Blog %

There has been much discussion raised about "Why are women leaving Architecture? and more broadly, Why is the profession losing key talent?"  Both women and men practitioners are disillusioned by the myth of work/life balance: Women are grappling with "have it all" expectations of juggling family time with the demands of full-time work.  Men are struggling to support their families solely on an architect's salary and fall back on asking spouses to maintain their jobs. The lack of affordable childcare and high cost of living only magnifies the challenges.  How did we end up in this modern family dilemma? What can we do to improve the situation?

#EQXD2022 JEDI IN ACTION SERIES: ARE Challenge Scholarship Recipients Announced

We are pleased to announce the recipients of the #EQxD2022 ARE Challenge Scholarship Program! Please join us in congratulating each of the 9 recipients on their licensure journey and future advocacy for Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion.


The Jury consisted of Representatives from our generous scholarship sponsors and AIA SF Committee partners, AIASF Mentorship, and the ARE PACT. The selection was based on a process that excluded the names of applicants and focused solely on the applicants' responses to 3 question prompts.

  • How do your cultural background and lived experience influence and contribute to addressing the current challenges of inequities and injustice in the built environment?

  • What is the value of Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in the design of the built environment?

  • Fast forward 10-15 years. Describe how you would leverage this opportunity and "pay it forward" to future generations of architects.

The ARE Challenge Scholarship Program recognizes the effort and expense of the architectural licensing process as a barrier to achieving this professional milestone and that it disproportionately affects candidates of historically underrepresented identities in the profession. In light of the extremely challenging and economically unstable conditions that we are collectively facing, Equity by Design has established financial assistance scholarships for licensure candidates with a focus on individuals from historically underrepresented backgrounds in architecture who are eligible to take the ARE exams.

Recipients of the #EQxD2020 ARE Challenge Scholarship will be reimbursed for three (3) ARE Exams (Value $705 per recipient), regardless of pass or fail status.

MEET THE ARE CHALLENGE SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENTS!

Anthony Bituin
Anthony Bituin was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. He received his Bachelor of Architecture degree from the California College of the Arts. His professional experience includes a wide range of project types. Currently, he works on multi-family housing projects for HKIT Architects.

 


Melanie D’Souza
Melanie D’souza supports Laboratory Planning at HDR-San Francisco. Originally from the coast of Oman, Melanie came to the United States for an architectural education in healthcare design at the University of Kansas. She actively works towards streamlining the path to licensure through her advising roles with NCARB, AIA-SF and HDR-Inc.

Melissa Daniel
Envisioning and realizing programming for diverse populations, Melissa R. Daniel, Assoc. AIA, is a tireless advocate for encouraging and empowering women in architecture. Melissa is an architectural designer in Maryland, and the creator/host of the Architecture is Political Podcast. She is also a recipient of the 2022 AIA Whitney M. Young Jr. Award.

Christine Kim
Christine is a design coordinator and has experience in various project types such as healthcare, workplace, high-end hospitality and residential. She has 9 years of design experience that encompasses 5 years in Architectural/ Interior design, 2 years in LEED consulting, and over 2 years in UI/UX design.

 

Mariana Mijangos
Mariana Mijangos is queer Mexican American architectural designer working and living in San Francisco. She is interested in vernacular architecture, community housing typologies, world history, and elegant accessible design.



Hirbod Nor
Hirbod graduated with the M.Sc in Public-Health and the Built Environment and M.Arch in 2017 and a certificate in Historic Preservation in 2020 from University of New Mexico. As a teacher, researcher, and designer, He is involved with community-based design, focusing on the relation between design and communities’ systemic wellbeing.


Raisa Soriano
Raisa’s family immigrated to California when she was ten years old. Her family overcame countless adversities, but Raisa is forever grateful for that decision because they have been fortunate enough to have been afforded the privilege for paving the way towards forging their own unique story of the American dream.

 

Priscilla Woo
Priscilla is an architectural designer who is passionate about the environment. She studied architecture for undergraduate school at Cal and earned her Master in Environmental Building Design at University of Pennsylvania to combine her passion with work. She is currently a designer at HKIT Architects overseeing sustainability integration in projects.

Tiffany Xu
Tiffany Xu is an architectural designer. She earned her M.Arch from Rice University where she received the Darden Thesis Award. She has worked at the offices of Spiegel Aihara Workshop and Jim Jennings Architecture. Her writing has appeared in PLAT, Cite, and the New York Review of Architecture.

THANKS TO OUR #EQXD2022 ARE CHALLENGE SPONSORS

Silver Sponsors - 5000

  • HOK

Steel Sponsors - 3500

  • Mithun

Bronze Sponsors - 2500

  • Gensler

  • PYATOK

  • SmithGroup

Copper Sponsors - 1500

  • Tipping Structural Engineers

  • Walker Warner

  • Sherwin-Williams Coil Coatings

  • Leddy Maytum Stacy

#EQxD2020 Series #JEDIagenda - Challenge Scholarship Winners

We are pleased to announce the recipients of the #EQxD2020 ARE Challenge Scholarship Program! Please join us in congratulating each of the 8 recipients on their licensure journey and future advocacy for Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion.

