Archinect - News

University of Oregon opens fellowship for design and spatial justice

2024-04-03T12:19:00-04:00

Following last week’s look at an opening for a Curator of the Loeb Fellowship at Harvard University, we are using this week’s edition of our Job Highlights series to explore an open role on Archinect Jobs for Visiting Faculty Fellowships in Design for Spatial Justice at the University of Oregon, an Archinect Partner School.

The roles, based in Eugene and Portland, call for individuals to teach six courses per year on the topics of environmental, social, and spatial justice in design. “We particularly encourage applications from candidates who are interested in teaching questions in spatial justice at the intersections of gender, race, ethnicity, indigenousness, sexuality, and economic inequality and who are interested in teaching innovation design/research methods with a focus on architectural design studio,” the university says about the fellowship opportunities.

The Architectural League of New York appoints Jacob R. Moore as its new Executive Director

2023-06-15T11:49:00-04:00

The Architectural League of New York has named Jacob R. Moore as its next Executive Director, following a thorough national search. Moore succeeds Rosalie Genevro, who announced her decision to step down last year after leading the organization for nearly 40 years.

“Jacob brings tremendous passion and a deep knowledge of the most important forces and issues impacting the built environment today,” said Mario Gooden, President of The League’s board of directors. “His vision for the future of The League and his commitment to equity, spatial justice, and the environment make him the ideal person to shape our next chapter.”

Moore will assume the position after most recently serving as the Associate Director of the Temple Hoyne Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture at Columbia University’s GSAPP. While at the Buell Center, he led the design, development, and execution of a range of public programs with a focus on the built environment, climate change, and social justice. S...

Black churches are leading the fight to create affordable housing nationwide

2023-02-10T17:29:00-05:00

As the religious and urban landscape changes in North America, churches have had to adapt and evolve. [...] Black churches are responding to these shifts in religiousness, population change, and lack of housing by working to change land use regulations and asking how church property can serve a different function in the community.

Seattle’s Nehemiah Initiative is cited as one example of the nationwide movement that is taking root in Washington, D.C., San Diego, and Oakland, among other places. There, certain neighborhoods have seen more than 50% declines in their Black population. A pair of University of Washington studio courses recently produced feasibility studies for nine churches in the Central district, resulting in four entering into the predevelopment process for housing starts.

Churches are a known commodity in the fight against other forms of injustice and are now turning to zoning regulations as a means of pressing local policymakers into action in increased numbers. More than 4.3 million units are needed to meet demands by 2035 nationally, and successful programs like Alameda County’s Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) are seen as the best models for abatement of that problem in league with a...

Gensler’s Jackie Robinson Museum project finally debuts after a 14-year saga

2022-08-05T15:57:00-04:00

Last week was opening day for the new Gensler-designed Jackie Robinson Museum in Lower Manhattan. Luminaries, including Spike Lee and Mayor Eric Adams were on hand to inaugurate the museum, which was first announced by Major League Baseball and the Jackie Robinson Foundation to observe the 61st anniversary of his Dodgers debut in 2008.

Occupying a space on Varick Street that is now landmarked by the city, the 20,000-square-foot museum focuses as much on Robinson’s multisport athletic career and rise to baseball’s pinnacle as it does on his progressive social activism and lifelong fight against racism.

Years of delays meant the project has been put off its intended 2019 opening until this year.

Having opened its doors last Friday, the Jackie Robinson Museum seeks to bring people from all walks together to commune and appreciate each other’s humanity and diverse experiences. Enjoy a glimpse of the ribbon cutting ceremony led by Emmy Award winner @RobinRoberts pic.twitter.com/QyNcQVhW...

One architect’s passion for multifaith spaces will continue through the work of DJDS

2022-06-06T15:30:00-04:00

The memory of one up-and-coming New York architect is being honored through a donation drive benefitting one of the firms he most admired, Oakland-based Designing Justice + Designing Spaces (DJDS).

