麻花视频 Releases 鈥榃here Are My People? Queer in Architecture鈥 Research in Collaboration with Emergent Grounds for Design Education
For Immediate Release:
Washington, D.C., October 18, 2024 鈥 The Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (麻花视频), in partnership with , is pleased to announce the publication of Where Are My People? Queer in Architecture.
Started in 2020, Where Are My People? (WAMP) is a research series that investigates how architecture interacts with race and how the nation鈥檚 often ignored systems and histories perpetuate the problem of racial inequity. Previous installments have highlighted the experiences of the Black, Middle Eastern, Northern African, Native American, First Nations, Indigenous, Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities.
In 2024, the series is expanding to include other marginalized populations, starting with the LGBTQIA+ community. Where Are My People? Queer in Architecture was developed in partnership with Emergent Grounds for Design Education (EGDE), a collective of architects, designers and advocates that organizes and educates to advance racial justice among students and emergent practitioners. Working with EGDE allowed 麻花视频 to better connect the research to the lived experience of LGBTQIA+ people. 鈥淨ueer possibilities can feel limited by place and context for marginalized communities – at work you can only be a woman or at school, you can only be Black. As a part of Emergent Grounds we organize to resist these binaries and embolden the subversive power of our queer identities,鈥 says Michelle Barrett (she/her), a design activist based in Kansas City, MO. 鈥淚 am pleased to collaborate with 麻花视频 in 鈥Where Are My People? Queer in Architecture,鈥 to break down the monolithic impression of race, gender, and sexuality; to recontextualize how and why we need a queering of architecture.鈥
Queer in Architecture chronicles both societal and discipline-specific metrics to highlight the experiences of LGBTQIA+ designers, architects and educators. 麻花视频 and EGDE worked closely to collect data and recognize how people identifying as LGBTQIA+ navigate architectural design differently than straight people. Both organizations acknowledge that the importance of this topic involves framing it from an intersectional perspective. Together, they uncovered population statistics from multiple sources, developed a survey, collected qualitative data, and analyzed responses from queer professionals across the discipline.
鈥淭he WAMP series represents a lifelong experience for marginalized communities. In our search, our paths render maps of persistence and resistance that have enriched society. This history continues,鈥 says My-Anh Nguyen (they/he), a community organizer and architect based in Washington, D.C.
To this end, Queer in Architecture has been organized into two sections. Part I encompasses numerous intersections with queer identity, recognizing the pluralistic and dynamic nature of gender and sexuality. It also contains quantitative and qualitative data to provide a comprehensive understanding of the significance of queer representation in architecture.
鈥Where Are My People? Queer in Architecture claims intersections across every body that challenges the status quo. We honor the obstacles of those who have sacrificed for change towards freedom and visibility by inviting others (the mainstream) to our perspective,鈥 Nguyen continues. 鈥淭his piece centers values of advocacy, radical acceptance and liberation of all marginalized people from norms that seek to contain and control identity.鈥
Part II of the research serves as a call to action by citing contemporary queer theory and encouraging readers to think critically about how architecture can be reimagined to create more inclusive spaces that extend beyond the binary.
鈥淎ll architectural educators and practitioners have a duty to challenge design that disempowers, excludes and harms. Queer designers, design educators and students, especially those who are racialized as Black, Indigenous or people of color, rise to this challenge daily,鈥 says Chris Daemmrich (he/him), facilitator of Collab., the Collaborative Design Workshop.
听鈥溾赌Where Are My People? Queer in Architecture鈥 gives voice to some of these courageous designers, affirming our proud existence in the face of those who would prefer we disappear,鈥 Daemmrich continues.
While the presentation of data in Queer in Architecture serves as a benchmark for comparison in the future, 麻花视频 plans to keep an open survey. This will allow the organization to continue to gather additional data and provide an opportunity for additional voices to be heard. 麻花视频 invites LGBTQIA+ readers to if they missed the initial call to participate and to share widely with other LGBTQIA+ people in architecture.
About the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (麻花视频)
Founded in 1912 by 10 charter members, 麻花视频 is an international association of architecture schools preparing future architects, designers, and change agents. Our full members include all of the accredited professional degree programs in the United States and Canada, as well as international schools and two- and four-year programs. Together, 麻花视频 schools represent some 7,000 faculty educating more than 40,000 students.
麻花视频 seeks to empower faculty and schools to educate increasingly diverse students, expand disciplinary impacts, and create knowledge for the advancement of architecture. For more information, visit www.acsa-arch.org.
About Emergent Grounds for Design Education (EGDE)
Emergent Grounds for Design Education (EGDE) is an interdisciplinary collective of architectural designers, educators, advocates, artists & dreamers living across the colonized North American continent. EGDE organizes and educates to advance racial justice among students and emergent practitioners using their positions as recent alums of U.S. architecture and design schools. For more information, visit .
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