Archinect - News

Trans and non-binary architects discuss their challenges within the industry

2023-06-16T15:55:00-04:00

So, yes, architecture has a diversity problem, but the tide is beginning to change. Thanks to out-and-proud architects like [Julia] Oderda, emerging trans designers now have possibility models to look to when navigating situations like coming out or transitioning on the job. Some firms are also taking steps to make their workplace more welcoming to trans people, often in collaboration with trans people who already work there.

Architect Julia Oderda, who came out as a transgender woman professionally in 2018, also provided some insights into her struggle in an interview with the NCARB recently, saying, “A lot of what I did to help pave the way for me — and hopefully for others behind me — but also just to address my own anxieties about the process was a lot of overpreparation.”

The narrative that the existence of trans and non-binary people in an office setting is always contentious ought to be challenged, but their lack of visibility and support from colleagues is troubling, spurring the VCBO Architecture principal towards even more action. “That's one of the reasons I've been as open and vocal as I have been,” she says. “I think we need more people who can be found online to help the next generation.”

Architect, organizer, and facilitator A.L. Hu, who teaches at the Columbia GSAPP as an adjunct assistant professor and is the design initiatives manager at Ascendant Neighborhood Development, shared their...

How the Toilet Can Be an Icon of Social Justice, Sustainability, and Wellness

2021-03-08T18:10:00-05:00

Located at the intersection of sculpture and architecture, TOLO's XYYXXY Accessible Restroom is designed as a counterpoint to the “normative” bathroom. The plan takes the shape of a disfigured cross with a “non-gendered” toilet or urinal stall located at the end of each spoke. The impetus for the project was North Carolina’s “bathroom bill” HB2, which sought to restrict the bathroom transgender people can use. XYYXXY emblematizes the cultural issues at play in these so-called “Potty Laws,” as well as other historic civil rights laws, that have sought to define how restrooms are designed and used.

Join us as we talk to the designers of the XYYXXY Accessible Restroom, TOLO Architecture partners Sarah Lorenzen and Peter Tolkin, for a presentation and discussion Monday, March 15th, from 1-2 pm EST / 10-11 am PST, looking at the potential of the toilet.

To RSVP for this virtual panel, please click the "reserve" button at this link. Space is limited and registration is required to attend....

Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation and A+D Museum unveil "Built by Women" exhibit in Los Angeles

2020-02-25T14:02:00-05:00

The Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation (BWAF) and the Architecture and Design Museum in Los Angeles (A+D) have announced the latest iteration of the Built by Women exhibition, a program designed to celebrate "the breadth of achievement by women at the building industry’s highest levels in cities across the nation."

The exhibition, which features the work of 56 women-led architecture, landscape, engineering, and construction projects from the L.A. area, goes on view on May 15th at the A+D Museum and is timed to coincide with this summer's American Institute of Architects (AIA) Conference on Architecture, which is slated to take place in Los Angeles May 14-16th.

The Santa Monica Public Library by Moore Ruble Yudell Architects & Planners. Photo by John Linden

The exhibition is curated BWAF's all-female jury, a group made up of: Carrie Byles, FAIA, LEED AP, a partner at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill; Andrea Cochran, FASLA, president of Andrea Cochran Landscape Architecture; ErLeen Hatfi...

How lighting design in hotels is becoming less gender binary

2019-12-23T15:17:00-05:00

Brian Orter has always understood the importance of setting the mood and the power of lighting to transform a space or a moment. [...] Today, Mr. Orter runs Bold LLC, a company that provides architectural lighting design for private homes, restaurants, bars and hotels. With a team of 30 people split between New York City and Los Angeles, Mr. Orter has worked with architecture and design firms [...].

The New York Times in conversation with Brian Orter of NYC/LA-based architectural lighting design firm BOLD. The short interview covers the many ways to do it wrong (and the few to do it right) and how hotels are slowly ditching masculine and feminine design for a less binary experience.

See-through floors at new Cornell Fine Arts Library alienate users

2019-11-22T14:45:00-05:00

In a HyperAllergic opinion piece, Sarah Rose Sharp details the shortcomings of the recently completed Mui Ho Fine Arts Library at Cornell University, where "Architect Wolfgang Tschapeller says the library was designed with books in mind — but the grated floors fail to account for slushy snow boots, skirts, assisted mobility devices, and more." The Detroit-based writer outlines how users "inclined to wear skirts are feeling even more on display than the 100,000 books" held within the space.

Sharp writes that the slatted gratings at the upper levels, which are meant to allow air and light through the space, instead encourage indecorous sight-lines. Additionally, the perforated surface presents challenges for guests wearing heels as well as those with assisted mobility devices, writes Sharp.

According to the article, second-year graduate student Nicole Nomura, told Metropolis, "Knowing that I have to think about what I’m wearing as I enter the library is off-putting to me. What was Co...