Eric Salitsky was killed in Brooklyn on May 5th after being struck by a sanitation vehicle while on his bicycle. A native of Massachusetts, Salitsky studied for his master’s at the Pratt Institute before joining ESKW/Architects, where he continued to make a name for himself in the design and documentation of multifaith community spaces he pursued in the years following his graduation. Salitsky’s work eventually earned him an AIA Stewardson Keefe LeBrun Travel Grant and curated exhibition in 2019, and he was scheduled to deliver a presentation on the subject at the Architecture, Culture, and Spirituality Forum (ASCF) on June 4th.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Eric Salitsky (@esalitsky)

His noted penchant for equity and shared personal drive to foster a mor...

Meet the first class of Harvard Climate Justice Design Fellows

2022-05-24T11:02:00-04:00

Harvard University has today announced its first-ever cohort for the brand new Climate Justice Design Fellowship, recognizing young leaders across the country in the fields of environmental justice advocacy, law, and climate organizing.

The first class of fellows consists of seven members, primarily from the non-profit sector. Each fellow will be tasked with pursuing data-oriented tools (e.g., the First Street Foundation’s new wildfire risk map) to aid their individual communities’ strides toward environmental justice.

The fellowships are funded through Harvard’s Institute for Quantitative Social Science (IQSS) and are pilot programs of the broader Harvard-Google Data+Climate Initiative that incorporates proprietary innovations like Google Data Commons and the data visualization service Glue to further empower both scholars and engineers to fight challenges related to climate change.

The progress of the fellowship can be followed online on both Twitter and Instagram. Scroll down to...

Reflecting on the architecture industry's contribution toward diversity, inclusion, and social justice in 2021

2021-12-23T13:05:00-05:00

Following a very turbulent 2020, the current year was filled with highs and lows as well. From the pandemic to socio-economical unrest, the architecture industry continued to navigate a year filled with learning and unlearning.

The rise of social justice and equity initiatives pushed on in 2021. As architecture firms, schools, and organizations proceeded to grapple with their involvement in and relationship to systemic racism and inequity, groups and individuals took it upon themselves to continue with their work towards detangling architecture from its history of oppression and injustice.

Architecture media became more than a medium for praising new projects and applauding the so-called "starchitects" of our time. It has become a medium to discuss social and cultural topics relating to race, diversity, and inclusion. As a platform, Archinect continues to report on the issues that impact our community and expand on social and cultural discourse relating to architecture. With the nu...

$75,000 Steedman Fellowship in Architecture launches 2021 call for proposals on the theme of 'Disruption'

2021-10-18T14:50:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis

Climate change, COVID-19, the fight for social justice. In disruptive times, how can architecture help to chart new paths and implement far-reaching solutions?

That’s the question posed by “Disruption,” the 2021 James Harrison Steedman Fellowship in Architecture. The biennial research competition invites early-career architects from around the world to explore how architecture can help to address today’s most pressing global challenges.

The fellowship is organized by the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis, in concert with AIA St. Louis, a chapter of the American Institute of Architects. The winning proposal will receive $75,000 to support up to a year of international travel and research.

A Black Lives Matter mural in Brooklyn, New York. Installed in June 2020, the mural is 375 feet wide, with letters 28 feet tall. (Photo: Shutter...

Prolific landscape architect Julie Bargmann wins inaugural Oberlander Prize

2021-10-14T13:54:00-04:00

Pioneering landscape architect Julie Bargmann has been announced as the inaugural winner of the newly-formed Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize.

Known for her work in regenerative landscapes, the University of Virginia faculty member now has the honor of being named as the first-ever recipient of the Prize, which includes a $100,000 cash award.

The award celebrates landscape architects working at the intersection of design and social justice causes. Critic Paul Goldberger said it was about the “importance of the public realm” at a 2019 keynote address announcing the prize, adding that, in his view, attempting to improve public building itself constitutes “a testament to belief in the social good.”

