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 -
Titanium Sponsors
SMARTci
AWV
PARKLEX USA
MORIN
Bronze Sponsors -
PYATOK
CAMERON MACALLISTER
SOM
SMITHGROUP
WRNS STUDIO
