Architect's Role in Creating Equitable Communities: Foundations
Community members completing a worksheet outlining their vision for a local park.
While not always evident, there are significant risks associated with continuing typical design and development practices. With this knowledge, architects can identify existing inequities and discriminations in the built environment and then intentionally address, through project work and firm processes, specific issues and conditions that lead to a built environment that does not impact all people equally.
Fundamentally, equitable designs are built through an equitable process. By shedding light on the structure and results of inequitable decisions, architects are better able to understand the context in which their projects exist and the possible implications their choices have. Additionally, an understanding of the history—social, political, and economic—of the projects you work on is foundational for achieving equitable outcomes. Without such a perspective, intervening can unintentionally cause harm. The following sections outline actions that can be taken within and outside of projects in support of equitable communities. Information in the Foundations section introduces the “why” of equitable development and the inequities that exist in the built environment.
The tabs below examine the foundations of equity in the built environment:
- Design Injustice: How did we get here?
- The Silent Risk of Business as Usual
- Glossary of Key Terms
Design Injustice: How did we get here?
From enslavement and denial of human rights and dignity to broken promises of 40 acres and a mule, Jim Crow laws and other mechanisms have been used to steal wealth, land, and opportunity through restrictive covenants, destructive highways, and federal mortgage policies that restricted Blacks, Jews, and others in support of “homogeneous [white] neighborhoods.” Slum clearance and other tools, including forced removal, predatory mortgages, credit scores, forced displacement, disinvestment, and gentrification, among others, have been instituted to deny Black Americans opportunities for adequate wages, access to necessary goods and services, and proximity to high-paying jobs.
“[Architects] share the responsibility for the mess we are in ... this didn’t just happen. We didn’t just suddenly get in this situation. It was carefully planned.” -Whitney M. Young Jr.1
The building parameters and outcomes of this system have long benefited the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry which, as such, has both directly and indirectly contributed to the creation and prolonged dominance of racist policies to protect its interests.
Even as the policies are retired, the effects remain.
- Black homeowners are nearly five times more likely to own in a formerly redlined neighborhood than in a greenlined neighborhood, resulting in diminished home equity and overall economic inequality for Black families.2
- Redlined neighborhoods identified by federal officials as “risky investments” in the 1930s are today some of the hottest parts of Richmond, Virginia. In these places, there are few trees and a great deal of paved surface.3
- People living in redlined communities are more than twice as likely to seek emergency room treatment for asthma as their peers in non-redlined communities.4
- Studies show that green spaces in urban areas are larger and more easily accessed in white neighborhoods. This leads to varying levels of heat exposure and disparate abilities to benefit from the physical and mental health benefits of green space.5
- Lior Jacob Strahilevitz notes the role “exclusionary amenities,” such as polo grounds, golf courses, and tennis courts, play in deterring unwanted potential residents from seeking out ownership in specific communities or developments.6
- Homeownership is an often-cited way to build wealth in the United States. Black Americans do not have the same access to property ownership and wealth-building opportunities.
Building wealth
Fundamentally, equitable designs are built through equitable process. By shedding light on the structure and results of inequitable decisions, architects are better able to understand the context in which their projects exist and the possible implications their choices have. Additionally, an understanding of the history—social, political, and economic—of the projects you work on is foundational for achieving equitable outcomes. Without such a perspective, intervening can unintentionally cause harm. The following sections outline actions that can be taken within and outside of projects in support of equitable communities. Information in the Foundations section introduces the “why” of equitable development and the inequities that exist in the built environment.
References
[1] Whitney M. Young Jr. Full Remarks of Whitney M. Young Jr AIA Annual Convention in Portland, Oregon, June 1968. AIA. https://content.aia.org/sites/default/files/201804/WhitneyYoungJr_1968AIAContention_FulLSpeech.pdf
[2] Brenda Richardson. “Redlining’s Legacy of Inequality: Low Homeownership Rate, Less Equity for Black Households.” Forbes. June 11, 2020. Retrieved Oct 18, 2021, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/brendarichardson/2020/06/11/redlinings-legacy-of-inequality-low-homeownership-rates-less-equity-for-black-households/?sh=39b770da2a7c
[3] Brad Plumer and Nadja Popovich. “How Decades of Racist Housing Policy Left Neighborhoods Sweltering.” The New York Times. Aug 24, 2020
[4] Kara Manke. “Historically redlined communities face higher asthma rates.” Berkeley News. May 22, 2019. Retrieved Jan 5, 2022, from https://news.berkeley.edu/2019/05/22/historically-redlined-communities-face-higher-asthma-rates/
[5] Shivani Shukla. “Racial Disparities in Access to Public Green Space.” Chicago Policy Review. https://chicagopolicyreview.org/2020/09/23/racial-disparity-in-access-to-public-green-space/
[6] Lior J. Strahilevitz. “Exclusionary Amenities in Residential Communities.” Virginia Law Review, 92(3), 437–499. 2006. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4144949
Image credits
Side A Photography