Introducing Julie Bargmann, the 2021 Oberlander Prize Laureate. Video via The Cultural Landscape Foundation on YouTube.

Bargmann has been a leader in urban reclamation projects since founding her D.I.R.T. (Dump It Right There) Studio in Minnesota in 1992....

Hidden cartographies: the vanishing graves of the enslaved in Death Alley, Louisiana

2021-06-29T17:30:00-04:00

The London-based research group, Forensic Architecture (FA), published a new project on Monday, June 28, called “Environmental Racism in Death Alley, Louisiana,” which was featured by the New York Times.

A short documentary on the Times website tells the story of the fight to identify and preserve the graves of enslaved people in Louisiana’s Death Alley, also known as Cancer Alley. Between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, the area along the Mississippi River is known for its deadly concentration of polluting petrochemical facilities, which have led to high rates of cancer in the local, majority-Black population. According to advocates, identifying and preserving these burial sites is a way to memorialize the enslaved Black people who built Louisiana’s economy; it also raises awareness of the connection between current day structural racism and the history of capitalist development. Helping to identify and visualize the extent of these sites, FA mobilizes the architect’s tools in suppor...

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?

Prev...

Suman Sorg, FAIA forms non-profit design firm to promote social justice through architecture and design

2021-01-28T11:10:00-05:00

Award-winning architect and designer, Suman Sorg, FAIA, founder of Sorg Architects, has formed the non-profit design firm, A Complete Unknown, in Washington, D.C. Its mission is to promote social justice, peace, and unity through architecture and design.

"At this stage in my career, I have turned my sights to projects that advance the basic tenants of humanity, such as compassion, love, and a pledge to nonviolence towards all– humans, animals, and nature," said Sorg, in a statement. "Washington, D.C. – being at the center of the federal government – allows us to play a critical role in affecting and informing policy. There is so much that each of us can do using our energy, experience and talent to support those at risk, both locally and around the world."

Sorg has over 30 years building a successful architectural practice. Some notable projects include the John and Jill Ker Conway Residence for formerly homeless veterans, and the Southern Regional Technology and Recreation Center i...

Grace Farms' Design for Freedom movement seeks to eradicate forced labor from the production of building materials

2020-10-28T12:48:00-04:00

Sharon Prince, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Grace Farms Foundation, announced this week Design for Freedom, a new movement to eradicate modern slavery from the built environment by addressing the systemic use of forced labor in the building materials supply chain.

"Examining our building materials supply chain is a moral and legal imperative,” said Prince in a statement. “Almost all modern construction projects are subsidized with slavery, due to unchecked forced labor that permeates thousands of raw and composite materials sourced both locally in the United States and globally. While initial attention concentrated on developing ethical labor practices on construction and job sites, we now seek to extend these regulations to the building materials supply chain, including oversight of sub-contractors, manufacturers, and commodities-level providers in such areas as forestry, fiber, and mining."

Design for Freedom began back in 2017, when Prince and the late Bill Menking, Fo...

Winners of the 2020 NOMA, NAACP, and SEED Awards highlight design justice and equity within architecture and land development

2020-10-06T13:47:00-04:00

Since 2011, the SEED Awards highlight public interest design projects that address critical community issues at a social, economic, and environmental scale. This year's award winners represent projects that reflect justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion within the realms of design, architecture, and land development in collaboration with NOMA and NAACP.

Winners were selected thanks to a star-studded jury consisting of design leaders in the industry such as Carl Anthony, Kimberly Dowdell, Maya Henderson, and Tiffany Mayhew, among others. This year, seven winning projects were chosen.

View the winners below and selected project images.

