September 26, 2024 | 4:00pm ET / 1:00pm PT
Design for Freedom: Ethical and Equitable Materiality
Online Discussion
September 26, 2024
4:00鈥�5:00pm ET / 1:00-2:00pm PT
Design for Freedom: Ethical and Equitable Materiality
Design for Freedom is a global movement to raise awareness and initialize responses to disrupt forced labor in the building materials supply chain. Some 28 million people worldwide are held in forced labor鈥攎any of them in the building materials supply chain of extraction, manufacture, and construction. Design for Freedom, led by Grace Farms, raises global awareness about the hidden humanitarian crisis through pilot projects, the media, exhibitions, reports, symposiums, and partnerships with leading universities. This webinar will raise awareness among students and faculty about forced labor in the creation of the built environment, and to demonstrate how student design and research can recognize and help eliminate forced labor in architecture and construction.
- Find and address embedded forced labor
- Pursue Ethical Decarbonization
- Embrace Circularity
Recording coming soon.
Sharon Prince
Sharon Prince is the CEO and Founder of聽Grace Farms聽Foundation, a new kind of boundary-defying public space that advances good locally and globally. Prince commissioned Pritzker聽Prize-winning SANAA architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa聽to design聽Grace Farms, which has become widely known as a global humanitarian and cultural center located in New Canaan, Connecticut.
Grace Farms聽is the platform for the Foundation and its interdisciplinary humanitarian mission to pursue peace through nature, arts, justice, community, faith, and Design for Freedom, a global new movement to eliminate forced labor from the building materials supply chain. The open, porous architecture of the River building at聽Grace Farms聽is embedded into 80 acres of natural biodiverse landscapes. The building, designed to break down barriers between people and sectors, invites all to pause and reflect, while also encouraging engagement with聽Grace Farms鈥� work, including advancing gender and racial equity, all of which leads to creating new outcomes.
Since opening, Grace Farms has garnered numerous prestigious awards for contributions to architecture, environmental sustainability, and social good, including the AIA National 2017 Architecture Honor Award and the Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize.
Karen Kariuki
Karen聽has spent the last twenty years building a career in the philanthropic, not-for-profit, and private sectors 鈥� leading innovative solutions at the crossroads of the respective fields. Her broad-based experience and deep expertise have given her a passion for creating social impact, driving change, and delivering results.
As Managing Director, Strategic Initiatives and Investor Engagement, Karen is leading the Foundation鈥檚 work to engage the financial sector and colleges in universities in advancing Design for Freedom, a new movement to eliminate forced labor in the building materials supply chain. She is also leading strategic partnerships for聽Grace Farms聽Foundation聽on the West Coast to advance its mission and expand its impact.
Karen was previously聽Grace Farms鈥� Community Initiative Director, leading the Foundation鈥檚 focused work fostering inclusive communities with a focus on gender and racial equality and food equity.
Michael J. Crosbie
Michael J. Crosbie, PhD, FAIA, is a Professor at Architecture at the University of Hartford, College of Engineering, Technology, and Architecture. He has made significant contributions in the fields of architectural journalism, research, teaching, and practice. Having served as an editor at Architecture: The AIA Journal, Progressive Architecture, ArchitectureWeek.com, and is editor-in-chief of Faith & Form, a quarterly journal on religious art and architecture, he is also a frequent contributor to Architectural Record and writes about architecture and design for the Hartford Courant.
While he has appeared as an architectural expert on The History Channel, he is also the author of more than 20 books on architecture (including five books for children) and has edited and contributed to more than 20 others. Crosbie鈥檚 work is also frequently featured on聽CommonEdge. Additionally, he has served as an adjunct professor at Roger Williams University and Catholic University and has lectured and served as a visiting critic at architecture schools in North America and abroad, including the University of California (Berkeley), the University of Pennsylvania, Yale University, and the Moscow Architectural Institute.