In this episode, we speak to Michelle Barrett and Chris Daemmrich from Emergent Grounds in Design Education (EGDE) , a cogenerated catalogue of ongoing student and alumni practitioners organizing for antiracist, anticolonial, feminist education in the built environment design professions. This group was originally organized in June 2020 as the Alumni Collective in Solidarity/New Grounds for Design Education, and renamed Emergent Grounds in Design Education (EGDE) in August 2020. Their new name reflects the historical truth that demands for justice and equity in design education are not new but deeply rooted, and that their success will come through decentralized, networked organizing that author adrienne maree brown names ‘emergence’.  For more info email: [email protected]

Michelle Barrett, a 2019 M.Arch graduate of Tulane University's School of Architecture, is located in Kansas City, Missouri. In her role as a designer at Gould Evans, she contributes to the entire project process from initial programming, research and schematic design all the way through construction documentation and administration. In her role as a design activist, she advocates for equity and justice within the built environment for marginalized communities and within the architectural profession. Michelle co-founded the Tulane Black Arch Alumni Coalition (TBAAC) and co-facilitates Emergent Grounds for Design Education (EGDE). She has served as a National Student Representative on the NOMA National Executive Board, founding president of NOMAS at Kent State University, and current NOMA KC Student Outreach board member and Project Pipeline coordinator.

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.

References:

http://www.nomala.org/ascent