Advocacy as the world burns

The world is burning. Literally.

The fires in Washington State, glacial collapse and flooding in Nepal, wildfires across Spain and Italy, and smoke from Canadian wildfires settling across the Northeast and Great Lakes are the latest reminders of the devastating disruptions communities continue to face. As we move into the heart of storm season, additional tropical systems are forming across the Pacific and Atlantic.

As someone accustomed to responding to disasters, it is difficult at times to embody my role as AIA’s president during these moments. My instinct, like that of many architects, is to respond—to get involved, solve problems, and help wherever I can. But leadership sometimes requires a different kind of discipline: to resist being pulled into every crisis, shut out the noise, and remain focused on our shared objectives. It means choosing where we can have the greatest impact.

Our collective success depends not only on that discipline but also on the character to stay focused in difficult circumstances and the commitment to keep moving toward the work that matters most.

In 2025, 117.8 million people worldwide were forcibly displaced from their homes. Behind that staggering number lie human stories: disrupted families, communities, and lives, followed by people searching for safety, stability, and a place to rebuild.

September was National Preparedness Month. But preparedness cannot simply be a month on the calendar. It must become part of how we practice on a daily basis.

Scarcity as a teacher

Many of the places I have worked experience extreme circumstances with limited resources and capacity to respond. These are places like remote villages or island communities where supply chains are fragile, skilled labor and materials are scarce, and financing is often challenging.

Yet designing in these circumstances makes me a better architect. Scarcity forces us to think differently. It teaches us to see limitations as opportunities and to see what might traditionally be considered waste as an asset. It pushes us toward self-sufficiency, self-reliance, and standalone resilience.

This is one of the lessons of regenerative design. Instead of simply asking how we can reduce the harm a project causes, we can ask how the project can create greater capacity, restore systems, and contribute to the long-term health of the community around it.

This mindset is increasingly necessary because we are no longer designing for a stable world. We are designing in a world of disruption with the compounding factors of climate events, fragile infrastructure, migration, housing shortages, economic uncertainty, and technological change.

Our position as systems thinkers—architects who understand extreme limitations yet find ways to deliver projects of value—is precisely where our profession needs to be.

Architects must be at the table

Through the ROAD to Housing Act, AIA is actively shaping housing policy for the benefit of communities. We must participate in affordable housing discussions, and our ongoing partnership with the U.S. Conference of Mayors helps us put our expertise to work on housing and other built environment challenges. These conversations matter because the scale and speed of change are extraordinary.

Our value is not simply in designing the building. It is in understanding the relationships between the building and the systems around it—and asking whether those systems can withstand disruption, serve the community, and create value beyond the boundaries of a project site.

We understand how land, infrastructure, economics, public policy, technology, health, and human experience intersect.

That is systems thinking.

And it is one of our profession’s greatest assets.

But expertise only matters when we use it.

The discipline to act

There will always be another crisis competing for our attention. Another headline. Another disaster. Another urgent problem demanding an immediate response.

We cannot respond to everything, but we can decide where our profession can have the greatest impact. That requires discipline. We must be deliberate about where we put our collective energy.

That means we must advocate for policies that strengthen communities before disaster strikes. We must start bringing resilience into our projects early rather than treating it as an afterthought. We must ask harder questions of our clients, collaborators, and ourselves. And we must find ways to deliver better projects faster because the needs of our communities are not waiting.

This is not a call for every architect to become a policy expert or disaster-response professional. It is a call for every architect to recognize the power of their expertise.

Advocate in your community. Serve where decisions are being made. Engage your elected officials. Bring resilience and regenerative thinking into your projects. Share what you know. Learn from communities that have already experienced the future we are preparing for.

And stand up when your voice is needed.

The world does not need architects who simply respond to disruption. It needs architects who anticipate it, prepare for it, and help communities emerge stronger from it.

Every project we touch is an opportunity to do that. Every plan, every policy, every building, and every conversation is a chance to move the profession forward—and to make the places we serve more resilient, regenerative, healthy, equitable, and prepared for what comes next.

The fires, floods, storms, displacement, housing pressures, and infrastructure challenges we see around us are not distant problems. They are the context in which we practice architecture today.

So let us stand up—not in fear of what is coming, but with confidence in what we can do.

Stay disciplined. Stay committed. Stay engaged.

Leadership cannot wait. Neither can we.