ARE Challenge Scholarship Winners.PNG

The Jury consisted of Representatives from our generous scholarship sponsors and AIA SF Committee partners, AIASF Mentorship and the ARE PACT. The selection was based on a process which excluded the names of applicants and focused solely to the applicants responses to 3 question prompts.

  • How does your cultural background and lived experience influence and contribute to addressing the current challenges of inequities and injustice in the built environment?

  • What is the value of Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in the design of the built environment?

  • Fast forward 10-15 years. Describe how you would leverage this opportunity and "pay it forward" to future generations of architects.

Here are some of the inspirational responses from the scholarship recipients.

"My experience living in the housing projects shaped my understanding of the inequities within design and the built environment. For this reason, I chose to pursue architecture as a career."

“Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion within the built environment is valuable and necessary. Architecture acts as a catalyst for the built environment, therefore, the field of architecture should be representatives of the designers that understand the spaces, places, and people we design for. JEDI is more than just a buzzword to use for DEI within practice, it's a necessary way of life that I feel the field of architecture is sorely lacking.”

Jamilla Afandi 

 

“Spaces must be designed and built for everyone, regardless of their gender, belief, race and other differences. the fundamental concept of "unity of mankind" has to be internalized by aec industry. It is challenging, as often stakeholders and investors come from a small, often not very diverse group. But we can certainly have more equitable spaces as long as designers and builders are aware of the high value of inclusion in creating built environment.”

"I have lived injustice and inequality in using [the] built environment, and it always did hurt me, every single time, that I was systematically deprived of such (a) basic human right."

Niknaz Aftahi 

 

Historic inequity and injustice have driven many divides: between rich and poor, white and colored, sheltered and homeless, abled and disabled, and more. The longer these disparities exist, the larger these gaps become. Diversity seemingly starts to fade as each group lives disjointedly. The issue with such monotonous environments is that humans tend to avoid them. Similarly, it becomes easier to bypass the less fortunate rather than address the adversity head on. It is our job as architects to bridge these divides. We should strive to create spaces that integrate diversity and celebrate our differences. An environment that promotes community interaction, is more engaging and ultimately serves to improve our well-being. Designing for equal representation and inclusion ensures that all people may reap the benefits. We are all entitled to the same starting line and an equal playing field in life – the value of this is truly immeasurable.

Marie Biaggi 

"...I grew up in the aftermath of a cultural crossroads in which communities of immigrants learned to reconcile and appreciate differences in an effort to heal together. With time and collective effort in rebuilding burnt neighborhoods, individuals realized that it wasn't them - or the other - that was broken; it was the system."

Katie Chang

The value of Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion comes from the framework it establishes in designing a socially conscious built environment. It is an ideology in practice that supports growth and engagement of social, environmental and economic value for our profession and the spaces we create. Through justice we gain accountability in dismantling racist and majority- only-biased constructs. Through equity we encourage a leveling of resources and opportunity that supports a diversity of thought, backgrounds and communities. Equity supports diversity, which acknowledges various ethnic backgrounds and lived experiences. Lastly, inclusion establishes the protocols in which to aid a diverse group into truly feeling accepted, heard and supported in a collective setting. Separately justice, equity, diversity and inclusion are like single-legs of a four legged-table, unable to support themselves alone. Together they promote a platform for high-performing teams, communities, environments and structures that is robust and sound.

Siobhan Glass 

 

"My goal is to help encourage a future generation of Architects [to recognize] that there are many different paths to being an architect. You don’t need an ivy league education with a price tag to match in order to practice. I want to help get rid of the stigma that community colleges are a lower class of education and help to open the door for students of diverse backgrounds to be able to attend and thrive."

Jenn Hamrick 

 

"My path to becoming an architect has been circuitous and difficult. I know that all my achievements have been hard won, but I also know that no one can do this alone. I had the fortune of receiving help from so many.... And I hope to always be a voice for those who are still finding theirs."

Mona Nahm 

 

We see it all around us, therein lies the problem. The physical built environment is a culmination of "value engineered" ideals of a selected privileged few. Much like the curation of art in our museums, we should question who is choosing the art and who is the art for. You see, erasure historically favors those at the top. Until architecture recognizes and serves the most vulnerable in our communities we are simply gaslighting our "institutions". We need to deeply examine our ethos as architects, if we seek true Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in the design of the build environment. At it's core, it is vital and indispensable.