2020 Project Winners

Memorial to Enslaved Laborers - Design Team: Design Team: Höweler + Yoon Architecture, Meejin Yoon, Eric Höweler, Namjoo Kim, Caroline Shannon, Anna Kaertner, Alex Yueyan Li, Caleb Hawkins, Boris Angelov, Julia Robert, Dr. Mabel O. Wilson, Studio &, Marlisa Wise, Dr. Frank Dukes, Gregg Bleam Landscape Architect, Eto Otitigbe, a...

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 ...

Urban planners take action to defund the police by calling for the American Planning Association to respond

2020-09-23T14:16:00-04:00

2020 has brought an increase in activism as the public reached its final tipping point from the racial and social injustices happening across the nation. With the inexcusable deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Elijah McClain, and others caused by police brutality, individuals across industries have taken note and voiced their concerns. With forms of allyship sweeping the nation, architects, academics, and urban planners have expressed their opinions and action plans. Although dismantling racial inequalities and systemic racism within the profession will not happen overnight, groups put their experience and training into action to respond to these injustices.

In early August, Brentin Mock of CityLab in Pittsburgh reported on the responses of "several hundred" urban planners as they call for the American Planning Association to support defunding the police. Housing/food planner Sara Draper-Zievet, who is one of the eight co-authors of the letter, spoke with Mock on their steps ...

Designing Justice + Designing Spaces unveils plan to re-purpose Atlanta city jail into "Center for Equity"

2020-06-19T20:32:00-04:00

Oakland-based architecture and real estate development non-profit Designing Justice + Designing Spaces (DJDS) has unveiled a set of schematic proposals aimed at re-imagining Atlanta’s city jail as a Center for Equity.

The plans follow extensive community consultation and design development workshops focused on finding a new use for a 471,000-square-foot jail facility that has been rendered obsolete due to a wave of criminal and law enforcement reforms enacted by Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms.

A proposed "Super Lobby" space will bring a new community space to the neighborhood.

In an update announcing the latest phase of the project posted to the group's Medium, the DJDS explains that "it is important to recognize that despite the end of slavery 'in theory,' the oppression of black communities continued and transformed into new laws and policies forming a new system of enslavement through mass incarceration."

Citing author Michelle Alexander’s 2010 book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Inc...

University of Oregon announces call for Design for Spatial Justice Fellowship applicants

2020-02-10T12:25:00-05:00

The University of Oregon is currently seeking applicants for its latest cohort of Visiting Faculty Fellowships in Design for Spatial Justice.

The initiative, according to a listing currently featured on the Archinect Jobs board, “will award up to six faculty fellowships in design/research and teaching for durations of two terms to three years, to start as early as September 2020.” Applications will be reviewed beginning February 15, 2020.

The fellowships are part of the UO School of Architecture & Environment’s year-old Design for Spatial Justice Initiative, a program that spans across the school’s architecture, interior architecture, landscape architecture, and historic preservation professional programs in Eugene and Portland, with the aim of “changing the voices that are at the table in order to change the kinds of questions that can be brought to the table,” Erin Moore, Director of the School of Architecture & Environment and Associate Dean of the College of Design, explains t...

"Renewable Rikers" plan takes shape

2019-06-13T18:37:00-04:00

The “Renewable Rikers Act,” crafted by Queens Councilmember Costa Constantinides, aims to create a green vision for the 400-acre correctional facility that would keep the island out of the hands of luxury developers, while lessening the burden on communities loaded with city infrastructure.

A trio of legislative efforts are underway in New York to transform the Rikers Island jail into a green energy powerhouse for the city.

Queens Council member Costa Constantinides told Curbed, “Closing Rikers Island, if we do this right, can not only end overpolicing and the atrocities that have gone on there, but we can look at what renewable opportunities we have and really get into the weeds and come up with a plan."

Jonathan Lippman, the former state chief judge who led a 2017 commission that recommended closing the jail, added, “It is also time to look ahead to how our city can repurpose this island, which has been a symbol and accelerator of misery for so many, and turn it to the use for public good."

