information, Dr. Kendall A. Nicholson, Assoc. AIA, NOMA posed a pertinent question that has turned into an impactful research series. By examining architecture's history and its ties to race both in the past and the present, we can begin to understand steps towards sustained reform and social equity for architects who identify as Black, Hispanic, Latinx, Asian, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander, and Native Indigenous.

Where Are My People? is a research series that investigates how architecture inte...

The CBDX: Cities for All competition recognizes how architects and designers 'might address underrepresented and marginalized voices'

2021-02-15T13:38:00-05:00

A design competition hosted by the School of Architecture, Planning, and Landscape (SAPL) at the University of Calgary asked participants, "how might matters of equity and activism, ecology and environment, and health and wellness converge, and unfold, within our future cities?" Launched in October 2020, the CBDX: CITIES FOR ALL competition is an initiative led by the school to tackle larger issues within the design community and foster innovative changes for the future of city building.

Assistant professor Alberto de Salvatierra, inaugural faculty lead and jury chair explained, "Cities—which often ossify systemic inequities through the built environment — have become the fulcrum upon which movements for equity and justice have found increasing leverage. Solutions must come from, and be for, everyone. This competition provides a platform to highlight how architects and designers might address underrepresented and marginalized voices."

The result of the competition led to 145 design...

Should men learn to "lean out"?

2019-10-11T05:00:00-04:00

In the workplace, probably unsurprisingly to many women who are routinely talked over, patronized or ignored by male colleagues, research shows that rather than women being underconfident, men tend to be overconfident in relation to their actual abilities. Women generally aren’t failing to speak up; the problem is that men are refusing to pipe down.

Author Ruth Whippman, writing in The New York Times, questions the focus on coaching women to adopt the aggressive social behaviors of men in the workplace. Might these efforts be more effective if men were simultaneously encouraged to cede space, attention, and power in a reciprocal manner?

"The assumption that assertiveness is a more valuable trait than say, deference is itself the product of a ubiquitous and corrosive gender hierarchy," Whippman writes. This bias, according to Whippman, includes career and educational focuses, including the fact that "tax dollars are poured into encouraging girls to take up STEM subjects, but no one seems to care much whether boys become nurses."

With progress toward pay equity in the architecture field more or less stalled, and executive-level imbalances continuing for the foreseeable future, should more men adopt a "lean out" approach?

Architect Kimberly Dowdell uses her hometown of Detroit as a catalyst for teaching equitable urban design practices

2019-08-14T17:00:00-04:00

In her lecture, entitled “Diverse City: How Equitable Design and Development will Shape Urban Futures,” Dowdell drew on her experiences growing up in Detroit and her work in real estate development.

Earlier this year, architect, Detroit native, and current National Organization of Minority Architects president Kimberly N. Dowdell presented a lecture discussing the importance of equity in design and development. With her multi-disciplinary background in real estate development, education, and architecture, Dowdell explains, "equity, if I boil it down to its most essential element, is making it right,"adding, "Cities can experience trauma, and when you make it right, they can become more resilient."

Thanks to coverage of the lecture by Danielle J. Kranchalk from The Harvard Crimson, we get a view into Dowdell's presentation at Harvard GSD, which showcased her strategy for revitalizing various Detroit neighborhoods.

Her passion and commitment for creating thriving cities are marked by an approach that prioritizes what can be done to think outside the box. As Dowdell poignantly explains, "both people and cities go through cycles of trauma, equity, and resilience." She continues t...

AIA approves new rules specifically addressing sexual harassment and sustainability

2018-09-12T17:54:00-04:00

The AIA Board of Directors have recently approved new changes to the AIA Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct to explicitly address sexual harassment, equity in the profession, and sustainability.

AIA 2018 President Carl Elefante, FAIA stated, “The architecture profession is at a threshold moment. The Board’s adoption of these changes provides us with another step toward ending sexual harassment in the workplace, advancing equity in our profession, and promulgating sustainable practices. I applaud the members who raised their voices to offer these improvements to the code, and the AIA delegates, Board of Directors, and National Ethics Council who acted on their concerns.”

You can find the full list of new and updated rules on the AIA's website here.

An engineer's comic addresses social equity in transportation planning and design

2018-07-23T15:40:00-04:00

Engineer Ryan Martinson uses his cartooning skills to explore why and how to better incorporate social equity goals into transportation planning Equity & Mobility, a 12-page comic article published in the Summer issue of Transportation Talk," the Canadian Institute of Transportation Engineer's quarterly newsletter.

