Architecture and Politics with Chris Daemmrich

Chris Daemmrich was born and raised in Austin, Texas, on Tonkawa land. He studied architecture and political science on Chitimacha, Choctaw and Houma land at Tulane University of Louisiana in New Orleans, graduating with an M.Arch and a B.A. in political science in 2017. Chris has worked in a wide range of architectural, development, advocacy, political and research organizations including Wisznia, Colloqate, the American Institute of Architects and the US Census Bureau. He serves on the boards of NOMA Louisiana and the Association for Community Design, is a co-facilitator of the Architecture Lobby’s Racial Justice Working Group and a co-facilitator of Emergent Grounds in Design Education. In his teaching at the Taylor Center for Social Innovation and Design Thinking at Tulane University and through the Collaborative Design Workshop, his design justice research, advocacy and education practice, Chris participates in reparative, queer, feminist space-making. Chris’ work has been featured in Architectural Record, ARCHITECT, Archinect and Curbed.

Recommended readings: Silencing the Past

DOES ARCHITECTURE HAVE CULTURE?

In the context of multifamily and affordable housing, does the architecture aesthetic represent the culture or the historical context of the neighborhood? Melissa explores this topic with two articles: A city within a city and Architecture and Racism: A Conversation.

Become an insider by supporting the show at https://glow.fm/archispolly where you can support the show on a recurring or one-time basis!

CONVERSATION W/ ELLEN ABRAHAM Assoc AIA, NOMA, MBA

Through her first love, Architecture, Dominican-born and raised designer and entrepreneur Ellen Abraham aims to push the needle forward.  This MBA graduate and Senior Project Technical Lead at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, nurtures her passions through leading various community-building initiatives, design-based philanthropy and high impact social justice & design advocacy projects. She co-founded and co-leads a new initiative at SOM called the Equity Design Lab.

Ellen currently serves on the NYCOBA NOMA Board focused on finance management for the NY chapter, the Architexx Board focused on gender equity and the historic & landmarked Ephesus Church campus Board in NYC, as Building Committee Chairwoman, where she leads a 15-member committee. 

She is the Founder of Architect Pins & Elle Abōd, two companies focused on the celebration of diverse design identities and the promotion of BIPOC Architect and Designer Guest Editors, respectively.

Links:

Architect Pins

Website: https://www.architectpins.com/

Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/architectpins/

Elle Abod

IG: https://www.instagram.com/elleabod/

Professional Contact

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ellenabraham/

Become an insider by supporting the show at https://glow.fm/archispolly where you can support the show on a recurring or one-time basis!

Decolonise Architecture (UK)

‘Decolonise Architecture’ is a collective of students and alumni from the University of Bath driven to tackle institutional racism within architecture and its education.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/decolonisearchitecture/?hl=en

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/decolonise-architecture-uk/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DecoloniseArch

TANYARADZWA CHIGANZE (@Tanya.etc_) Background: Zimbabwean and Welsh. Architectural education needs to acknowledge its role in shaping society and the barriers students may face as a result of it being an exclusive profession. In order to give our global student population a holistic and empowering format of education, it must challenge the consequences of white privilege and shift away from eurocentricism. 

JASMINE LAWRENCE (@Luceaalawrence) Background: British and Caribbean. Throughout my time in architectural education, it has become increasingly apparent that architecture is far from a level playing field. I feel ever  more fortunate to have studied it in a top university as a minority ethnic and want to help make this change so that this is not such a special circumstance in education or in practice.

MOHIT  BUCH (@Mohitbuch) Background: Indian and British. Learning about the ways in which different cultures have adapted to their conditions and climates will only make you a better architect and your designs more responsive.

HARSHA GORE (@harshag_) Background: Indian and Swiss. Much of the world today faces the lasting repercussions of dominating Western practices and media. We cannot change what we look like or where we come from - so it is our responsibility to make the world a more equal place, one reflective of our ethnic and traditional cultures.

Not on the call
KYALE MAKAU MWENDWA Background: Kenyan. Architecture education can be seen as particularly isolating for minority ethnic students, even when compared to the already skewed number for higher education in general. I believe that by celebrating POC architects, we can give minority students the courage and confidence that is indeed possible to break through the glass ceiling.

FLORA JING LIN NG (@atelier.fn) Background: Singaporean and Chinese. Providing a platform for underrepresented groups to share knowledge and discuss their architecture in a very crowded Eurocentric room. The architectural culture is changing, and we have a chance here to do the right thing.

Death by Architecture Podcast

Tenille Bettenhausen is a business developer serving the Los Angeles market for the American Institute of Steel Construction. She earned her BS degree in Architecture from Arizona State University. After graduation, Tenille started her career in architecture with Callison Architecture, where she worked on a wide variety of projects including design rollout projects for Nordstrom and Washington Mutual Bank. She has 18 years of previous experience as an architectural project designer, project engineer in construction, and for the last four years, has been the Business Development Manager for a local architecture firm. She is heavily involved in her local chapter of the AIA and is currently the co-chair for the Women in Architecture committee. Tenille is also a podcaster for her new show Death By Architecture. Her passion is marketing and building design, and she finds business development and relationship building of the utmost importance.

Website: http://deathbyarchitecturepod.com/

Instagram: @deathbyarchitecturepod • Instagram photos and videos