72U’s Dear Neighbor campaign promotes permanent supportive housing to portray a different narrative to homelessness in LA

2019-05-30T10:41:00-04:00

The housing crisis in large cities, especially in Los Angeles, has been an ongoing issue. Currently, Los Angeles County is home to the second largest population of settled homelessness in the U.S. Local government and organizations aim to create solutions in order to combat the issue with a little over 53,000 people who are homeless and in need of housing. In order to address the homeless housing crisis, the Los Angeles based creative residency 72U promotes the importance of Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) through a different kind of narrative. Through art, design, and empathy, the project initiative Dear Neighbor aims to use murals, written letters, recorded interviews, and eye-catching infographics to bridge communities together through awareness.

Image courtesy of Dear Neighbor LA

According to the Dear Neighbor team, the project is based on "the belief that housing is a human right. We understand that despite their numbers, our homeless neighbo...

'Design for Good' exhibition opening this weekend at the Museum of Design Atlanta

2018-09-19T16:15:00-04:00

The Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA) has announced their upcoming exhibition Design for Good: Architecture for Everyone, curated by John Cary. Opening on September 23, the museum will showcase projects featured in Cary's book Design for Good.

Women’s Opportunity Center in Kasungu, Rwanda, by Sharon Davis Design and Women for Women International. Image: Elizabeth Felicella.

The exhibition highlights projects around the world that embody a sense of dignity and belonging. Emphasizing the power of design on every person's life, the show affirms good design should be for everyone, not just the elite who can afford it.

Women’s Opportunity Center in Kasungu, Rwanda, by Sharon Davis Design and Women for Women International. Image: Elizabeth Felicella.

MODA will host a lecture by curator John Cary on September 27, along with a lecture on October 18 by Michael Murphy, Executive Director of MASS Design Group.

St. Jerome’s Children’s Centre in Murunyu, Nakuru, Kenya, by Orkidstudio. Image: Odyss...

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.

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.

Fair Housing Act ruling now vulnerable with Justice Kennedy’s retirement

2018-06-28T15:49:00-04:00

Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the most important decision on fair housing in a generation. He’ll almost certainly get to see it overturned in his lifetime. When Kennedy announced his long-rumored retirement on Wednesday, he shined a spotlight on the tenuous political balance of the U.S. Supreme Court. Famously a swing vote, Kennedy sided with the court’s four liberal justices on defining decisions on reproductive rights, same-sex marriage, the death penalty, and other hot-button social issues.

The "disparate impact" ruling of the Fair Housing Act is now being reconsidered by HUD. This could lead to the department repealing altogether, despite the fact that the Supreme Court already affirmed its constitutionality. Justice Kennedy's legacy of further integrating society is vulnerable to be overruled under Trump.

Snøhetta and collaborators unveil a monument for Archbishop Desmond Tutu

2018-03-08T20:25:00-05:00

Designed by Snøhetta in collaboration with Local Studio and Design Indaba, the Arch for Arch stands as a monument to the human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu, affectionally known as “Arch” by fellow South Africans.

Desmond Tutu Memorial Arch by Snøhetta and collaborators, located in Cape Town, ZA. Image: David Southwood.

Marking the site where Tutu began many of his Anti-Apartheid protests in Cape Town, the Arch frames the public entrance to a landscaped promenade known as the Company’s Garden, home to many of the city's cultural institutions.

Desmond Tutu Memorial Arch by Snøhetta and collaborators, located in Cape Town, ZA. Image: Design Indaba.

The structure is formed from 14 strands of Siberian Larch wood, a highly durable and resistant material. The warmth of wood was intentionally selected to lend the Arch an intimate, tactile quality, that invites people to interact with the structure in a way that differs from the conventional materia...

Architecture as forensic evidence in global crimes against humanity

2018-02-26T15:22:00-05:00

Forensic Architecture [...] is an agency based at Goldsmiths, University of London. The organisation’s founder and director is Eyal Weizman, a British-Israeli architect. Its primary mission is research, to “develop evidentiary systems in relation to specific cases”; in so doing, it acts as “an architectural detective agency”, working with NGOs and human rights lawyers to uncover facts that confound the stories told by police, military, states and corporations.

