Our Resilience and Our Values

摘要

I was privileged recently to present the 2021 AIA/ACSA Topaz Medallion to Kathryn Anthony, who has worked tirelessly to bring diversity, inclusion, and social justice to the front and center of architectural education. In 2017, she published a book called Defined by Design about the hidden signals found in places and products that reinforce deleterious attitudes toward age, bodies, and gender. In 2001, her book Designing for Diversity marshaled data to illustrate why official design culture in architecture is perpetuated and how it challenges those who wish to make the profession more diverse in its culture, outlook, and composition. When Anthony testified before Congress in 2010, in support of the Bipartisan Restroom Gender Parity in Federal Buildings Act, she said, "Much of our built environment was constructed in a different era-one in which women were not as prevalent in the public realm and in the workforce as we are today." Whether it's adequate restrooms or the hierarchies of the architecture studio or the coded messages in the products we buy, she had one simple message: Resolutions for inclusion and equity are hollow so long as the spaces we inhabit and the culture we defend are unfair and disenfranchising.