Breastfeeding pods are proliferating across America

2019-10-02T14:01:00-04:00

Thanks to the Friendly Airports for Mothers Act (FAM) passed in 2018, the number of private breastfeeding pods available to the general public has steadily increased over the last year. Passed as part of a comprehensive Federal Aviation Administration funding package, the FAM Act requires the nation's 61 "large and medium hub airports" to provide a private lactation area beyond the security zone of every airport terminal.

According to Mamava, a lactation pod manufacturer, the act requires that these lactation areas have a locking door, include a place to sit, and be accessible and usable by people with disabilities. The act also requires each pod to offer a table or flat surface as well as an electrical outlet and a sink or specialized sanitizing equipment. The act also requires that these spaces not be located within bathrooms.

ADA-compatible lactation pods are coming to many of America's airports. Image courtesy of Mamava.

Over the last year, the Port Authority of New York and Ne...

Supreme Court: Transgender students can use bathroom of choice

2019-05-31T13:28:00-04:00

The Supreme Court on Tuesday let stand a lower court’s ruling that said transgender students in an eastern Pennsylvania school district can use locker rooms and restrooms that match their gender identity.

The United States Supreme Court declined to review a previous decision from the Third Circuit Court in Doe v. Boyertown School District that had upheld the school district's policy of allowing transgender students to use their bathroom of choice.

View of a gender-neutral bathroom at the Federal Reserve Bank in San Francisco. Image: Wikimedia user Ted Eytan

The Supreme Court has yet to hear a case that directly addresses the rights of transgender individuals.

NCARB releases current data on diversity in architecture

2018-06-21T15:25:00-04:00

The NCARB has recently released new data outlining the current state of diversity within the architecture field. The results show that while diversity among licensure candidates is improving, the rate at which non-white individuals are discontinuing their pursuit of licensure remains high. Findings also show that gender equity remained largely unchanged over the past year, with women still underrepresented in the field.

Racial and ethnic diversity along career stages. Image: NCARB 2018 diversity report.

“NCARB has spent the past several years updating and aligning our programs to remove unnecessary burdens while maintaining the rigor needed to protect the public,” said NCARB CEO Michael Armstrong. “A key area for us to address is identifying how pinch points along the path to licensure may vary for candidates from different backgrounds.”

Take a look at the NCARB's full report here.

Foster + Partners, releasing gender pay gap in staff salaries, commits to taking action

2018-03-07T18:24:00-05:00

Despite their recent work creating carbon-fibre roofs of impressive thinness, the UK-based Foster + Partners appears to be less adept when it comes to those made of glass. Releasing their gender pay gap data, the firm revealed yesterday that they have been, not so shockingly, paying women 10.5% less per hour than men—a figure that sits slightly above the country's national average of 9.1%.

In 2017, in an effort to help close the wage gap, the UK began requiring all companies with 250 or more employees to submit gender pay gap data to the government. As the UK's largest architecture practice with 1,450 employees globally., Foster + Partners was one of the many companies obligated to submit their figures, which they have also made public.

According to the firm's analysis, the pay gap is less the result of men and women not being paid equally for equivalent jobs, and more the result of unequal gender distribution across the firm. Senior, higher-paid roles are comprised of a larger pe...

NCARB data reveals diversity is increasing amongst emerging professionals

2017-06-12T17:14:00-04:00

Every year, NCARB releases a report that looks at architects' path to licensure as a way to provide insight into the profession. Paying particular attention to trends in how diverse the architecture population is becoming, how regulation of architects is changing, and any developments in licensing credentials, the report offers a benchmark for understanding where the profession may be moving.

While the full report will come out July, the 2017 edition of NCARB by the Numbers has released their study on gender and diversity trends. In sum, they have found that licensure candidates and new architects are more diverse than ever.

NCARB found that racial and ethnicity diversity is increasing among licensure candidates. In 2016, 42 percent of new AXP participants and 30 percent of new ARE candidates identified as non-white—up three percentage points for both groups. That being said, diversity among newly licensed architects and NCARB Certificate holders remained the same.

In comparison, gend...

Federica Buzzi's critique on the Le Corbusier Modulor

2017-05-31T14:20:00-04:00

The Modulor Man is a healthy white male enhanced by mathematical proportional gimmicks ‘of nature’, such as golden ratio and Fibonacci series. He represents the normative and normalised body around which Le Corbusier conceived his designs. As a result, most modern architectural forms are all tellingly calibrated on a similar standard, the healthy white male body.

"Given the Canadian Centre for Architecture’s groundbreaking research regarding medicalisation in architecture and its extensive Le Corbusier collection," the author Federica Buzzi writes, "I think it is time to address the role of norm and standard in Le Corbusier’s work and its legacy."

NYC becomes first city to provide free tampons and pads in public schools, prisons, and shelters

2016-06-23T14:19:00-04:00

Today, the New York City Council unanimously passed a set of bills requiring free menstrual-hygiene products in public schools, prisons, and shelters, making it the first city in the nation to pass so-called "menstrual equity" legislation. The city will budget for tampons and pads just like it does for toilet paper and hand soap.