Weizman conceives of his work as an alternative practice, aiming to create a sub-discipline of architecture using architectural evidence in cases of war crimes or other human rights violations. Calling their activity "counter-forensics", the organization does not take commissions from governments or corporations and does not take political sides leaving them with many enemies.

“We think that architects need to be public figures [...] They should take positions, whatever they do. We map the most extreme and violent forms" explains Weizman.

Reconstruction by Forensic Architecture of the bombing of Rafah, Gaza, 1 August 2014. Image: Forensic Architecture.

Originally focused in Israel and Palestine, Forensic Architecture has taken their practice global to wherever their services are needed such as Kassel, Syria, the disappearance of a student in Mexico, a lethal factory fire in Karachi, and a detention center in Cameroon.

We live in a world where almost everything is exposed to view a...

How one architect is fighting for diversity in the field

2017-08-22T14:47:00-04:00

The project, called Paper Monuments, will entail a series of posters plastered all over the city that detail the people, places, events, and movements of the city’s 300-year history. “When we make decisions that do embody hatred, whether we mean to or not, it allows for society to grow along those frameworks. Our job should be to acknowledge them and counteract them and produce things that elevate the welfare of the constituents that we serve.”

“It’s not simply about the ways individuals hold onto ideology, but it is more so about the way individuals embed their ideology into the spaces and places we all frequent. For us the Paper Monuments project is still rooted in the fact that these symbols of oppression need to be countered by symbols of those people who’ve fought against that oppression.”

Bryan C. Lee Jr., a New Orleans-based architect, has been working on increasing representation in the field and fighting the inequalities that architecture perpetuates because of that lack of diversity. Formerly the director of place and civic design at the Art Council of New Orleans, Lee formed his own design-firm-cum-nonprofit Colloqate Design to coalesce his efforts to fight the racism embedded in the built environment. In addition to that, Lee started a local chapter of the National Organization of Minority Architects in NO and another one at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, where he received his masters degree in archite...

Meet the "Social Design Circle": the 100 architects awarded this year's Curry Stone Design Prize

2017-01-04T12:18:00-05:00

Each year, the Curry Stone Design Prize is awarded to projects that “use design to address pressing social justice issues.” To mark the 10th anniversary of the award, the Curry Stone Foundation will award 100 projects—“the most compelling social design leaders from across the world.” Dubbed the Social Design Circle, the group was selected by a jury of Foundation members and invited international experts. Every month, a new set of winners will be introduced on the Curry Stone Foundation website, with some of them participating in a new podcast hosted by Eric Cesal and Emiliano Gandolfi. For January, the winners are Arquitectura Expandida, City Repair, Estudio Teddy Cruz + Forman, Ctrl+Z, Pico Colectivo, and Recetas Urbanas.

Find out more about the winners here.

For more on the Curry Stone Design Prize, check out past coverage:

Jeanne Gang's 'Polis Project' — an experiment in empathetic policing

2016-07-25T13:20:00-04:00

Conceived by MacArthur “genius” and architect Jeanne Gang, the simple project is part of her broader proposal to reimagine isolated, fortress-like police precincts as welcoming community centers. In her vision, better police precincts could house a barber shop, a garden, a gym, and lounges with free wi-fi—all designed to draw community members to hang out in stations and eventually build friendlier and more trusting relationships with the cops sworn to protect them.

In Gang's project, the West 10th district's police station in North Lawndale, Chicago, includes a basketball half-court right next to it, as an attempt to create shared spaces between police and the community whom they serve. Gang's 'Polis Project' was first exhibited at the 2015 Chicago Architecture Biennial, and was conceived in response to the report on "21st Century Policing" commissioned by President Obama.

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