Opinion: Only Equity Can Beget Equity

摘要

The long workday of architecture has come to symbolize the industry's internal crucible of unrest, one that exposes the inequalities related to class, race, gender, sexual orientation, and age that continue to plague the profession. From the perspective of a design practice eager to win work, uncertain market conditions, ongoing wage devaluation, and the rising cost of building materials-which can trigger value engineering and thus laborious redesigns-can too easily throw initial cost proposals into disarray. Rather than rip up the balance sheet, firms often rely on long hours and unpaid overtime to soak up the losses. Accordingly, job descriptions seeking individuals with "flexibility, commitment, and professional passion" become a proxy for consensual exploitation, and employee prospects for promotion become contingent on this form of self-evisceration.