The Canadian Institute for Transportation Engineers newsletter showcases a comic strip addressing social equity in transportation design. The article looks at how planning decisions can be affected by a biased user experience design process affecting who is included in our transportation systems.

Summer issue of Transportation Talk comic by Ryan Martinson. Image: Equity & Mobility.

Martinson's comic describes how faster transportation modes like automotive travel are often favored over more inclusive ones such as walking, biking, and public transportation.

Summer issue of Transportation Talk comic by Ryan Martinson. Image: Equity & Mobility.

While pointing out these design issues, he also offers specific solutions on how to design more inclusively and better impact people's economic and social opportunities. You can flip through the full article here.

AIA teams up with National Girls Collaborative to build new educational pathways to architecture for girls

2018-03-01T14:33:00-05:00

In their latest effort to advance diversity and equity in the architecture profession, today the AIA and the National Girls Collaborative announced their new partnership to create new pathways for girls to achieve educational goals that will prepare them for future careers in the architecture and STEM fields.

Based in Seattle, the NGC teams up with organizations around the U.S. that are committed to informing and encouraging girls to pursue STEM careers. The group also runs The Connectory, the largest directory of youth-focused STEM programs in the country.

“Architecture represents an innovative blend of design and crucial STEM skills,” said Karen Peterson, the National Girls Collaborative CEO, in a statement. “Thanks to this partnership with AIA, we are looking forward to engaging more girls in architecture activities and career paths.”

On March 22, the NGC will host a one-hour webinar on how architecture and design programs around the U.S. can use The Connectory. It'll also be pos...

Only one student enrolled in a Yale course about women architects, despite grievances against poor representation

2016-11-18T15:09:00-05:00

“This is not a position that has been strongly represented in this school historically,” [said Professor Kathleen James-Chakraborty, who believes] The crux of the issue is whether courses that champion diversity in architecture should be taught as optional, specialized seminars or integrated into the curriculum of the school.

Now with Deborah Berke as dean, the Yale School of Architecture is working to offer more courses focusing on women in architecture such as “Expanding the Canon: Making Room for Other Voices”, an optional seminar that would've been taught by visiting professor Kathleen James-Chakraborty. But only one student enrolled in the class “despite students voicing grievances about a lack of female representation”, the Yale Daily News reports.

James-Chakraborty questions if such diversity courses should become a requirement in the school's already rigid curriculum. Some female students say that YSoA still feels like “a gentleman's club”, and that the “student body is not well-primed to see the ‘radical nature’ of the course.”

Editor's Picks #448

2016-06-20T09:50:00-04:00

Robert Urquhart visited BIG's 2016 Serpentine Pavilion and the new Summer Houses. Olaf Design Ninja_ approved "Adeyemi's is very architectural and tectonic. still modern while taking on that neo classical stuff. and Leibingers is nice too...."

Plus, Nicholas Korody published 'The Permanent Temporality of Refugee Camps: The Syrian Chapter' a Masters thesis project of Nikita Gyawali, a student at the Aarhus School of Architecture.

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Orhan Ayyüce recommended reading Nick Currie in Art-agenda, in which the Scottish artist tears into the 15th Venice Architecture Biennale, "vis a vis its older cousin, the art biennale." Currie also writes (about 'Fundamentals', Rem Koolhaas’s 2014 Biennale of Architecture) "Depending on your perspective the results were either Brechtian or resembled a severe case of Asperger syndrome" and makes reference to Max Weber’s Verstehen.

Oliver Wainwright reviews the 2016 Serpentine Pavilion (and new Summer Houses) offering(s). Will Galloway placed this year’s ...

How sexist is architecture? Female architects share their experiences

2016-04-13T12:54:00-04:00

After Ms. Hadid died on March 31 at 65, The New York Times, in an informal online questionnaire, asked female architects among its readers to talk candidly about their experiences in the profession: the progress they’ve made and the obstacles they still face on construction sites and in client meetings. Below are edited excerpts from a few of some 200 responses we received.

Architecture, already a tough field, can be even more challenging if you happen to be female. As Christine Matheu from Bloomington, Indiana recalls in this article, “There was a time when women were not allowed to be members of the Century Club. About that same time, as a young architect trying to survive, I was doing exhibition design and had been hired by an N.Y.C. art collector to do an installation of Piranesi prints for the Century Club. When the club learned that I was a woman architect, I was not allowed to install the exhibit. I, like many other women architects, found it much easier and less humiliating to just strike out on my own. I have been in my own practice now for 20 years.”

