Grassroots 2022

by Caitlin Daly, AIA, 2022 AIAENY President-Elect

Some conversations are difficult to have. Often, they are the most necessary. Championing the advancement of racial, ethnic, and gender equity and environmental actions, the AIA is actively engaging in these difficult conversations. Throughout the AIA Grassroots Conference we were challenged to envision a future that embraced the full measure of human potential. The conference started out with the Keynote by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi on Creating a Just & Equitable Society where we had a challenging discussion about racism. One of the discussion points that Dr. Kendi, author of How to be an Antiracist, hit on that stuck with me was the idea of Intentionality and Accountability. There is a difference between acknowledging that there is a problem and working to solve the problem. The unfortunate truth is everyone must unlearn what society taught them to believe; which for many people includes holding themselves accountable and being intentional in modifying their thinking, and behavior. As Dr. Kendi noted, a person isn’t simply racist, but can be racist in context. Meaning we can at once hold both racist and non-racist views when applied to different policies. As architects, what specifically can we do to combat racism and inequality? As an industry, we can elevate voices through the composition of our teams, our design process, and our integration of community. As individuals we can promote our industry across our communities, volunteer our services or be mentors in youth programs. We should be accountable in bringing stakeholders from all walks of life and experiences to the table during our processes. We can choose what is seen as important or gets tucked away. We can design the future we want to build. The next session I attended brought this rather daunting task to the more manageable sized goal of our impact in the city in The World We Want: Designing for Economic, Racial, Climate, and Environmental Justice. Lead by city board members and citizen architects, the discussion centered around community advocacy, and our role as facilitators within the urban fabric. Understanding our role as an architect within the context of a city can be difficult at times. However, there is always the question of who should you design the project with? Many of us present in the session felt that our cities were best

served when projects had input from their communities. Designing with the community by actively engaging them in the process builds trust and lasting relationships. We can do this through advisory boards, multiple interactive public meetings, and/ or engaging with the community outside of project work. As Dr. Katharine Wilkinson, co-editor of All We Can Save: Courage and Solutions for the Climate Crisis, noted in her Keynote Leading in a Time of Transformation, this next decade will be the most pivotal in history. No one is invulnerable to climate change, although people are able to temporarily adapt or run away from the issue with varying degrees of success. Climate change has typically been championed by women, which is understandable given that woman, particularly minorities, face more challenges due to climate events ranging from sexual assaults to domestic violence to homelessness. Yet women, even as champions, are underrepresented in every space surrounding climate change. In 2020, when interviewing guests about climate on broadcast TV, only a quarter of them were white women, and 7 percent were women of color. By under-representing women in the narrative of the climate crisis, we are cutting off and eliminating avenues of possible solutions. Research has shown that more diverse teams, with broader perspectives has led to more successful solutions. By broadening the perspective, we allow the narrative to shift and embrace heart centered approaches, rather than simply logic centered ones, that build community centered solutions. So, what comes next? After countless hours of debate and research during and immediately following the AIA Grassroots Conference, there is a silence as we contemplate the answer to that question. It important to reiterate a point stated numerous times throughout the conference – “Design thinking is our Superpower.” The questions raised during the conference are exactly the type that our profession excels at answering. We redefine spaces. We build communities. We envision the future.