As architects, we are not insulated from the events occurring around the world. Our cities have been shaped by policies of redlining, segregation, disproportionate policing, and the deliberate concentration of environmental harms in poor communities and communities of color. Our work has a significant impact on how communities are formed, how they evolve, and whether they thrive. In this time of global reckoning, we need to reflect on how we can build a world that nurtures everyone’s lives, health, and potential.
What is the role of architects in perpetuating injustice in the built environment? What can we do to empower our communities to shape their environments? These questions are of utmost importance for designers and members of a shared community.
Though no single or easy answer exists, more architects, firms, and professional organizations are addressing these questions today. An important dimension is diversity and inclusion. A more diverse profession that reflects the communities we serve will be better positioned to include the voices of historically marginalized people.
Beyond Listening
Due in part to the pandemic, my firm turned its annual traveling design exhibition into a virtual environmental justice symposium this past January. We aimed to highlight people who are addressing environmental justice issues in U.S. cities in which our company has a presence. Our efforts began with cold calls to organizations and resulted in five panels of meaningful conversations across two days.
Though I have been practicing for eight years, community outreach was a new experience for me. It seems central to the work of architecture and to the creation of supportive, humanizing environments. I worried that I might be met, understandably, with suspicion by community members with whom we did not have relationships. I did my best to convey that our listening as design professionals was equitable and not extractive. Even if it seems awkward at first, architects wanting to strengthen their relationships with communities will have to continue putting themselves out there.
Open to the public and promoted through local AIA components, regional sustainability organizations, and our participants’ networks, each panel attracted about 150 attendees. Housing advocates discussed their struggles to fight displacement and empower neighborhoods to shape their own futures amid a nationwide shortage of affordable housing. Mission-driven developers spoke about sustainable development as an opportunity to right the wrongs that have been done to communities. Community organizers talked about building healthy neighborhoods by providing access to community-owned grocery stores, preserving green space, and addressing chronic sewage overflow problems in low-income communities of color. Elected officials and policy experts spoke about building a restorative and regional green economy that addresses systemic inequalities.
At nearly every panel, the question was asked, “What can we as architects do better?” Answers from the speakers varied, but the common theme was that architects should be in better contact with organizations and community activists that are empowering everyday people to understand and respond to the environmental issues that their cities face. Architects need to build relationships to continuously inform their work—and not just when they receive a project. Otherwise, how can they help build communities when they don’t truly know them?
Next Steps
The symposium created new connections between architects and community organizations, but also among the organizations themselves. A memorable moment occurred when two panelists—one working to preserve green spaces and the other working to rebuild an old steel town in a manner that corrects a history of racial injustice—discussed the possibility of working together to stave off an encroaching fracking project. Architects have traditionally been connectors between multiple parties, namely clients, consultants, and government officials. We also need to include residents, underrepresented minorities, and local organizations. Though difficult conversations may arise, we should push our teams to include new voices and collaborators in our processes.
After the symposium, many participants have maintained contact. I hope we continue to strengthen those relationships and serve as a resource for knowledge, connections, and support for each other. My firm has recently launched small projects with several symposium participants.
For far too long, architects, designers, and planners have undertaken projects that transformed neighborhoods without listening to those most affected. We valued our technical knowledge over their experiential expertise. We need to become more cognizant of which voices and considerations we have prioritized and which we have ignored. The design community understands that good design is contextual. It also needs to understand that it can never fully grasp the context without engaging the people affected by our design.
The views and conclusions from this author are not necessarily those of ARCHITECT magazine or of The American Institute of Architects.
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