All right.
So I'm really, really
excited and truly
grateful to welcome
our Pecha Kucha
contributors this afternoon.
Building this network and
broadening the conversation
is really a fundamental
reason for this convergence.
And having so many organizations
presenting is thrilling.
It means a lot to us,
just how many people came,
how we honestly
had too many people
willing to present to even
be able to have everyone.
So in order to have the
number of people we will,
there's going to be
some tight timekeeping.
So bear with us.
And with that, I'm just going
to let people come on up
and go through the order
presentations this year,
and we're going to start
with you UVA ManifestA.
[applause]
Hello.
Hi, everyone.
I'm Katie Kelly, and
I'm a third year MLA
at the University of Virginia.
I'm Zazu Swistel.
I'm a third-year masters
of architecture student
at the University of Virginia.
And since we're coming from
Charlottesville and from UVA,
there's a lot we
could talk about.
We could talk
about the [? sam ?]
list that impacted our faculty
searches this last semester.
We could talk about the
terrorist attacks of August 11
and 12.
We could talk about
the continuing
reign of power of Thomas
Jefferson over our institution.
But instead, because
we have five minutes,
we're going to talk about this
book and the event that it
is about.
The Charlottesville Tapes
was an event held at UVA
in the rotunda in 1982.
And it hosted 26 of
the most predominantly
Western and white male
architects of the time
save for Toyo Ito and
Tadao Ando, who in the book
are referred to often
as the Japanese.
A young Rem Koolhaas,
an aged Phillip Johnson,
a now defamed Richard
Meier, amongst others,
were in attendance.
And I think Jaquelin
Robertson's statement
here in his
introduction succinctly
defines the event and
the state of architecture
up until this point, that
it was all very male,
a special one of those
little boys clubs.
He goes on to note in an
aside in his introduction
that significantly, no
women were in attendance.
And I was really struck
by this footnote,
because it's so small, and it
could be significantly longer.
It could be many books.
And so, I think a lot of what
we're attempting to address
is expanding this footnote.
But the history of
University of Virginia
makes it not surprising
that this event occurred,
or that this culture existed.
Only 10 years before the
event, women were not
accepted into the institution.
And there was still a debate
over whether the women
invasion should be allowed.
And mind you, this
is also not including
the kind of systemic racism
of the school, et cetera.
But so, a lot of what we
want to do as ManifestA
is to contend with
all this history.
But our purpose is to transform
closed circles of exclusion,
like this one, into
more open conversations,
like the event that we held last
semester through the Landscape
Architecture Department.
And Amber Wiley was on the panel
as well, and she, I believe,
is here.
And Zazu will talk about
some more of the work
that ManifestA is doing.
So where are we now with UVA
and our newly formed group--
newly formed just this year--
ManifestA?
Our identity at UVA is not
uniform nor is it separate.
We are really mixed together
with the Landscape Department,
the Urban Planning Department,
the Architecture Department,
as well as though our political
views at UVA are not the same.
We can be, at one
end, very liberal,
on the other end
really centrist,
and another end kind
of conservative.
So we really wanted--
as ManifestA should hold
our institution accountable,
we also wanted this to be
a resource for everyone.
So we do have a
core steering group,
but we also are trying
to encourage our student
population to participate and
volunteer across the board,
trying to keep everything
really, really open.
Everyone is automatically
a member of ManifestA.
And also, through
our branding, we
just sort of decided
in thinking of a scheme
that, in the future
of our group,
we did not want to get locked
into one sort of color,
one sort of font type.
We should be forever
changing and adapting
based off of what our
needs are currently
and what the needs
are of the future.
So currently, what
we're doing is bringing
in mostly female designers.
And ManifestA has
the opportunity
to create conversations
with them.
And we are in the
process of transcribing
all of these
interviews, as well as
with a collection of a
lot of different people
pulling together a resource of--
putting together a syllabus
on gender, race, sexuality,
and architecture and design.
And all of this,
hopefully, will soon
be up on our website, which
I hope that you all visit.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
[applause]
And now, we're going
to hear from GSD AASU.
[applause]
All right.
So, good afternoon.
Thanks so much to
Women in Design
for having me here today
to talk a little bit
about the African-American
student union here at the GSD.
My name is Natasha
Hicks, and I was
one of the co-presidents of
the AASU last academic year,
as well as one of the
co-chairs of the 2017
Black in Design Conference.
Yeah.
So for just some
very brief history,
the AASU was founded in 2012
by Jean Lauer and Tracie Curry.
So the group has
kind of formally been
around for about six years now.
So who are we?
Are a group of black,
bi-racial, multi-racial,
and non-black students.
As a group, we support
the advancement
of African-Americans in
the design disciplines.
Our aim is to cultivate
a space of belonging
in a country that has
historically denied
African-Americans such spaces.
So what is it that we do?
At its core, the
AASU is a community,
and our primary
goal is to make sure
that we create the spaces on
and off campus to congregate,
laugh, share, and heal.
Through this, we've
created art installations,
put on lectures, symposiums,
and storytelling nights.
Which leads me to the
AASU's signature event--
Black in Design, which
is an event that I
wanted to focus on today.
The conference, which
was founded in 2015,
looks to recognize and
celebrate the contributions
of the African Diaspora
to the design fields.
The conference in
2017 was called
Designing Resistance,
Building Coalitions,
and was framed across the
different forms of design
to unearth our agency as
designers to envision more
radical and equitable futures.
And what I wanted
to do today is talk
about how the Black
in Design Conference
connects to the
different conversations
here at Convergence.
So how does Black
in Design start
to question power dynamics?
I think what the
conference first revealed
is the power of visibility.
I will never forget the sight
of this very auditorium filled
to the brim with black
and brown individuals.
And there was a real power
in reclaiming this auditorium
and saying, we belong
here, we have been here,
and you can't erase us
from the discipline.
Secondly, the
conference revealed
the power of a network of
black and brown designers.
Many times during
the conference,
it felt like a family reunion.
And the conference was able to
create a network of solidarity
and shared experience.
And I think what was
really incredible to see
is how the conference
attendees mobilized
this power of this
network after the fact.
So this group called
Black Space is
a group of designers who
met at the 2015 conference,
and decided to continue
the Black in Design network
in New York.
They started out by having
weekly boozy branches,
and two years
later, they are now
a formal group who
have received grants
to do neighborhood development
work and programming in New
York.
Yeah.
So how does Black
in Design start
to question design pedagogy?
So we were very intentional
in the curation of the panels,
and making sure that
there was always
one panelist representing one of
the classic design disciplines,
and pairing them with one or
two individuals whose work
intersects with the
built environment,
but who may not consider
themselves designers.
So for instance, how does
a conversation about design
begin to shift when you
pair architects and planners
with Ingrid LaFleur, an
artist and curator who ran
for mayor of Detroit in 2017?
Or, when you pair architects
and graphic designers
with Dr. Courtney
Cogburn, who's developing
a VR simulation
around her research
on the role of
racism in producing
racial inequalities in health.
What we found is that
these types of pairings
sparked incredible
conversations about what
we can do individually
and collectively,
and started to blur
the boundaries of what
design could and can be.
So how does Black in Design
start to think about activism?
Again, going back to how
we curated the panels,
we were also very
intentional about bringing
a group of designers
to the table who
were explicit about
how their work was
trying to move the needle
around systems of oppression.
And I think our keynote
speaker, DeRay McKesson really
unearthed the power of
designers to imagine
and and envision
a different world.
He said during his talk,
"If you can't imagine it,
you can't fight for it."
And I think that gets to the
heart of what our conference
thoughts reveal,
that is empowering
the folks in the room
to see their skillsets,
their work, as a
form of activism.
And briefly, going back to what
[inaudible] said last night,
I wanted to close with
just reiterating her point
about finding your tribe.
I wouldn't have
been able to make it
through my time at the
GSD without the AASU.
And it was through
this platform that I
was able to find my
voice as a designer.
So I hope you all are able
to find your tribe here
at Convergence so that we can
create the networks to try
to dismantle the different forms
of oppression we experience
every day.
[applause]
OK.
Next up is Yale EID.
[applause]
OK, I'm Katie and this
is Paige, and we're here
representing Equality
in Design from the Yale
School of Architecture.
Equality in Design was
founded by students in 2015
as a platform to
promote equality,
both in the profession
of architecture,
but in the built
environment at large,
looking at issues
of gender equality,
race, religion, sexuality.
So on a daily or weekly
basis, Equality in Design
puts on regular
events with students.
We have events that we
call brown bag lunches,
where we invite speakers
from across Yale University
and beyond to come and host
discussions in the architecture
school.
We teach architecture courses
at local high schools,
and we have regular debates.
The image on the
left is from a debate
that we hosted last semester
where the question was posed,
is architecture political?
The image on the right
is from a discussion
that was led by Mabel O.
Wilson on space, politics,
and cultural memory
in black America.
And so, beyond this sort
of regular programming,
Equality in Design
also offers a platform
for students in times of
political, social, or cultural
upheaval as a place to debate
or express ideas or post town
halls, and interface
with the faculty.
So, most recently, EID responded
to the Shitty Architecture Men
list.
In collaboration with the
school's newspaper, Paprika,
we put out a survey
to the entire school
to ask questions about
the school itself,
but also the discipline
of architecture at large,
and then published a bulletin.
And the bulletin resulted
in several meetings
with faculty and
with Dean Burke,
and really started
a conversation
that's been happening in
the school since that time.
So the first year is highly
collaborative at Yale,
and a lot of the
microaggressions
between students really rise to
the surface during that time.
So we held an orientation with
incoming students this fall
and provided them
with some rules
that we thought would
help them to navigate
the first year in the most
equitable way possible,
but also to feel comfortable
admitting that they
are guilty of this,
and then being
able to move on from that.
So EID organized this exhibition
in the north gallery of Rudolph
Hall by sending out a survey
to schools of architecture
around the world, and then
publishing that information
on these posters along with
responses from the survey
on the shelf at the bottom.
The chair was a strong
theme of the exhibition,
being able to sit down
and have a conversation,
or being able to absorb some of
the finer grained information
alone.
And we have some
upcoming events planned.
Mary McLeod gave a great
lecture on Wednesday.
And Andrew Westover, who gave
the masculinity workshop today,
will be joining us
in November as well.
And thanks for having us.
We look forward to collaborating
with other organizations
in the future.
[applause]
OK.
Next up is Penn WIA.
[applause]
Good evening.
We are three board members
of PennDesign's Women
in Architecture.
My name is Maria Jose Fuentes.
Beside me are Nicole Bronola
and Caitlin Dashiell.
I am a 500-level
M Arch I student.
So to talk a little
bit about what we do
and what our mission
is, we want to mobilize
a community of designers
and thinkers alike
to increase the
incidence and visibility
of women in architecture through
agency and professionalism.
So our founding-- we
were founded in 2016
by six women who had the goal
of examining the historically
male-dominated profession
of architecture,
and providing networking
and mentorship opportunities
to the students for our school.
Both of our membership and
attendance to an increasing
number of events and firm visits
have grown over the three years
that we've been in existence.
And this is just a small graph
to share that relationship.
And starting with the five
chairs that we had in 2016,
we've grown to 10 chairs and
12 subcommittee members, which
is really awesome
considering that it's been
such a short time in existence.
So these are a few
of the people that
make up our executive board,
who have all been very helpful.
It's been a great
journey so far.
And some of the words
that kind of sum up
the vision that we've been
working with this year
are equity, exposure,
and empowerment.
So we want to promote
equity in the profession,
engage the generation of leaders
for the next coming members
to come inside, and to
expose, empower each other
by fostering professional growth
to advance the success of women
architects.
So we have defined
our three pillars--
exposure, empowerment,
and equity, and really
want to welcome any
students of any gender who
are willing to advance to
equity in the design field.
So our first term,
exposure, the allotment
of equal visibility
for men and women
to experience the nuances
of design profession.
And we have done this
through firm crawls.
Over the past two
years, we've been
able to visit 14 different
offices in the Philadelphia
and the New York
area, really trying
to foster a dialogue between
the profession and academia.
And the experiences
provide talks
with partners about the
still visible gender gap.
And in addition to that, we
have Q&A questions and portfolio
reviews for the students.
Our second term,
empowerment, and this
is empowerment through
mentorship, the ability
to cultivate relationships,
receive and offer guidance
from professionals, and
promote leadership growth.
We have started a
mentorship program,
which has grown from
just architecture
into planning, landscape
architecture, construction,
and real estate.
And at the bottom, you can
see the Philadelphia offices
that have participated
in our mentorship.
We've really tried to facilitate
a network of support that
celebrates the achievements
of women in architecture
and the community.
And the program has grown
to over 60 participants
in the past year, and we
are trying to grow and also
expand just from the
Philadelphia area
to New York and D.C.
And then, finally, equity.
Our third pillar, equity, and
we are seeing this as equity
through conversations
and experiences,
equal opportunities,
rights, leadership ratios,
and responsibilities.
So from a 2,000-person
symposium,
to a talk with Mabel O.
Wilson most recently,
to things like our
panel last year reform,
we've really tried to foster
these conversations and this
dialogue.
Most recently, we hosted
Reaction, a daylong workshop
that addresses empowering
the future leaders in design
with things like
negotiating offers,
knowing your rights, networking,
with impact, vocal empowerment.
This workshop included
15 women and men
who work and/or teach in
the Philadelphia area,
and through panels
in workshops, they
addressed the role of women
in academia, the workplace,
and that construction site.
The previous year we
hosted a daylong symposium
intended to cultivate
understanding
and foster actions by examining
the framework, fallout,
and future of women in design.
13 women from New
York and Philadelphia
in the architecture
profession were
involved in this day of
discussion and action,
really talking
about what it means
to be a woman in the
profession at this time,
and how we can continue
cultivating conversations
about where we go from here.
As we move forward, we continue
to foster our connections
with organizations like Women
in Architecture Philadelphia,
and make new connections
with institutions
like Penn's Wharton Women in
Business and the Philadelphia
SPARK Volunteering Program.
We continue to grow
our mentorship program
in firm crawls, and are
developing programming
for panel events that
incorporate women
on a national scale.
PWIA wants to address the
disparities within our field
by advocating for empowerment,
exposure, and equity,
from pedagogy to profession.
Where we go from here is
defined by our understanding
of the power we have,
and the opportunities
and conversations we
establish by bringing everyone
to the table.
Thank you very much
for including us today.
[applause]
OK.
Next is R.I.S.D. N.O.M.A.S.
[applause]
Hi, everyone.
My name is Sophie, and I'm a
fourth year undergrad student.
Hi, I'm Montana.
I'm a fifth year
undergrad student.
Hi, I'm [inaudible],, and I'm a
fourth year undergrad student.
So R.I.S.D. N.O.M.A.S. is
kind of a very new kind
of flowy thing right now, but
it's definitely in response
to student protests that have
happened over the last three
years at R.I.S.D. For those
of you who don't know,
N.O.M.A.S. stands for National
Organization of Minority
Architecture Students.
And under that guise
at R.I.S.D. We're
trying to kind of shift
this idea of minority
or underrepresented identities,
kind of in all ways, that
relate to our both Architecture
Department, but also
our broader student
body as a whole.
And as a chapter, we
have three bigger goals--
energizing departmental reform,
engaging the student body,
and nurturing diverse local
and global connections.
So one of the more casual
aspects of our organization
are monthly socials.
We want to use them to
cultivate the social culture
in the department,
mostly to engage students
in different ways of getting
feedback about their work
outside of the
institutional circuit,
and to open up the discussion
between departments.
A lot of our socials also
include the landscape
and entire department.
This was made by our
group like last week.
[laughter]
[music playing]
The end of the
semester, you crit
with all of the faculty and
professors that you don't know,
and often a guest crit.
You get to hear about what
your professors think of you,
and you can also see how
they overlap and interact
about your work.
I think every week, it works
like we have a small group
crit, like three to four
people and a teacher.
And then at the
end of the project,
we have a big crit
with the whole class.
The guest crits
and the professors
are the main people
talking, and students
like are less inclined to
feel like they can actually
say something.
There is a lot of process
and like progress work.
You're supposed to show
your process almost more
than the final product.
In textiles, it's much
more like a collaboration.
People are getting up
and touching things
and moving around, and it
feels like everyone's sort
of actively working together
rather than someone presenting
or pitching, like at
a business meeting.
Because we're in graphic design
and mostly [inaudible] print,
we don't really focus a
lot on the process itself.
More like crit
first, and then it
would follow by, like, students.
The feeling that students
have that they can speak
or can't speak
doesn't really change.
It's like every time
we're in a group setting,
everyone shuts up.
I used to talk all
the time in crit.
And as soon as architecture
crit started happening,
it was like a sense of like I
didn't know what I was talking.
And because I didn't know
what I was talking about,
I didn't have a right
to say anything.
My ideal crit would probably
be people all gathered
around a table and moving
things around and talking very
casually, and maybe make it
more intimate rather than it
being someone
presenting something
to a panel or a group of people.
I really like it, personally,
when the professors start
critting first, kind
of like initiate
the bigger question for other
people to participate in.
I would rather
have a presentation
that people would come to
because they wanted to.
Like, I don't think the
students need to be there
unless they want to be there.
My ideal crit wouldn't
just have architects.
Like, it would
have everyone else
I'm trying to connect
with in my process.
I really want to know
what people think,
and if you're designing for
people, they should be there.
[applause]
And so, an extension
of this crit,
the crit project that
we have going on,
is a two-part exhibit.
First part is going to
be in February, where
we're going to be exposing
these crit cards that we've
been collecting,
trying to assess
the current state of
the crit and expose
its shortcomings and
any spatial patterns
that we find intimidating.
And then, the
second part is going
to be in April to propose a
solution or an intervention
to try to shift the
spatial experiences,
that everyone feels an
equal opportunity to speak.
A side project that's sort
of a satellite to our website
is our Instagram.
We're using it as a platform to
talk about minority architects
who aren't referenced
in our lectures
or in our critique
conversations.
And we're really trying to
use our institutional platform
to increase visibility
in our community.
[applause]
All right.
Next up, we have Julia Gamolina
from the website Madame
Architect.
[applause]
OK, let's see.
OK.
So first, a big thanks
to [inaudible] Women
in Design for having me to
talk about my absolute favorite
thing in the world
and the best work
I've ever done in my life,
which is Madame Architect.
For those that are
unfamiliar, Madame Architect
is a website and a
platform dedicated
to profiling women
that are architects,
and women that are advancing
the practice of architecture
on the entirety
of their careers,
through long form Q&A style
interviews, basically asking
like to give a chronological
account of their careers,
the decisions they've
made, highlights,
challenges, advice,
lessons learned, et cetera.
So how did this start?
I am a big fan of mentorship.
I talk to everyone
I possibly can
and annoy people
with my questions.
So I always have mentors
at different stages
of their career,
and that, coupled
with me missing writing,
I asked Subtext,
which is the online
journal from architects,
who are going to
talk later, if I
could interview
some of my mentors
for this online journal.
They said yes.
I interviewed these four ladies,
and last year, architects
approached me to do
a guest editorship.
So this involved a
group of 16 women
that I selected, and it
was released once a week
starting in 2018, January 2018.
And when that guest
editorship was over,
I realized how much I loved
this and how important
this work was, and that
I wanted to keep going.
So the website
Madamearchitect.org
launched in May, and so far,
we have 44 women up there,
and we will have 50 by
the end of the year.
So the mission--
yeah, it's exciting.
The mission with Madame
Architect is just to showcase
the amount of women there
are in the profession
doing different things
at different points
in their career.
So we look at
seasoned professionals
who have done it all and who
are looking back and talking
about lessons learned.
We're looking at women who
are starting their own firms
and going through
that in real time.
Women new to the industry
and to the field,
talking about what they
want to do, be, and see.
Women with really particular
research interests or specific
focuses, niches
within the field.
And finally, women from--
it's not moving--
interesting backgrounds.
For example [inaudible]
studied mechanical engineering,
but then studied architecture,
and has worked in construction,
engineering, and development.
Just a little bit of behind
the scenes on what I do.
I kind of find these women.
A lot of them are
recommended to me.
Some I know already.
Some I look for.
I find them.
I coordinate with them.
We meet for about
an hour and chat.
I transcribe, edit, and get
their feedback, get photos.
I ask people to submit the 10
photos that best describe them
to me, and I'll upload this.
We're on social media.
We're on Instagram,
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn,
@MadameArchitect.
And there's a monthly
newsletter that goes out
announcing the month's lineup.
And when I refer to
Madame Architect as we,
I mean me and the
women I've interviewed.
But really, it is just
me for now doing this.
Hopefully not for much longer.
So who have we profiled so far?
So we look at, like I said,
seasoned architects who
are at the top of their
career, partners at firms.
So Elaine Molinar Snohetta's
on there, Sara Lopergolo
at Selldorf Architects,
Hayes Slade, who
has a boutique firm with her
husband James, Heidi Blau, who
is really focused on service
and social responsibility
up at FXCollaborative, where
I worked full time in business
development.
We also look at those
earlier in their careers.
So particularly,
grappling with motherhood.
So Danei Cesario works full time
and is raising two sweet girls.
Irina Schneid is
teaching, and also as
a mother to now two babies.
Samantha Josaphat just
launched her own firm
completely by herself, meaning
no partner, no business
partners.
Jenny Peysin launched
a firm while pregnant.
You can see her little bump
behind her desk in her home
office.
And we have people
launching firms
with their moms and friends,
and we like to ask them-- again,
I like to ask them
about that in real time.
We also try and
profile women who
are in different
corners of the world.
[inaudible] is based in Turkey.
Lorena's between
Spain and New York.
And a good segue to Lorena--
her research interests are
on plastics, specifically.
So that's kind of a unique
niche she has in the field.
She also focuses on
health care design,
especially for children,
how her research can
integrate into that.
[inaudible] Rockcastle
focuses on daylighting,
another unique take.
Jenny Sabin focuses on the
intersection of biology
material science and design.
Katie has her own firm
focusing on the vernacular
in the locations of
each of her projects.
This woman, Jennifer Preston,
focuses on sustainability
and pro bono work in Africa.
So we really try to find people
with kind of unique takes
and focuses.
We also try to find some
unique stories in there.
So for example,
unique circumstances.
So Erin Gensler, Art
Gensler's granddaughter,
avoided architecture
for a very long time,
realized she could not.
So she worked for
Gensler with her dad
while he was still there, and
now, launched her own firm.
So that's kind of a
unique circumstance.
What do you do with this
huge, huge, huge, huge legacy?
Other woman we spoke to, Zuhal,
was launching her own firm
while battling cancer, and
talked about the challenges
that came with that.
And then we have someone
like Carla Swickerath who's
the CEO and partner in Studio
Libeskind, who also owns, runs,
and has designed a
restaurant with her husband,
and who just had her
first baby in her 40s.
And what else do we have?
I'm going to try and wrap it up.
We also focus on academia,
and how motherhood
affects careers in that.
Talked to Deborah Berke,
cool, on her role as dean,
and her role as a
practitioner obviously.
We got our first architecture
student up on the website.
[inaudible] is about to
finish up her thesis.
Isabel Oyuela-Bonzani, who's
with us today, just one
year out of school, is already
teaching an introduction
to architecture program
in Rome, and now is
teaching kind of a similar
thing at Dalton, which is great.
And Mitch McEwan, I love this
photo she posted on Instagram.
She captioned it, "This is what
an architecture professor looks
like at Princeton in
the 21st century."
But she's still very loyal
to Harvard, as you can see,
so there you go.
And finally, we don't
just profile architects.
Sophie Hardcastle, who's
here, is a historian.
Ashley is a curator
at the Guggenheim.
[inaudible] was doing
business development at BIG.
Tammy's a PR professional.
Ashley is a strategist.
Jess Myers, who you'll hear
talk later, produces a podcast.
Sidney's a journalist.
Melanie is on the
client side heading up
retail and offline
experiences at Glossier.
And Jen was doing mechanical
engineering at BuroHappold
and kind of gave me a
consultant's perspective
on what it's like to
work with architects.
What have we learned
from all this?
I found that everyone's
experiences and challenges
are so, so unique.
But some of the themes
that have come up
have been based on where
a woman is in her career.
So those early in their career
expressed uncertainty for
and hope that they'll
find work that they love.
Those a little bit
further along are
starting to see the impact their
gender has on their careers.
So they'll be the first woman or
the only woman on the job site.
They'll understand the
impacts of motherhood.
A lot of people talk
about loneliness.
A lot of women I
interview because they
have these unique careers,
they're doing things
that nobody has done before,
that there's no precedent for,
so they talk about loneliness
in terms of paving a way forward
in the work that they want to
do, but also in terms of who
they are and who they
want to see more of,
and the mentors they want to
find and having representation.
And finally, those further
along in their career-- again,
this is Lane from
Snohetta-- they
talk about wanting to get
back to the things that
made them want to
go into architecture
in the first place, so drawing,
making, creating, working
with their hands.
What does this all mean?
I've learned that
mentorship, and conversation,
and information sharing is
absolutely crucial if we're
to go forward with any
initiative or ambition we have,
so mentoring those in high
school really, really young--
or really early
to the profession,
peer-to-peer mentorship
and conversations,
and then intergenerational,
that is really crucial.
And where do we go from here?
Where we go is I'm going
to keep doing this once
a week, an interview once a
week, just to get as many women
up there as possible.
We're also introducing
new types of content
so that you guys can get
different perspectives
on what these women are up to.
So stay tuned.
What else is happening at this?
This initiative was meant
to be showcasing architects.
But it's now become a good
resource for architects,
I hope.
So we're profiling
lawyers, PR professionals,
people that can be a
resource to you guys
and when you start
your own firms,
if you choose to do that.
And finally, I never again
want to hear things like,
where are the women architects?
Women and architecture
are erased from history.
I can't name five or 10
architects that are women.
Like that, I never want
to hear that again.
There's 50 women up on the site.
There are so many.
They're doing such
amazing work--
unique, interesting,
important work.
And so I just hope
that, yeah, when
people are asked
to name 10, they'll
say I can name 50 because
Madame Architects.
So let's do this.
Thanks.
[applause]
All right.
So next up, we have
Women in Design,
our wonderful co-chairs
from last year
who really started this.
So welcome.
[applause]
Do we have the pointer
clicker with the laser?
Yes.
Is that the laser?
All right--
Introduce--
Introduce yourself on--
I'm Julia.
Yeah.
My name's Lindsey.
I'm Marissa.
So we are the--
like Sarah said, we
were the Women in Design
co-chairs last year.
And just a quick intro
of who Women in Design
is, we're a student organization
committed to advancing gender
equity in and through
design led by women,
but open to all
women in design works
to make the design field
more equitable and open
in light of the historic
underrepresentation of women
in recognized leadership
roles, as well as designs
critical need for
diversity collaboration
care and recentering
marginalized voices.
We have a pretty strong legacy.
So we had a lot to live up to.
So this is-- past co-chairs
have organized things
like the Boycott
Pritzker movement,
attending the Women's March--
the original Women's March,
and even meeting
Elizabeth Warren as well.
They also started a tradition
of International Women's Day
week, which happens
every year now, so yeah.
So this is a model
of what we were
up to last year that was mostly
carried on from the chairs
before us, and probably
to some degree,
carried on by this
year's chairs.
And some of the ongoing
projects are a little more
self-explanatory than
others, like field trips,
visiting firms,
bringing in artists,
having networking nights so
we can get to know each other.
Some are a little
more nebulous--
discussion groups, readers.
We tried to work a lot this past
year with other student groups.
Women is not in a bubble.
It's everybody.
So we worked with Spain GSD.
We worked with the
Latin GSD group.
We worked with the
Kirkland gallery.
We brought in Rosa Xiang.
We hosted Pechakucha
with career services
and with the urban
planning organization.
We hosted [inaudible] dogs
a couple of times a year.
You'll see what
we can do tonight,
giving presentations
and making sure
that everybody in the school
has a chance to be heard.
So as Julia
mentioned, every year
a staple of our
programming is surrounding
International Women's Day, which
we've tried to turn into a week
because why not?
Last year, the theme of the
week was feminine power, yeah.
So typically, we kick
off in the library.
It's an opportunity for
students, administration,
faculty to all come together
in the middle of the day
and have a more intimate
conversation than is normally
allowed.
We pose the question of feminine
power to a number of faculty
members who attended,
and whether or not that's
even a useful framework
to think through.
We also hosted,
which was a real joy,
we hosted Beatriz
Colomina, who gave
a lecture as a keynote,
which was called
"The Secret Life of
Modern Architecture:
We Don't Need Another Hero."
It was on partnerships,
hidden and rewritten
histories of collaboration.
We also had a few of the members
of the group who reproduced
this exhibition for you guys.
It's up in Stubbins right now.
But this was up in
the library last year.
This is [inaudible] and Sharon.
And we collaborated
it a lot, like Marissa
said, through International
Women's Day also,
with other student
groups, and local alumni
who have amazing initiatives
happening as well.
We were riding
high off that week.
And the next week,
the SAM list came out.
That sent everything sideways.
I'm an alumni now, so
I'm just going to like--
[everyone laughs]
I graduated.
The worst response
was no response.
We waited for a while
thinking that leadership
and administration would
step into the role.
But it turned out
that it was going
to be women and students first.
So we took up the mantle
to have organized meetings,
to bring everyone-- notice how
excited we look in meetings.
[audience laughs]
That's at that
open dean's meeting
with faculty, administrators,
student leadership.
Mina on the left, that's Student
Forum President right now.
Shout out to Mina if she's here.
And we really-- this was, I
guess to bring it to today,
this is where like
intersectionality and identity
of rubber meets the road, which
is that for every meeting,
we were like, China
GSD needs to be here.
Latin GSD needs to be here.
African-American student
needs to be here.
Every single group
has to be here
and has to have
an opinion in this
because the GSD is
on American soil,
but this is half international,
like 40 different countries.
There are a number of opinions
on harassment, discrimination
on what you will and
will not put up with.
And so we worked across a bunch
of different student groups.
You took the pointer.
We had cosigners from all
different areas of the GSD.
And at the institutional scale--
we recognize what the
institution can and can't
do for us--
made a number of
suggestions about what
we want administration
to be doing,
what we want
faculty to be doing,
what our responsibilities
are as student leaderships,
as students, as participants,
as people shaping
the pedagogy actively,
like bottom up,
top down what we hope
comes out of this.
It was three pages.
I don't know how many of the
student body got through it.
We really shoved it down
everybody's throats.
But we tried to the
best of our abilities
to really rope everybody into
this together because it's not
just about women in design.
There's also the fallout
from the SAM list
we tried to make visible.
In the trades, it was
important to us that
whether or not you read
a three-page document,
you come into the building
and you see it every day.
So there was, again, out
of this collaboration
with all the student
organizations,
so the urban planning
organization, ASU, Latin GSD--
the list goes on.
I think there's about
seven or 10 of them--
put up posters, making
clear that the unwillingness
to accept lack of response
or a light response.
This was up from March
on, through open house.
We really wanted it to be
clear that this was not
going away for us.
And it shouldn't go away
for the institution either.
And it was really nice for out
of all of this, the meetings,
the students led initiatives.
The female faculty
also cosigned of letter
that they wrote, which
was a really nice link
between students
and administration.
They play a super key role
there, so a really nice form
of solidarity there.
And in May, we passed the torch
to these three fine ladies.
And it's just been amazing.
We're so proud.
Thanks.
Thank you.
[applause]
All right, thank you.
Up next, we have QSAPP.
[applause]
Hi.
My name is Gwendolyn
Stegall And I'm
representing the Queer Students
of Architecture, Planning,
and Preservation
at Columbia GSAPP.
We are a student
organization that
seeks to foster both
conversation and community
among LGBTQ students,
their allies, faculty,
and alumni of GSAPP.
I would go through all
of the things we've
done since our founding in 2014,
but I only have five minutes,
so I just wanted to
highlight one project that we
did before this year
called Coded Plumbing.
It actually came up briefly
on the previous panel,
the importance of
bathrooms in architecture,
the inherent gender
discrimination that
exists in bathroom codes.
And we explored this
through an exhibition
and an actual set of AutoCAD
blocks to be used by anybody.
And this was around the time
of the Carolina bathroom
transgender scandal.
But I want to spend
most of my time talking
about our current project.
We are focusing on the
problem of homelessness
in the LGBTQ youth
population in New York
City and its
intersection with design.
And we'll be publishing this
research in May of 2019.
Last spring, as part
of this research,
we held a panel about a
recently-opened transitional
housing center for LGBTQ youth.
We invited an
interdisciplinary set of folks.
We had the executive director
of the Ali Forney Center, who
is actually running the center.
And they are one of the
major organizations working
on this issue in New York City.
We had Steve Herrick from the
Cooper Square Committee, which
is an urban planning
organization that really dealt
with the technical parts of this
project and the funding for it,
and Christine
Hunter and Julie Chu
of Magnuson Architecture
and Planning,
who worked on this
adaptive reuse project.
So it was really a dynamic
conversation, the kind of thing
that QSAPP hopes
to foster at GSAPP,
where often the
disciplines are very
siloed into their
own little pockets.
Similarly in the actual
project and research itself,
we are taking a very
cross-disciplinary lens.
We are doing clearly a
lot of background research
into the enormity and
severity of this problem.
It's particularly an issue in
New York because a lot of youth
come there thinking that it's
going to be a safer space.
And they find that it's very
expensive and impossible
to live on their own.
But we're also looking
through a spatial lens,
as our design backgrounds
give us an opportunity to do,
and taking stock of the
existing options for those youth
and how often toxic they are.
An important part of
our project taking
from fields like
urban planning that
do much more direct interaction
with stakeholders than at least
at GSAPP the architects do.
We're doing interviews with
different organizations that
are already working
on this issue
and asking how we can
enhance this conversation.
And we're looking
into funding models.
We have a real estate
program at GSAPP.
And a number of
those students are
looking at how you can
actually fund these projects
because we've heard
that really that
is the biggest barrier to
solving this issue is money.
And architects, again, don't
like to talk about that.
But thankfully, we
have a broad swath
of people working on this issue.
And if you would like a
copy of the actual book
when it gets published in
May, please let me know.
We would love to distribute
it to as wide an audience as
possible.
So thank you so much.
[applause]
All right, thank you.
Next up we have
Georgia Tech WIA.
[applause]
Hello everyone.
We are Women in Architecture
from the Georgia Institute
of Technology.
My name is Emily Wirt.
And I am the current president.
And I'm Amy Stone.
And I'm the director
of Public Relations.
And we're here with four other
members of our executive board.
Women in Architecture is
a student organization
that promotes unity and
equity within architecture
while leading
design achievements
within the School
of Architecture
and the Institute as a whole.
We started as a group calling
ourselves Woman in Architecture
in 2012.
We had seven graduate students.
Now in 2018, we are a group of
30 graduate and undergraduate
students.
And usually at our
events, we're pulling
in more people than our
official members of the group.
Like Emily said,
we are on a mission
to promote unity and equity.
And our mission is to inspire,
empower, and celebrate.
So this is just a quick snapshot
of our organization and images
of who's here with
us on this trip.
We are, again, a mix of
undergrad and graduate
students.
And all of our events
are open to everyone.
So these are just a few of
the many kind of opportunities
we offer our members.
We've had several
opportunities for installation
and fabrication on campus.
And we provide lectures
that bring in voices outside
of Georgia Tech for our members.
And we also work in
outreach in the community.
We've worked with elementary
school girls in the past
through STEM programs.
And in the spring,
we're going to start
working with high school
students in the Atlanta area.
We also try to create
the opportunity
to get women on
construction sites
where all questions are welcome.
We do exhibitions of--
sorry, public exhibitions
of student work.
And we've gone through, like
other organizations have said,
design office crawls
and tours, and also
doing walking tours
of architecturally
significant sites in Atlanta.
We also do
student-to-student mentoring,
which has been really helpful
between grads and undergrads.
And we're also looking to expand
that with local professionals.
So very quickly, I want to
touch on two recent projects
that we've done that have
been very significant
for our organization.
The first is this installation.
It was a design-build
project entitled The Veil.
And this was a project that
we designed, fabricated,
and installed ourselves on the
belt line in Atlanta, which
is basically Atlanta's
version of the high line,
where it was for
about six months.
We then took down the piece,
did a lot of refinishing.
And we've just
installed this piece
on Georgia Tech's campus,
which is really exciting, just
last month.
Another event that
we had this past year
was a student
exhibition of work.
This brought in
students that were
Women in Architecture
members and nonmembers,
and also from all over
the College of Design
through a lot of
different mediums.
And the nice thing about this
was held at the First Center
for the Arts, which is
on Georgia Tech's campus.
But it has several
public performances.
So this was really
great to expose
our students' work to people
in Atlanta outside of Georgia
Tech.
Our identity as a
student group has
been defined as Women in
Architecture with the asterisk
that all are invited to join.
About two out of our
30 right now are men.
And 28 are female.
We do believe that
women need women,
and that gender-based
support groups have played
a crucial role in helping women
foster community and support
in a male dominated profession.
However, gender
exclusive groups is how
we got here in the first place.
And rather than exclude, divide,
or fraction of profession
that is already
low in numbers, we
are looking forward
to more inclusion.
And starting in spring of
2019, Women in Architecture
will be renamed to
Equity in Architecture.
And this is done with
two goals in mind--
inclusion and continuity.
Inclusion, to bring more people
to the table, the missing
32%, the LGBTQIA,
underrepresented minorities,
and more men to the table
so that we can share
this common vision and goal.
And also for continuity, we
are tying into the AIA Georgia
group of Equity in Architecture
to link the student group
with a professional group.
So something important
to talk about,
what's the deal with equity?
At this conference and
in our conversations,
there's a lot of
talk about equity,
and equality, and women in
architecture, women in design.
And I think it's
really important
that we understand what equity
is, and especially for us,
changing our names from
Women in Architecture
to Equity in Architecture.
Equity is not about sameness.
And it is not about uniformity.
It's that we all have a
vested interest in a cause
and have an equal ability to
get to a seat at the table
and make a difference.
Equity is fairness.
And equity is non-exclusive.
So why change our student
organization name?
In one, it's to foster
this community that's
going to continue on from
your career as a student
into your career
as a professional.
And also just as our
mission is inclusive--
to be inclusive and
promote representation,
this completely aligns with
the professional organization's
mission statement.
And this is just going
to further strengthen
our community and
build our own network
as students at Georgia Tech.
So ultimately through the
evolution of our organization,
unity and equity
remain in our core.
Thank you.
[applause]
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Next up, we have a MIT NOMAS.
[applause]
MIT NOMAS was created
in fall of 2016
by Eldante Winston, Joey
Swirtland, and myself.
We were three students for
a while, which was hard.
Now we are 14 students.
Since establishing,
we've had four pillars
that define how we operate.
The first is student body,
second, curriculum, third,
programming, and fourth,
real world initiatives.
I'll go through
these in that order.
First, student body.
While it may not be our
job to act as recruiters
for our school, one
thing we're committed to
is being touch points for
students who may not think
that MIT is within their reach.
We attend NOMA conferences
to connect to younger people
because we want to make our
university more accessible.
So the argument is that
our student bodies are not
diverse due to a dearth
of applicants, an argument
that we believe is
totally fallacious.
We want to ensure that
there is an applicant pool.
Second, curriculum.
So much like you all, we saw the
shortcomings of our curriculum
and syllabi, and
tried to supplement it
with a reading list that
spoke to a history of how
architecture and issues of
racial and gender equality
intersected.
It's a history that exists
within architecture,
though it's buried, and requires
you to look pretty hard,
and is not as readily
available as Le Corbusier.
And it's all in our
very own discipline.
We tried to make
a reading group.
I would say that has
failed because we did not
put in enough time.
But if anybody is
interested in the research,
we would love to pass that on
because we hoarded it and don't
know what to do with it.
[audience laughs]
Beyond that, we also
explored alternative sources
of education, primarily
by organizing Wikipedia
edit-a-thons, where we not only
supplement existing information
with stories of
forgotten voices--
a notable one was The
Architecture Collaborative,
which was written just as a
male-driven organization, which
it was not.
And we also added
implicitly biased
texts that tend to box
women in as women in--
or as wives and daughters.
Third, programming.
So sick of listening to the same
exact types of presentations
by the same exact
type of person,
we organized a women's
series without the permission
of any faculty using our
know-how of how to book rooms
and relying on the generosity
of women around us.
This series brought together
women of different disciplines.
Each section had its
own focus, but were all
centered on the
experience of being
a woman in a
particular profession,
whether it be
academia or practice,
and also how that
shaped their experience,
We thought this
conversation was important
because we found that a common
thread amongst, I guess,
talks about being a woman
is that most people don't
want to be boxed in as
just women architects.
And we think that this is
actually a great conversation
to have.
And we wanted to elevate it.
Beyond this, we also petitioned
for a NOMAS keynote lecture
every semester to ensure
that we could ensure
at least one person who
would represent our concerns
and interests.
And two of them who have
come are [inaudible]
and Kathleen James-Chakraboty.
And then finally, I would
say real world initiatives.
One thing we learned from
our own experience trying
to shape programming curriculum
and all these other things,
we realized that
nothing can really
change without changing
the real world.
So there are two projects
that I'll go over.
The first is Growing Change, and
particularly through a project
called Group Project,
which has worked
with Growing Change, which
salvages places and people.
Wait, no, they salvage places--
oh yeah, and people that
have been abandoned.
[crowd laughs]
So it basically transforms--
we are basically
working with them
to transform a defunct prison
site into a sustainable farm
and education center.
We met with them at a
lecture, began a conversation
to offer anything that--
offer our skills because we
knew that they wanted to do
an architectural project.
And the least we could do
was do drawings for them.
And we believed that they
had a plan moving forward.
Since then, we have worked
with them to, I guess,
do a site plan and propose
specific projects on the site.
And I think some of
those will be built soon.
And then beyond that--
oh, so these are some
of the renderings
we produced for them, which were
helpful in their fundraising
efforts.
And then after
that, there is also
Spaces, which is a
company that I co-founded,
which transforms vacant
storefronts into places
for people to come together.
It's born out of the
frustration of how institutions
silo and separate us and create
echo chambers and complacency.
We use this
opportunity to engage
within the city we live
in, Cambridge and Boston.
It's easy to forget
that we live here.
It's exciting to go to
town halls, neighborhood
associations, things
that actually make
you feel connected to a space.
And I bring these
up because, again, I
think it speaks to a
limitation of school.
And something exciting
about an event like this
is that it challenges
you to think
about what kind of
person, practitioner,
or whatever you
might want to be.
And maybe it changes you,
and maybe it doesn't.
And you get sucked
into school because you
have another deadline.
So to close, I'm
actually just going
to read part of Whitney
Young's keynote speech
from 1968 AIA Conference.
It's something that inspires me.
Perhaps it's a call to action.
Perhaps it's a way for me to
revive this dead reading club.
But I'll read it anyway.
So this is in 1968,
just also proof
that these are conversations
that have been had,
and that we should
connect to them
and try to create a
narrative because one exists.
Someone just needs to write it.
"As a profession, you
are not a profession
that has distinguished itself
by your social and civic
contributions to the
cause of civil rights.
And I am sure that this has
not come to you as any shock.
You're most distinguished
by your thunderous silence
and your complete irrelevance.
Now you have a
nice normal escape
hatch in your historical ethical
code or something that says,
after all, you are the
designers and not the builders.
Your role is to give
people what they want.
Now, that's a nice
easy way to cop out.
But I have read
about architects who
have had courage, who have
had social sensitivity.
And I can't help but wonder
about an architect that
builds some of the
buildings that I see
in the cities of this country.
The architects as a profession
wouldn't, as a group,
stand up and say something
about this is disturbing to me."
Thanks.
[applause]
Thank you.
Next up we have ArchiteXX.
[applause]
Hi everyone.
Thanks for spending
your Saturday inside.
I'm Jen.
I'm an architect at SOM.
This is Andrea Merrett.
You've already met her.
She's a PhD at Columbia.
And we're both board members
of ArchiteXX, Architects X,
Architects, whoever
you want to say it.
So I thought we could
today maybe just
start with the
ArchiteXX mission.
I don't know about you,
but I've read it sometimes.
I'm going to read it as if
I've never read it before,
maybe with half-closed
eyes as if I'm
seeing for the first time.
I've insomnia.
It's late at night.
That's a lot of caps.
So ArchiteXX, what are we?
We're a 501(c)(3)
not-for-profit for gender equity
in architecture, transforming
the profession by bridging
academy in practice.
To me, that sounds like we're
practitioners, we're academics,
we're critics, we're
everyone in between.
We're cross-generational.
So we're students, we're
professionals, young.
We're retirees even I'd say.
We encourage and promote
the leadership and retention
of women in the discipline.
OK, sounds like ArchiteXX
cares about my career.
We are redefining the
contemporary success,
how value's understood
and compensated.
It's really interesting.
I think I'd like to hear
about that a little bit more.
Maybe I'll take a
look at their website.
We work to increase diversity.
I like that.
We could facilitate and
support open dialogue,
content conversations
that will inspire
a new generation of
design professionals
to see themselves as agents of
change by looking at the past
and to see new ways forward.
That's really great.
I'm looking at this
for the first time.
It sounds to me
that ArchiteXX want
to hear what I have
to say, what I have
to contribute in my own eyes.
And you may be saying,
Jen, that's a lot of words.
I don't know.
Just show me what
you've been doing.
So what I've done for
you, and what we've done
is organize this
in four categories
of what ArchiteXX does.
Some of them are resources that
in the middle of the night,
you might just be
clicking through links
and want to explore on your own.
Attend is these clubs
that you can listen in on,
you can attend on a
month-to-month basis.
Advocacy is really starting
to get involved and speak up.
And Act is really boots
on the ground action
that ArchiteXX is involved in.
So here's a look at
what attending ArchiteXX
might look like on just
a general week night.
This is a reading
group that we host.
You can see a list
of some of the books
that we're discussing
this year on the bottom.
We also have monthly happy
hours, a writing group,
and a mentorship group that does
one-on-one and peer-to-peer.
Part of the writing group
is you can do your own work,
or you can write
for Sub Texxt, which
is the blog that
ArchiteXX hosts online.
As part of that, we invite
some really great editors
to come host for us.
And here, you see an array of
people who have had previously,
[inaudible] projects, Madame
Architect, and F Architecture
Collaborative.
There is also
one-off events here.
We're looking at
Evelyn Murphy, who
is teaching us a little
bit about the wage gap
through her work with
Work Smart Advocacy.
So this is where
we're speaking up.
And we have been
organizing brown bag lunch
lectures across the Northeast,
I'd say, in institutions
to help diversify their lecture
series and increase inclusion,
I'd say, even where we're not
necessarily the focal points.
It might look like that.
We are also involved in wikiD,
which is an international
collaborative, looking at
including people who aren't--
who don't have a lot of
digital presence currently
online, writing them into
the digital footprint.
It might look like.
That this is at Center
for Architecture.
And act-- so these
are the actions that
are really design initiatives
and events that we've
been hosting.
The first that we have had is
Private Choices, Public Spaces.
This is the exhibit at Parsons.
And it looks a
little bit like this.
This was a call to action
for design initiatives
to look at the last abortion
clinic in Mississippi.
And what you're
seeing here is just
one example of the many
different responses
to the fence condition outside
of the abortion clinic.
And our current action is--
So currently, we have this
exhibition, Now What?!,
on the history of activism
in American architecture.
And this project started
about three years ago
when my co-curators, Lori
Brown, and Sarah Rafson,
and I, and then later joined
by Roberta Washington,
wanted to pay tribute
to this exhibition, 1977
Women in American Architecture,
organized by Susana Torre,
and hosted The Brooklyn
Museum, groundbreaking
and extensive effort to collect
the histories of women's
contributions to architecture
in the United States.
But we decided we didn't
just want to do an update.
We really wanted to understand
that legacy of activism
that had produced this
exhibition and the larger
context.
So this was part of
the women's liberation
movement in the 1970s.
The women's liberation
movement has its roots
in the Civil Rights movement
and the New Left movement.
And so three years
ago, we were looking
at our own context, which
Black Lives Matter was really
in our attention.
The same sex legalization had
just passed the Supreme Court.
And there was a nascent
fourth wave of feminism.
And so we decided
to look more broadly
at activism in the profession
starting with that 1968 speech.
I'm so glad you quoted some of
Whitney Young, Junior berating
the profession.
So the exhibition is
organized as a timeline.
And it's a modular system
so that we can add content.
And if you're involved with
Activism in Architecture,
and you haven't been asked by
us to write 300 words to go up
on the wall, please talk to me.
And as it travels, we
will add more content.
And it's organized
around this table,
the idea of providing a space
for meetings, for gatherings.
Our hope is this exhibition
will really provoke and allow
for collaborations amongst
different groups that
come together, and in the
content, and for events.
And we have an online
archive of the content
because there is
a lot of content.
And it's growing every day.
And finally, Now What?!
Boston, when are you
bringing us to Boston?
We'd really love to bring
the exhibition here.
And we are also looking for
sponsorship possibilities
for that.
So please get in touch.
Thank you.
[applause]
All right, next up
we have GSAPPXX.
[applause]
Where's the click?
Here we go.
Hi, I'm [inaudible].
I'm Adina.
And we are from GSAPP.
GSAPP has a long history of
student organizing punctuated
by pivotal events
such as the Apartheid
divestment, anti-AIDS action,
the recent grad student union
boycott, and moments reaffirming
just and inclusive priorities
within a noxious
political environment.
Behind these moments of
exposure are a number
of student-run organizations.
We heard from QSAPP
before that provide
platforms for focused dialogue.
We are co-chairs of
GSAPPXX, one of these groups
that works to elevate,
illuminate, and celebrate
contributions by
women to architecture
and other related design fields.
GSAPPXX in its current form
was established in 2015
by alums [inaudible]
and Sofia [inaudible]..
Over the last three years,
we've organized a variety
of events, including lectures,
exhibitions, workshops,
and networking
sessions all aimed
at approaching
the topic of women
shaping design in a new way.
So we're going to talk
about a couple of those.
On the fringe was a
panel discussion that
brought in four talented
young professionals
to showcase the
work they were doing
to expand the reach of their
architectural educations.
Becca McCharen's use of
digital fabrication technology
to revolutionize fashion,
[inaudible],, realignment
of curation, [inaudible]
as approach of scaling down
the structure to jewelry,
and [inaudible] work mapping
injustice all provided
current students
with exemplary models of
meaningful fringe professions.
Not only do we want to
facilitate conversations
around current
practices, but we also
want to shed light
on women pushing
forward feminist
scholarship. couplings
was a lecture by
Beatriz Colomina,
where she integrated the work
of famous modernist architects
and revealed the women who
were integral to their success.
This historical perspective
is critical to framing
our understanding of women
in the profession today.
In order to expand
these conversations
outside the confines
of the physical school,
we've also sought other
media through which
to engage new audiences.
Last spring, we
had the opportunity
to interview Cathleen
McGuigan, former Loeb
fellow and editor-in-chief
of Architectural Record,
on the importance of
journalism and elevating
non-standard bodies
and practices.
We have also sought to
overturn common myths
around work-life
partnerships, shaping
new images of collaborative and
mutually supportive couplings,
different from ones that
Beatriz Colomina discussed.
We heard from Michelle
Young and Augustin Pasquet
of Untapped Cities, an online
urbanism publication, and Lynn
Rice and [inaudible]
about the ways
in which they have
modeled mutual respect
and collaboration in all
aspects of their partnerships.
Last spring, we also heard
from Hilary Sample, Jing Lu,
Mimi [inaudible],, and Anna
[inaudible] on the role
that writing has played in
their careers as architects.
All spoke about the writers
who inspire them and shape
their own practices.
In dialogue with
this event, GSAPPXX
produced a series of
posters tiled around Avery
to probe students and faculty
to consider the gendered nature
of authorship and production.
We also seek to elevate
exemplary female-run practices
as models of both
political and built work.
Last fall, we brought in
Alessandra Cianchetta,
an award winning Italian
architect who worked with HHF
to design Poissy Galore.
She discussed the
challenges and opportunities
of being a practicing
female architect in Europe
and the tactics for
working across scales
and between academia
and practice.
So in concert with the "Day
Without A Woman" events
that swept the nation
last year, GSAPPXX
produced an exhibition
that illuminated
the work of important
but oft forgotten
women, designers,
planners, and developers
from the 20th century.
This exhibition
contained a sampling
of a larger collection
of archival imagery
of women-produced
architecture, which
was added to Columbia's
Visual Resource Center,
shifting not only public
consciousness today but also
the way that
architectural history will
be remembered and perceived
by future scholars.
In addition to generating
critical dialogues,
GSAPPXX also seeks to
create opportunities
for personal and
professional development
amongst its members.
Last spring, we brought
in design leadership coach
[inaudible] for a workshop
on advocating for yourself
professionally, which we held
at GSAPP's off-campus incubator
space, and which
brought together
students as well as many alums.
So, what's next?
We're actively
searching for new ways
to establish a presence
both within our school
and within our larger
network of alumni,
and female professional
networks in New York City,
and on a broader scale.
This year we're hoping
to bring in Mi'Jan-- ooh,
my screen turned off here--
Mi'Jan Celie Tho-Biaz, who's
an artist, oral historian,
and community organizer
from New Mexico to help
inform our understandings of
community-based architectural
practice.
We're also hoping to host
breakfast and public speaking
event for students, a portfolio
review for women in the field,
and look forward to working
with you all to develop
the traveling
installation that will
be coming through GSAPP soon.
GSAPPXX is intended to create
a safe space that encourages
constructive conversations
around what it
means to be a woman in design.
It is important to us that
we enable these discussions
without disenfranchising
any voices.
We acknowledge that
"XX" symbolizes
a certain biological definition
of what it means to be a woman.
We intend to be a safe
space for all, regardless
of what our name connotates.
But we do want to
continue to give voice
to the women at our school.
We look forward to
continuing conversations
with you all about
intersectionality
and how we can best
present ourselves
with the message of inclusion.
But be that with a name change,
like others have mentioned,
or with an increase
in communication,
we look forward to
exciting changes to come.
Thank you for having us.
[applause]
And last but not least,
the Architecture Lobby.
[applause]
All right, Hi.
I know many of you already.
My name is Chelsea Kilburn.
You may have received
an annoying email
from me pestering you
for a presentation
if you were one
of the presenters.
But I wanted to say thank
you so much for your work.
This has been a really
rewarding experience.
When I hit merge on all the
PDFs, I was really emotional.
So thank you very much
for all of your work.
I am currently an MLA.
One AP student here at the
GSD, but I previously--
that went black as well--
I previously received
my undergraduate degree
in architecture
from Virginia Tech.
So I'm coming at you
from a little bit
of a different
perspective today.
I wanted to speak about the
Architecture Lobby, which
I have been a part of for
almost five years now,
both in Chicago and LA,
where I previously worked.
So a little bit
about who we are,
we're an organization of
architectural workers who
advocate for the value
of architecture--
in this instance, I'd
like to say design--
in the general public and
for the architectural work
within the discipline itself.
We believe that the work that
we do is incredibly valuable.
It's aesthetic, technical,
social, organizational,
and whatnot.
It needs structural change
to be more rewarding
and to be more
socially relevant.
As long as architecture
tolerates abusive practices
in the office and on
the construction site,
it cannot insist its role
and for the public good.
A little bit about our
structure, we have I
don't even know how
many chapters now.
It's an increasing number
of chapters focused
in different cities and
at different schools
all headed up by an
organizing committee.
So we obviously have a
chapter here in Boston.
And I just wanted
to preface some
of the projects we're working
on with our 10 manifesto
points which drive what we do.
So I'm just going to run
through these quickly.
But one, enforce labor laws that
prohibit unpaid internships.
Don't do things that
you don't get paid for.
Two, reject fees based on the
percentage of construction
or hourly fees, and
instead calculate value
based on the money that
we save or our clients
or that we can
potentially gain them.
Three, stop pedaling
architecture as a product--
buildings-- and focus
again on the unique value
that architects help realize
through spatial services.
Four, enforce wage transparency
across the entire discipline.
Five, potentially
establish a union
for architects, designers,
academics, and interns
within the fields of
architecture and design.
Six-- this is
important for today
especially-- demystify
the architect
as the solo creative genius.
There are no honors
for architects who
don't acknowledge their staff.
Seven, the ability
to pursue licensure
upon the completion
of your degree.
Eight, to change professional
architectural organizations
to advocate for the living
conditions of those architects
who work for those firms.
Oh, sorry.
Nine, to support research about
labor rights in architecture.
And then 10, to implement
democratic alternatives
to the free market
system of development.
So it's an intense manifesto.
But some of those projects
that we are working towards
or that we have
been working through
to get at some of
these points, I
wanted to frame through
a series of topics.
So Campaigns, one of
our most recent projects
that I've had the
pleasure of working on
is the #NotOurWall in
response to the built
prototypes on the border
of San Diego and Tijuana.
The lobby put together
a publication,
a number of essays,
political cartoons,
as you can see in
this instance, photos,
all revolving around the
value of architectural labor
and what architects
could say about
potential new infrastructure
such as the border wall.
We put forth a series of
what I'm going to call Tools.
For example, the
Labor Law Pamphlet
is a really simple
8 and 1/2 by 11.
You print it out in your
printer, black and white,
fold it up, and you
have a walking guide
to what is acceptable
in the workplace legally
and what you can use as--
what you can use to inform
yourself about the practices
within which you work.
We just put this up on the
website, the #MeToo solidarity
block.
If you are interested
in looking at this,
I would encourage you to go onto
our website and check it out.
You can pledge to be someone
who is in solidarity with those
who might need a safe space
to talk about an experience.
We also hosts a
number of events.
This was something
that people at the GSD
may have seen earlier this year.
It was a "come get to know us"
event, ice cream socialism.
We had free ice cream
and just hung out,
talked a little bit about what
we want to do for the year.
We hosted a number of
think-ins, drink-ins sometimes
if they need to be, where
we all get together.
And it's often
around a topic that's
relevant to the products in
the lobby, different cities.
We go to bigger scale events.
We went to Venice and talked
about architectural labor,
immigration, the
value of what we do.
We protest we're a little bit
of a provocateur sometimes.
But I wanted to invite
you all to come and join
the conversation if
you're interested.
We do have an active
Boston chapter.
We are meeting
currently at SPACEUS.
So thank you, Stephanie.
We'll be meeting in a
couple of weeks again.
If anybody wants to
chat, come find me.
But otherwise,
I'll see you there.
And one of our
founders, Peggy Deamer,
will be speaking
on the next panel.
So please stick around
and hear from her.
She has some incredible
wisdom to share.
Thank you.
[applause]
Thank you all truly
so, so much for that.
And we will definitely be
compiling those websites
because again, so
much of this is
about getting these
conversations together, finding
out what each other are
doing, and working from there.
So we're going to take
a 10-minute break.
And then please come back to
this space for the activism
panel.
Thank you so much.
[applause]