Carlos Rodriguez 


The ARE Challenge Scholarship Program recognizes that the effort and expense of the architectural licensing process as a barrier to achieving this professional milestone and that it disproportionately affects candidates of historically underrepresented identities in the profession. In light of the extremely challenging and economically unstable conditions that we are collectively facing, AIASF Equity by Design has established financial assistance scholarships for licensure candidates with a focus on individuals from historically underrepresented backgrounds in architecture who are eligible to take the ARE exams.

Recipients of the #EQxD2020 ARE Challenge Scholarship will be reimbursed for three (3) ARE Exams (Value $705 per recipient), regardless of pass or fail status.

Thanks to our #EQxD2020 SERIES Champions!

  • Silver Sponsors -

    • HOK

    • SHERWIN WILLIAMS COIL COATINGS

    • OBR Architecture

  • Titanium Sponsors

    • SMARTci

    • AWV

    • PARKLEX USA

    • MORIN

  • Bronze Sponsors -

    • PYATOK

    • CAMERON MACALLISTER

    • SOM

    • SMITHGROUP

    • WRNS STUDIO

We need to Hack more!

by Matthew Gaul    

Without a doubt, the most significant event of the whole AIA National convention in Atlanta was Equity by Design (EQxD) Hackathon ½ day event. Unique to the convention we were going to do something, on the spot, to improve the profession. The whole afternoon was a microcosm of what I have experienced since I attended my first EQxD meeting a year ago. What I got out of it was a real sense of what it will take to move the profession forward and an even stronger sense of optimism that we will get there.

Why I went:

First stop: a selfie at the front door.

First stop: a selfie at the front door.

Like all EQxD events and meetings I’ve been to, the Hackathon was about awareness and action. Action is the key to causes. Architecture is keen to action when it comes to external things like the 2030 Challenge for sustainability, but we’re ironically inactive about our own internal challenges.

At the Hackathon, we set out to focus internally, not on our desires about design as architects are regularly accused of doing, but on our self-worth and conduct. Frankly, it is still a significant thing for the profession to stand up out of our sandbox of beautiful designs, to grapple with real human issues. I believe doing so helps us realize our true value and prepare for a Post-Green world, when being sustainable will be as much of a concern to the public and the profession as being accessible and ADA compliant. When we get there, we’ll be left with our one common denominator: our fellow humans for whom we design. After all, Architecture can’t sustainably focus on sustainability because we’ll get there, and when we do, we’ll be left with our one common denominator: our fellow humans for whom we design.

I also wanted to be there to be one of the men in the room. Everyone has potential for implicit bias, groupthink, and ignorance. Research shows us that diverse groups make more intelligent and equitable decision through a reduction in assumptions and increase in experiences and awareness. So, by participating help mitigate these factors in myself and others.

How it went:

It was hard. Not in the typical architecture-is-hard because the problems are complex and take a long time to develop solutions. It was hard because we didn’t have a long time to figure things out, and we couldn’t use our typical problem solving methods. We were actively figuring out what our methods could be while using them to solve our group’s chosen equity issue, and then presenting in a way that we were totally unaccustomed. And that’s the essence of a hackathon.

In the end, this was the most focused, participatory, and fruitful four hours of the whole convention. Don’t get me wrong; other convention activities had the same high qualities, but none produced original work on the spot and drew upon their participants to act in the present and future in quite the same way. We all left with a feeling of community, ownership, and responsibility.

What I take away from it:

“A pocket full of change.”

“A pocket full of change.”

Equity in Architecture and improving the value proposition/understanding of architecture is going to be a lot harder and more complicated than I thought. It isn’t just a matter of sharing information, straightening up, rallying others to action, and changing what others do or think. There is a lot of hard work in figuring out how and what we are doing to change ourselves as a profession and how others perceive us.

Personally, I will make it a point to draw on others more. (It won’t be just to spread the good word of equity, but it will also help shape the bricks that we will use to build a better profession. It is my hope that AIA National does the same.

There is a real value in every single person’s time and energy, because they can shape the course of events and the profession that shapes humanity’s built environment.

And who wouldn’t want a part of that?

Read more of Matthew's thoughts on the importance of equity in architecture from an excerpt of his EQxD Hackathon scholarship essay below. 
 

“I believe that Architecture fundamentally needs to raise its internal and external valuation to reflect the importance of architecture in the daily lives of people, society, and the future of humanity. This improvement of valuation has to start with better, more equitable practices within the profession. Once we value ourselves better in this way, provide greater opportunities to our members, and retain more talent, we can better communicate our value to society, and achieve a level of regard and compensation that will enable us to produce our best work.”
— Matthew Gaul

What's next for EQxD?

Join us in San Francisco at AIASF on June 11th for our next EQxD "U" Workshop "What's Flex got to do with Success?" (Win Win Strategies for Work/Life Flexibility) Meet the panelists, and participate in small group break-outs to "hack" what works for flexibility in the modern workplace. This event is relevant to all AEC professionals! 6pm-8:30pm.