"Tampons and pads are not currently covered by public-assistance programs and some school-aged girls stay home or use products longer than they should when they get their periods. Women in prisons face rationing and degrading treatment from corrections officers."

For more public health-related news, check out these links:

North Carolina loses AIA conference due to anti-LGBT HB2 bill passage

2016-05-04T13:51:00-04:00

Wilmington officials say the cancellation of an architect business conference due to HB2 will cost the city nearly $1 million. The American Institute of Architects (AIA) announced Monday it will nix its three-day conference scheduled for later this fall at the Wilmington Convention Center. AIA officials cited the passage of HB2 as the reason for the cancellation.

Being a bigot isn't just ridiculous—it's costly! Supposedly pro-business Republican senators in North Carolina have managed to drive away Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam, and now the AIA thanks to their passage of HB2, which Towelroad describes as a bill that "bans all local LGBT rights ordinances in the state" while introducing "some of the most draconian anti-trans 'bathroom regulations' in the U.S." Talk about pissing it all away...

For more on the fight for equality:

Mapping transgender-friendly bathrooms in hostile North Carolina

2016-03-31T14:56:00-04:00

For most, the act of going to the bathroom is an unremarkable part of their daily routines. However, for transgender people, fear of harassment makes this small decision a tough obstacle. In North Carolina a recent law has been introduced requiring people to only use bathrooms that match the gender they were assigned at birth. Web designer Emily Waggoner was "devastated" by the new legislation, and decided to do something to help those in need of a safe location to use non-gendered bathrooms.

Waggoner, who grew up in North Carolina although currently lives with her partner in Boston, worried about the safety of her transgender friends back home after the state passed this new, and highly controversial, legislation.

While purporting to be in the interest of "safety," such legislation greatly increases the risk of violence for members of the transgender (and gender non-conforming) community, with little-to-no evidence (or legitimate evidence) that it makes any other group safer. In the vast majority of cases of violence involving the transgender community, trans individuals are the victims – not the other way around.

Even without specific legislation like this, transgender people face much greater risks of physical and sexual violence than those faced by cisgendered individuals. More than one in four trans people have been assaulted in their lifetime – and the rates increase when looking at trans women and trans people of color.

Using Google Maps, Waggoner has created a tool ...

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...

"Women in architecture" vs. "now in architecture": Mimi Zeiger on gender and architecture today

2016-03-01T15:56:00-05:00

For a while I’ve held the belief that identifying oneself as an architect is a kind of drag, a mannered persona donned for effect. How else to describe the clichéd sartorial signifiers: extreme eyewear, black daywear and designer footwear? As the education of an architect is so historically weighted to a canon of male practitioners, theorists and educators, a woman entering the field often operates as a kind of architectural androgyne...

"...we are trained to see world of design through black-framed, male-coloured glasses. Gender differentiation, then, comes with a thorny rhetorical question: ‘What’s the difference?’ If the goal is to recognise talent, experimentation and innovation, there seems no reason to create a binary in the field."

For more articles on issues related to gender-parity and -visibility in architecture, take a look at these links:

Are virtual reality systems sexist?

2015-12-30T14:20:00-05:00

That headline paraphrases the research question of Danah Boyd, who, as a computer science student in 2000, wrote her bachelor thesis on whether VR systems were being designed in such a way to defer to, biologically, the male gaze. The research is in no way definitive, but probes an essential question as VR technologies become more ubiquitous and technologically advanced, and for our understanding of "inclusive" programming in design.

Boyd revisited her research in a 2014 Quartz article, on the occasion of Facebook acquiring Oculus Rift (signaling a huge move for VR research and commercialization). In the article, she outlines how human sight is heavily influenced by a person's sex. More sex hormones hang out on the retina than anywhere else (other than the gonads) on the human body. And so depending on your sex chromosome, you'll get more of a certain set of hormones – and the balance of those hormones affect how we see.

Depth perception in human vision is rendered, biologically, in t...

"Toilet Talk" – gender inclusivity in public restrooms, featuring special guest Susan Surface, on Archinect Sessions #42

2015-11-12T15:43:00-05:00

Special guest Susan Surface, former Archinect editor now at Design in Public, joins us on Archinect Sessions to talk about recent developments in the state of gender inclusive design – specifically, in public restrooms.

As the binary model of gender begins to slowly dissolve in the popular consciousness, in favor of a spectrum of different identifications, international building codes still often mandate restrooms (even single-occupancy ones) as strictly for either male or female. Those who do not identify as either face a difficult choice at best, and often harassment or exclusion. Various institutions are experimenting with more gender-inclusive designs and designations, but not without controversy. Advocates liken the advent of all-gender inclusive bathrooms to a civil right, akin to policies that guarantee equal access regardless of ethnicity or physical ability.

Surface, who has addressed more gender-inclusive amendments to building standards before, joins us to discuss the ways ...