Also, a lifetime pro tip: STOP CALLING WOMEN OVER 18 GIRLS. Thanks!

Despina Stratigakos on the emerging "third wave of feminism" in architecture

2016-03-17T18:21:00-04:00

In 2000, women represented 13 percent of registered architects; today, that number stands at 19 percent. If this rate of progress holds, we’ll have to wait until 2093 before we reach a 50-50 gender split...Yet numbers alone won’t ensure retention if architecture’s gender-biased professional culture remains unchanged. Ten or 20 years from now, we may still be asking ourselves, 'Where are the women architects?'

Despina Stratigakos — whose Architect Barbie collaboration sparked heated debate a few years ago — reflects on architecture's glacial progress toward gender equity as well as the profession's emerging "third wave of feminism".

More related to equity in architecture:

Why International Women's Day matters (for architects)

AIA's Diversity Survey shows some progress, but still skewed perceptions

Latent Complexity: Denise Scott Brown and Katherine Darnstadt (Latent Design) on Archinect Sessions #39

Being an architect is sexy, according to modern society

Why International Women's Day matters (for architects)

2016-03-08T15:45:00-05:00

You’ve probably heard that today is International Women’s Day. But what exactly is it? And why is it important?

For many in the global West, the significance of March 8th is probably a lot less familiar than, say, Mother’s Day. In fact, the holidays originated around the same time, during the early 20th century, at the nascence of struggles for equal rights and suffrage. But unlike Mother’s Day, International Women’s Day has always been explicitly political: a day to both celebrate women and to fight for emancipation.

A first iteration of Women’s Day was organized by the Socialist Party of America in 1909, but its international observance began properly in 1911 with large protests throughout Europe, albeit on different days in the different cities. In 1914, International Women’s Day was held for the first time on March 8. Sylvia Plankhurst, the great British suffragette, was arrested in front of Charing Cross on her way to deliver a speech at Trafalgar Square.

Then, on March 8, 1917, R...

Australian architects mourn the loss of Paul Pholeros, renowned housing equality advocate for Aboriginal communities

2016-02-03T21:05:00-05:00

[Healthabitat, the non-profit Paul Pholeros co-founded,] developed a model called Housing for Health...working with Aboriginal communities, conducting a survey of all housing and completing urgent repairs using mainly local Indigenous contractors, and adding whatever upgrades or repairs they can afford until the money runs out. The organisation has improved more than 8,000 houses – a third of Australia’s Indigenous-controlled housing stock – and with them the lives of 55,000 people.

AIA creates new Commission to further investigate equity in architecture

2015-12-17T17:45:00-05:00

Six months after the AIA voted in favor of the Equity in Architecture resolution, it looks like the organization is turning their words into actions. Most recently, they announced the establishment of the Equity in Architecture Commission, a 20-member panel of leading architects, educators, and specialized experts (whose names haven't been released) who will be in charge of investigating diversity and inclusion in the architecture profession, which — like in many other areas in American society — has long been dominated by people who identify as white and male.

The Commission's objectives include:

"Develop specific recommendations that will lead to equitable practices"
"Create measurable goals and develop mechanisms for assessing ongoing progress"
"Present a plan of action based on the Commission’s recommendations"

"Diversity and inclusion is a priority of the AIA. We have made progress, but not fast enough. The world around us is changing much faster and we can do better,' stated Elizab...

Editor's Picks #422

2015-07-06T13:40:00-04:00

Nicholas Korody interviewed Andrés Jacque (of the Office for Political Innovation ) about COSMO, the winning entry of this year’s MoMA PS1 Young Architect’s Program competition. Therein he argued "I believe that the architect’s role nowadays can also be providing alternatives, and enriching through diversity the collective catalogue of desirable possibilities."

Thayer-D commented "I don't think this qualifies as architecture, but it's very interesting" to which Kozumelle responded "I have seen this in person and it is not architecture in the strictest sense but still a wonderful, fantastic idea. Jaque's ideas are always politically charged and veer into other territories and he does it well."

Plus, for Screen/Print #34 Amelia Taylor-Hochberg featured the latest edition of KTISMA , from the University of Oregon’s School of Architecture and Allied Arts.

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The Guggenheim Helsinki Design Competition selected Paris-based Moreau Kusunoki Architectes as the grand-prize winners.

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