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Date

2022

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Creative Commons
Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as CC BY-NC-SA

Students and practitioners of architecture challenge the hegemonic Whiteness, maleness, cisheteronormativity, and capitalist control of these disciplines as a means of democratizing and decolonizing practice to create conditions for Black self-determination. This paper considers how architectural professionals have responded to contemporary movements for social justice in the United States and the ways in which some are more and some less successful at addressing the intersecting nature of identity-based oppressions. Organizations and convenings, including the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA), Black in Design, the Design Futures Public Interest Design Student Leadership Forum, Equity by Design, and the Architecture Lobby are considered from 2012 to the pre-pandemic spring of 2020, with a focus on the emergence of new spaces and shifts in how existing spaces engage with activist movements as a result of changing political conditions. The paper provides historical background and constructive critique. It concludes with recommendations for creating institutions that respond proactively, rather than reactively, to racist violence, sexual harassment, assault, and exploitation, and for making lasting meaning of these injustices when they occur. The roles Black people and other people of color, particularly women, have played, and the roles White people, particularly men, and White institutions must play in creating an antiracist, feminist architecture are a focus of this paper.

Description

This paper was presented at the 2020 Schools of Thought Conference hosted by the Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture at the University of Oklahoma.

Keywords

activism, antiracism, equity, feminism, organizations, protest, architectural education

Citation

Daemmrich, R. Chris, "Freedom and the Politics of Space: Contemporary Social Movements and Possibilities for Antiracist, Feminist Practice in U.S. Architecture," in Person, Angela M., Anthony Cricchio, and Stephanie Z. Pilat, eds. 2022. Proceedings of Schools of Thought: Rethinking Architectural Pedagogy, Norman, Oklahoma, March 5-7, 2020. University of Oklahoma Libraries: ShareOK.

Related file

https://hdl.handle.net/11244/335058

Notes