Context:

Design Engagement (Arch 230/530) at the University of Massachusetts is a course that examines architecture and design practice through the lens of race, class, gender, and other systems of power. The course explores how design has been used to perpetuate injustice, as well as how design work can advance equity and social justice. Students also partner with a local community organization to work on a real-world project that used design to address issues of racism in our local high school.

Process:

I worked closely with the existing professor to review and update the curricula to reflect a focus on examining systems of oppression through the built environment. We worked to highlight how architecture as a discipline has played a role in perpetuating injustice historically, and amplify the numerous movements and design practices that have successfully worked to dismantle systems of oppression and create liberatory approaches.

Outcomes:

Students gained a deep understanding of how systems of injustice are woven into the foundation of design practice. Numerous class discussions helped shed light on the ways this could inform each students future career. In additional, students met and built relationships with a local group of organizers, and through listening sessions, collaborative brainstorming, and workshops, the students developed proposals for projects that could address issues of racism in the local high school. Last year, these proposals were implemented as a traveling exhibit in our regional school system.