YAF Chair’s message: Advocate. Educate. Diversify.

Three verbs loaded with meaning, experience, and versatility, each have the capacity to define broad generalizations and characterize with specificity and intentionality. This dichotomy of scale and meaning presents both a challenge and an opportunity.

In the fall of 2022, The Young Architects Forum convened Mission 2130 to explore how the architecture profession could evolve to meet the needs of a world 100 years in the future. Architects, designers, and industry leaders from across the country gathered to assess what that world could look like and how architects should begin to prepare for that reality. One unmistakable theme emerged: architects need to take a proactive role in shaping that world, and we need to start right away - the time for action is now.

But how? The scale of such a challenge moves quickly from inspirational to overwhelming. Consider the following as you navigate these pages and the call to action within:

1. Dream big. I often become bogged down with the daily routine of inbox maintenance and office operations. When push comes to shove, time for blue-sky thinking falls off my calendar and moves to the periphery of my list of priorities. But this exercise is critical to our health as professionals and as architects. Don’t be afraid to pause and dreamwhat does architecture look like in 100 years? 50 years? 15? 10? What does it mean to you? Perhaps most importantlywhat are the barriers between that reality and your present one? Identify the opportunity and name the challenges ahead. How can you turn the “cannot” into the “can do”? Which leads us to:

2. Act small. The day-to-day rigors of practicing architecture can be equally paralyzing when it comes to taking action. Often the idea of challenging the status quo is overwhelming to the point of stifling action. But it need not be this way. By “acting small”, you can start to turn the “cannot” into the “can do” by identifying the next step, and only the next step. What is the one thing you can do to get closer to the future reality? Send the email, text that person, start the conversation. Once you’ve cleared that barrier, identify the next small step. Rinse and repeat.

Mission 2130 concluded with a clear vision for the Young Architects Forum. For the next five years, the YAF will be focusing its work around this vision - this call to action. To aid in this effort, the group has identified three priorities: Advocate [for change], Educate [for impact], and Diversify [for the future]. Three verbs that will define the challenges and opportunities ahead.

My hope is for the work of this group, and young architects everywhere, to use Mission 2130 to dream big, act small, and answer the call to action and design a better future for all.

Three words. Two scales. One future.

What’s your next step?