ARCHITECT

This podcast looks at the impact of WeWork and other vertically integrated companies on the design profession at large by asking three people who were key to WeWork's rapid ascension: David Fano, Federico Negro, and Steve Sanderson. The trio were the founders of Case Inc., a New York–based design consultancy established in 2008 to bridge physical architecture with digital technology.

In this podcast episode, Nash Hurley, principal of San Francisco–based architecture studio Vital, references colonial villages, Burning Man, and hovercrafts in discussing the past and future of cities, work, transit, and community, and offers a first glimpse at the firm's Joint Structures research.

As a female person of color, a Puerto Rican, and a member of the LGBTQ community, Yiselle Santos Rivera, Assoc. AIA, has beaten the odds. In this episode, Santos Rivera shares how she is reaching out to individuals and communities not already embedded in the equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI)conversation; her efforts at HKS, a firm with more than 1,400 design professionals worldwide; and where designers can find support if their local community is not currently thinking about EDI.

In this podcast episode, Bhatia discusses the importance of collective form, a topic he also explores in his recently published monograph, his dream project, and advice on collaborating with other designers.

In this podcast episode, Inés Guzmán and Gregory Melitonov discuss how they manage projects across borders and their firm's annual design build initiative, Fundamental, which brings together volunteer designers from around the world for three months to conceptualize and build an architectural intervention in a public space.

In this podcast episode, Karen Braitmayer, FAIA, describes the roadblocks often faced by people with disabilities interested in architecture. At some point in life, she adds, many people will be affected by a disability, whether it be themselves or someone they know, such as their parents, partners, or colleagues.

In this podcast episode, firm principals Katie MacDonald and Kyle Schumann discuss their dual roles as practitioners and research fellows at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

In this episode, San Antonio, Texas–based architect Siboney Díaz-Sánchez offers ideas for designers to improve public outreach efforts and to challenge clients to go beyond their perceived obligations. She also elaborates how architecture and politics are intertwined.

In this podcast episode, Van Buren shares why she left her steady work at a successful firm to pursue her own ambition, what it takes to realize a restorative justice space in a community of doubters, and her belief that architects and designers can drive meaningful, substantial changes in society. In her op-ed "We Must Plan for a Decarceration Nation," in the May 2019 issue of ARCHITECT, Van Buren writes, "[Architects] have a unique way of thinking that helps us manifest complex ideas, concepts, and philosophies into real space and time—all skills that are desperately needed at the edge of social change. Together, we can steward and even lead a successful effort to decarcerate our nation and build equitable and just communities."

Until you're a member of a minority group, you likely cannot understand the visceral, day-in and day-out experience of life as a minority. From the passive, underhand comments and assumptions about your background or abilities to the blatant exclusion or derision of your presence, being a minority is challenging enough. Now imagine seeing the same people wielding the upper hand in the socio-economic lottery picking through your group's longstanding history and cultural practices for something they can leverage as their own.

In this episode, Tammy Eagle Bull, FAIA, explains in clear terms why cultural appropriation is wrong, how it perpetuates in the architecture and design community, and her own experiences with preconceptions in her everyday life. A member of the Oglala Lakota Nation, Eagle Bull is a co-founder and the president of Encompass Architects, based in Lincoln, Neb. She is also the first Native American woman in the United States to become a licensed architect, and the recipient of the AIA 2018 Whitney M. Young Jr. Award.