Archinect - News

Former students complain of racism and sexism at UCL’s Bartlett School of Architecture

2021-06-02T11:47:00-04:00

21 former students of UCL (University College London) have voiced complaints over alleged sexism and racism at the Bartlett School of Architecture. The complaints, first reported by The Guardian, stretch back over a decade. The ex-students' complaints include inappropriate comments on race and appearance, which they describe as “systemic” within the school.

The stories of the 21 ex-students were compiled into a dossier by former student Eleni Kyriacou and shared with the Guardian, who subsequently spoke to several recent graduates. Stories told by the graduates include one who said staff were “damaging primarily female students.” The graduate, of south Asian descent, claims that a staff member told a fellow student he could not tell that the graduate was “brown” as “she acted and spoke like a white person.”

Previously on Archinect: NOMA leadership echoes the need to 'fight all systems of bias, oppression, and prejudice' following the guilty verdict in the Chauvin trial

Another st...

President Biden takes executive steps to undo discriminatory housing policies

2021-01-28T14:15:00-05:00

President Joe Biden signed an executive order on Jan. 27 directing his administration to end policies that enable discrimination in housing and lending, and acknowledging the federal government’s role in erecting systemic barriers to fair housing.

According to Kriston Capps, writing for Bloomberg CityLab, "Biden’s executive order tasked the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to review two key rules implemented under the Trump administration. One of those rules governs how cities assess and enforce efforts to reduce segregation, a Civil Rights-era mandate that Trump repeatedly mischaracterized as an attempt to 'abolish the suburbs.' The other rule polices discrimination in rental housing and mortgage lending, standards that were relaxed under former Housing Secretary Ben Carson."

AIA New York pushes for actionables against racism within criminal justice system

2020-10-02T15:22:00-04:00

AIA New York released a statement showing initiative towards impactful reform. The letter urges to create actionable steps to dismantling racial and social injustice issues sustained by the criminal justice system. The Chapter addressed they will no longer "reward or highlight work that perpetuates harmful and unjust systems, including criminal justice facilities in the current US context."

Below is an excerpt from their Criminal Justice Facilities Statement:

For too long, architects have been complicit in upholding intrinsic racism within the American criminal justice system. While many architects have attempted to mitigate injustice by applying their professional skills to associated built structures, ultimately, it is beyond the role of design professionals to alleviate an inherently unjust system. Until more comprehensive policy changes are made on a national scale, good design alone is not enough to remove or overcome the racism inherent within the criminal justice system. It ...

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...

Elizabeth Warren unveils sensible affordable housing plan

2019-07-08T15:45:00-04:00

2020 Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren has unveiled a modest affordable housing plan that would work to improve existing development mechanisms in an effort to increase the supply of affordable housing across the country.

Arguing that "government at all levels hasn’t done enough to tackle our housing problems over the past few decades," Warren recently reintroduced her 2018 American Housing and Economic Mobility Act in the United States Senate. The act, which forms the basis for Warren's affordable housing plan, falls somewhat short of some of the more structurally-oriented housing proposals put forth by competing presidential candidates, including New Jersey senator Cory Booker, but aims to improve the existing system nonetheless.

First and foremost, Warren is pushing to increase the supply of affordable housing nationwide by embracing some of the principles of the Yes in My Backyard (YIMBY) movement by compelling cities to change their zoning codes to make it ea...

Lynching memorial heralded as greatest 21st Century American architectural achievement

2018-08-30T15:19:00-04:00

These conjoined entities are the Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, the latter more commonly identified as a memorial to the victims of lynching. They are both extraordinary, though it is the second that behooves a pilgrimage. To my mind, it is the single greatest work of American architecture of the 21st century, and the most successful memorial design since the 1982 debut of Maya Lin's Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.

The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, which opened to the public this past April, is the first memorial dedicated to the victims of lynching and racial prejudice in the US. The design, a collaborative effort between MASS Design Group and the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), was recently acclaimed by architecture critic Mark Lamster as "the single greatest work of American architecture of the 21st century."

National Memorial for Peace and Justice by MASS Design Group, located in Montgomery, AL. Image: Equal Justice Initiative.

An investigation by the EJI documented over 4,400 lynchings between 1877 and 1950. Lamster upholds the memorial's design for its ability to convey the devastating reality of this number in a physically powerful experience.

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.

Peter Marino, accused of racial discrimination and sexism, countersues over alleged homophobic slurs

2016-07-27T13:23:00-04:00

Peter Marino, the leather-clad architect best known for his collaborations with fashion labels, was sued last year for racial discrimination by a former employee. Now, he's accusing the employee of making homophobic slurs, according to a report by the New York Post.

Deirdre O'Brien worked for Marino for 14 years before, allegedly, being fired after complaining when Marino called her a "c--t." He's also been accused of using the n-word.

In response, Marino has accused O'Brien called a male co-worker a "big homo" and sent "explicit pornographic images" from her work email address.

For more on Marino, check out past Archinect coverage:

Anti-growth zoning codes exacerbate economic disparity, racial segregation

2016-07-07T13:15:00-04:00

To most people, zoning and land-use regulations might conjure up little more than images of late-night City Council meetings full of gadflies and minutiae. But these laws go a long way toward determining some fundamental aspects of life: what American neighborhoods look like, who gets to live where and what schools their children attend. And when zoning laws get out of hand, economists say, the damage to the American economy and society can be profound.

"Studies have shown that laws aimed at things like “maintaining neighborhood character” or limiting how many unrelated people can live together in the same house contribute to racial segregation and deeper class disparities. They also exacerbate inequality by restricting the housing supply in places where demand is greatest."

In related news:

After allegations of racial discrimination and #AirbnbWhileBlack fallout, Airbnb looks inward

2016-06-03T13:11:00-04:00

[Airbnb] says it will spend the next several months reviewing how hosts and guests interact on the site and what it could do to ensure users are treated more fairly. [...] "The bottom line is that the design of platforms dictates the decisions that people make on them. Even if there’s implicit bias, [Airbnb has] an enormous amount of ability to change the extent of discrimination on the platform."

For more on the controversial P2P renting service:

Connecticut contractor ordered to pay $3M for racial discrimination, harassment

2016-04-04T13:06:00-04:00

A painting contractor based in New England has been ordered to pay two former employees more than $1.5m each by a court in New Haven, Connecticut. The court ruled that the company had discriminated against the men on racial grounds.

The lawsuit alleged that a Sudanese-American employee, Yosif Bakhit, and an African-American employee, Kiyada Miles, of the firm Safety Marking faced a "pattern of abuse," racist harassment including insults and slurs, and racial discrimination, including being passed over for promotions that were instead given to less qualified white employees.

According to allegations, a caucasian colleague painted Miles' arm white and said to him, "That’s the only way you are going to move up in the company.” Bakhit reported an incident in which a foreman asked him to open an aspirin bottle then said, “I just wanted to see a black man pick cotton.”

Following a two-week trial, a federal jury ordered Safety Marking to give $1.4M in punitive damages to each man, as well as compensation from former colleagues named in the lawsuit.

For related coverage, check out these links: