Equity in Architecture Training

architect drafting equity building project

This course, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for Architects, will guide employees, managers, and partners at architectural design firms in developing an equitable organization that treats staff, clients, and communities with equal consideration and cultural competency. The trainer introduces key concepts through highly relevant activities and conversation starters, with a specific focus on the architecture and design field. By providing a supportive and validating environment to discuss difficult topics, this course will build greater understanding between colleagues and empower attendees to proactively address DEI issues.

Course Outcomes and Learning Objectives

After taking this course, employees will:

Strengthen individual and group skills in functional inclusivity
Possess the knowledge and tools to recognize, avoid, and address microaggressions
Enact their commitment to DEI in architectural design
Implement action plans and best practices in the workplace

Cultural Competency

There are numerous benefits to improving cultural competency and diversity in the workplace, especially in fields like architecture and design. More diverse organizations tend to be more innovative, successfully recruit and retain diverse employees, and have higher performing teams overall.¹ In spite of increasing recognition, architecture as a field struggles with diversity in numerous ways. Here are some sobering statistics to consider:

White people comprise 84% of architects²
Black women represent less than half a percent of the field³
Only 4% of architects are Hispanic or Latino and only 6% are Asian⁴

Inquire about Diversity Training for Architects & Designers

^[1] Hewlett, S. A. (2014, August 1). How diversity can drive innovation. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2013/12/how-diversity-can-drive-innovation
^[2] Demographics: Career and licensure. (2021). National Council of Architectural Registration Boards. https://www.ncarb.org/nbtn2021/demographics-licensure
^[3] Steele, J. (2021, June 23). Architecture has a diversity issue. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffsteele/2021/06/23/architecture-has-a-diversity-issue/?sh=618163b55d20
^[4] Demographics: Career and licensure. (2021). National Council of Architectural Registration Boards. https://www.ncarb.org/nbtn2021/demographics-licensure

Inclusive Spaces for Architectural Firms

With limited diversity, it can be difficult to make architectural firms an inclusive space, which is borne out by research. Many black architects report frustrations or other issues with their firm. The National Council of Architecture Registration Boards reports that nearly a quarter of African Americans report that their workplace’s culture has made them consider leaving. Even getting into the field can be burdensome for those from less privileged backgrounds. Zena Howard, managing director of Seattle firm Perkins+Will, has highlighted the hurdles to becoming an architect: the educational requirements, the lengthy licensure process, and the low starting salaries.⁵ While these issues are widespread, many in architecture are unsure how to address these issues or where to start. Customized training on DEI topics and architecture can be a fantastic way to cultivate a welcoming culture, giving employees, managers, and partners the tools to address damaging practices and cultural issues.

A major part of improving workplace inclusivity involves addressing and mitigating bias towards coworkers or clients. Participants will learn about conscious (or deliberate) bias as well as unconscious (or involuntary) bias. They will dismantle their own prejudices with strategies such as catching and redirecting bias and visualizing situations ahead of time.

Racism, Sexism, & Oppression in Architecture

Addressing casual racism, sexism, oppression, and other everyday forms of harm will also be covered in the class. There has been significant research performed on counteracting harmful actions that may have occurred with the history of the land or may be present in a more current form. This course uses strategies to be inclusive with regard to race and gender as well as being allies to stand up against oppression.

Microaggressions within the Design Process

Microaggressions are smaller but still harmful instances of bias, and a major source of inequity in the workplace. Microaggressions are often verbal, but can also be behavioral or environmental. An example would be ignoring or interrupting colleagues of color in a meeting, making those individuals feel ignored and marginalized. While microaggressions are often considered minor, over time these comments and behaviors take their toll on already demoralized marginalized people.

Identifying and addressing microaggressions are a crucial part of building a culturally competent firm. The training provides examples of microaggressive words and behaviors and scripts, allowing employees to promptly address harmful behaviors. Bystander intervention involves practices to address and disrupt microaggressions. Diversity Builder offers an entire class on Bystander Intervention. Much thought goes into how to respond to damaging actions, jokes, or comments in the moment. Below are a few common responses to microaggressions to consider.

^[5] Steele, J. (2021, June 23). Architecture has a diversity issue. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffsteele/2021/06/23/architecture-has-a-diversity-issue/?sh=618163b55d20

Ways to Address Microaggressions

If an individual is interrupted, redirect the conversation back to them
If something problematic or hurtful was said, ask the speaker to explain their meaning
If someone shared a stereotype or generalization, push back against the statement
For all situations, explain that someone’s words were hurtful or incorrect

Employees will learn direct but constructive ways to support to targeted colleagues and to indicate that hurtful words and actions are not welcome, empowering design teams to work effectively and empathetically with diverse colleagues and clients alike.

In addition to covering intrapersonal issues, the training will outline how to improve an organization’s cultural competency as a whole. This is a complex process, involving employees at all levels of an organization as well as examining practices and norms. Intentional inclusion is the starting point, in which everyone is treated with respect and feels empowered to speak up when experiencing exclusion. In the development stage, leaders take responsibility for modeling and instilling an inclusive culture, ensuring that every step of employee engagement (from hiring to shaping organizational management) prioritizes equity. The compliance stage focuses on awareness and assessment, making certain that policies are clear and that issues are consistently reviewed and solved. Finally, the influence stage includes diverse representation in company decision-making and prioritizing collaborative operations in teams at all levels. Employees and managers alike will appreciate the thoroughness of this part of the training, which provides a roadmap for the many different aspects of improving equity in a firm.

Intersectionality

A key aspect of cultural competency is understanding that identity is complex and often consists of intersecting factors. For example, an Asian woman faces different biases than someone who is an Asian man or a white woman. This describes the term intersectionality, in which two or more factors can lead to compounded discrimination (where an individual is treated differently based on the combination of their identities). The term intersectionality was coined by legal scholar Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw to illustrate how identities can complicate discrimination. As Crenshaw wrote in a 2017 interview,

“Intersectionality is a lens through which you can see where power comes and collides, where it interlocks and intersects. It’s not simply that there’s a race problem here, a gender problem here, and a class or LBGTQ problem there. Many times that framework erases what happens to people who are subject to all of these things.”⁶

While race and gender often come up in discussions of intersectionality, there are many other identities that affect how one is treated or perceived. Here is a non-exhaustive list of other factors that impact people’s lives:

^[6] Kimberlé Crenshaw on intersectionality, more than two decades later. (2017, June 8). News from Columbia Law. https://www.law.columbia.edu/news/archive/kimberle-crenshaw-intersectionality-more-two-decades-later

Religion
Nationality
Sexuality and gender expression
Age
Ability
Education
Economic background
Neurodiversity

Employees will be encouraged to consider their own multifaceted identities and to share their experiences of the challenges or positives that go along with them. Because identity is complex, individuals might be privileged in some ways but disadvantaged in others. Identity also affects how an individual sees the world and treats others. For example, our perceptions are formed from associating with, and learning from, those similar to us. Participants will examine their own biases and be better understood by others in turn by unpacking and sharing their lived experiences.

Considering the Green Book in Architectural Work

Published from the 1930s to the 1960s, the Green Book was a directory of businesses that welcomed African American visitors. Written by postal worker Victor H. Green, the Green Book ensured that travelers wouldn’t be stranded without food, fuel, or shelter (or find themselves in dangerous situations). In a time when African American families often traveled in groups and timed their journeys to avoid being caught overnight in unfriendly towns, Green’s manual was a workaround for an incredibly marginalized and vulnerable community.⁷

While the Green Book went out of publication in the late 1960s, it remains illustrative for architects and others concerned about equity in the built environment. Because large parts of the country weren’t constructed with black families in mind, or were actively violent to them, finding businesses on a journey was a fraught process. This fact was likely not evident to many white Americans, who had likely never faced the same threats and prejudice in unfamiliar towns. Similarly, those in a largely white and well-educated profession (such as architecture) might never have considered that some spaces and environments are unfriendly or even unusable for different populations. For architects, managers, and partners seeking to create equitable spaces, the Green Book stands as a reminder to consider historic and institutional biases and to connect with community members in order to truly understand the lived experiences of others.

^[7] Bates, K.G. (2018, November 17). The Green Book: Celebrating ‘The Bible of Black Travel’. NPR’s Code Switch. https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2018/11/17/668307994/the-green-book-celebrating-the-bible-of-black-travel

Equity in the Architectural Design Process

What happens when the built environment is designed almost exclusively by one group of people? How does it end up being not all it could be? How many potentially groundbreaking building designs never break ground? How many talented young women never get the opportunity to exert their skills and influence on the skylines of today and tomorrow?⁸

From the very beginning of the design process, people in the community should be included and prioritized. Architects and design teams with diverse representation and cultural competency can connect more easily with the community who will be using the design. This will allow them to gather invaluable feedback and partner with community members, who will help shape the final product. Managers and partners in architectural design firms, likewise, should make community engagement a core value for their organization.

When connecting with the community through surveys and focus groups, consider the following questions:

What is the history of the area?
What are the major public spaces or public projects in the area? How have they harmed or helped people in the past?
Who lives in the neighborhood? What are their needs?
Who are our community partners and stakeholders?
Who will use the building?
What will the experience be for someone with mobility aids? A Deaf or hard of hearing person? A parent? Etc.
Who might be excluded?
Who isn’t part of the decision-making process?

Case studies included in the training will give employees the chance to consider, discuss, and apply these considerations when beginning a new project. While this process is time-consuming, truly understanding and working closely with the community can have stellar results. Architect Rizvi Hassan, for example, immersed himself with the Rohingya community while designing the Rohingya Cultural Memory Center in Bangladesh. He studied Rohingya cultural and artistic materials to understand their cultural aesthetics, conducted participatory workshops, and had extended conversations with community members. This enabled him to design a space that felt welcoming, familiar, and useful for refugees in dire need of community.⁹

^[8] Steele, J. (2021, June 23). Architecture has a diversity issue. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffsteele/2021/06/23/architecture-has-a-diversity-issue/?sh=618163b55d20
^[9] Khan, Z. (2022, June 27). Art of preserving memory: the Rohingya cultural memory center in Bangladesh. Stir World.

Because architecture and design shape how communities persist and thrive, they are closely connected to equity and social justice. With the rising cost of living and shortage of affordable housing, reconsidering the traditional single-family home in favor of communal living spaces has the potential to assist economically vulnerable communities. For BIPOC families, who are more likely to live in multigenerational households, these flexible living spaces are also beneficial.¹⁰ Thinking creatively and offering out of the box options to support diverse families will yield incredible benefits for both firms and communities.

There are countless advantages to taking an equitable approach in architecture and design. Within an organization, firm managers and partners will see increasingly collaborative and productive teams in a culturally competent environment. Working with clients and community partners, architects will be positioned to design innovative spaces for a diverse and dynamic society. Finally, the communities they serve will be empowered to live and thrive in inclusively designed spaces built for the twenty-first century.