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Architects are overwhelmingly male and pale, young and privileged, and there are legitimate concerns about them designing our cities in their image. Fewer than one in every 10 architects is black, Asian or minority-ethnic, and less than a third of UK qualified architects are women. And the numbers are not improving. — The Guardian
Christine Murray tackles one of architecture' ever-pressing questions—can a field lacking in diversity truly design for everyone? In her essay for the Guardian, Murray considers what the world might look like if the politicians, planners, developers and architects actualizing our cities were... View full entry
As one of three finalist candidates, Alan Jones has been elected as the next RIBA President, the highest elected position in UK architecture. As RIBA's current Vice President of Education, Jones will replace incumbent RIBA President Ben Derbyshire starting September 1, 2019 and will serve through... View full entry
The NCARB Board of Directors recently announced a Policy for Diversity in which the organization states a commitment to greater diversity, with respect to gender, race, geography, age, perspective (architect vs. non-architect), and physical ability, when electing leadership positions. The NCARB... View full entry
Nearly 94% of British architects are white, despite 14% of the UK population being of a black and minority ethnic background. [...]
Warren is featured [...] in a new film due to premiere at the Royal College of Art (RCA) this month. Celebrating Architecture, which aims to encourage diversity in the profession, will be accompanied by architecture workshops for around 80 pupils from communities under-represented in the profession.
— The Guardian
The Celebrating Architecture initiative is co-lead by Venetia Wolfenden of the education and architecture consultancy Urban Learners together with design and technology school teacher, Neil Pinder. The film is scheduled to launch this month at London's Royal College of Art, hosted by The... View full entry
Ford sees his teaching as a way to counter the troubled history of urban planning in America. “We've decimated cities that were built by the hands of African Americans [...],” he says. “Those decisions are made by people outside of those communities. There are a limited amount of people at the table to advocate for our communities.”
“I'm letting kids know we have a history of building spaces and places,” Ford adds.
— Rolling Stone
Michael Ford began his mission to introduce the architecture profession to underrepresented youth through hip hop over a year ago. As times goes on, his Hip Hop Architecture Camp initiative is growing as he tours the U.S. This new Rolling Stone article looks into what the kids learn during... View full entry
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... View full entry
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... View full entry
John Cary, author of "Design for Good", recently gave a TED Talk, "How architecture can create dignity for all", emphasizing dignity in design and championing greater diversity in the architecture profession. Cary explains, “Dignity is to design, what justice is to law, and health is to... View full entry
“I try to be the face that I was looking for growing up,” Brown said. “So if I go into a room or an auditorium and just one person is interested in architecture, then I’ve accomplished my mission.”
The name comes from a milestone this past August, when the 400th African-American woman became licensed as an architect. There are 110,000 licensed architects in the country.
— Michigan Radio
Raised in Detroit, architectural designer Tiffany Brown won a 2017 Knight Arts Challenge grant for her project “400 Forward”, which aims to bring in more black girls and women into the field of architecture and urban planning. According to Brown, only 0.3 percent of U.S. architects are black... View full entry
Architecture, like contemporary art in the 1990s and legal theory a decade before, faces a critical moment in theory and practice. What do black citizens of major U.S. cities and global cities have to look forward to in the coming century in terms of urban conditions and their agency in determining how these conditions change and transform? What does an approach to cities that takes into account black agency, social codes and aesthetics have to offer to city-making as such? — CNN
CNN Style highlights USC architecture dean and CriticalProductive editor, Milton S. F. Curry, and his recent role as lead organizer behind Spatializing Blackness, a three-part panel discussion on "contemporary thinking and creative work related to black aesthetics, urbanism and the lived... View full entry
Last year, Harvard's GSD announced the establishment of the Philip Freelon Fellowship Fund designed to "provide expanded academic opportunities to African American and other under-represented architecture and design students at the GSD." Created in partnership with Perkins+Will, where Phil... View full entry
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. However, diversity among newly licensed architects and NCARB Certificate holders remained the same. For comparison, 38 percent of the U.S. population identifies as either non-white or Hispanic, according to 2015 estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau. — NCARB
There are now more women and non-white participants in architecture as of 2016 according to the NCARB, which has just released its 2017 "By the Numbers" report. As NCARB notes in a press release: “While several groups remain underrepresented within the profession, these trends point to growing... View full entry
The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture appointed Edna Ledesma and Miriam Solis as its new faculty leaders for the Race and Gender in the Built Environment Initiative. Launched last fall by scholars Anna Livia Brand and Andrea Roberts, the ongoing initiative fosters teaching and... View full entry
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... View full entry
The standard yardstick for judging housing affordability is to look at the median level of rents or home prices. As we all remember from statistics, the median is the observation in the middle of the distribution. And while for many purposes, it’s a reliable indicator of typical prices, in some neighborhoods, particularly those with a mix of expensive and cheap housing, the median is actually a weak indicator of affordability. — City Observatory
"For an illustration of this problem, imagine two neighborhoods. In both places, the median home costs $300,000. But in the first neighborhood, every home costs exactly $300,000, while in the second, there are a range of homes from $100,000 to $500,000. Although both neighborhoods have the same... View full entry
