Whose House is it Anyway? The Value of Engagement in Design

*This event will be occurring as a live webinar. Registrants will be emailed a link to access the program.*

What constitutes effective community engagement in an equitable and environmentally responsible architectural practice? What is the individual and collective work that design professionals need to take on in order to foster meaningful participation and genuine representation of the diverse communities they serve? Why is the intentional and informed use of community engagement at all scales critical to achieving genuine, just, and equitable sustainability? 

This panel brings together various perspectives to delve into the intersecting histories, concepts, and concerns that impact the integration of community engagement methods into architectural practice. Through critical discussion of how and to what effect architects engage the communities they intend to serve, panelists will offer valuable insight on how the profession might start to rethink existing conventions of community-based design to achieve desired results. 

Attendees will leave with a fuller understanding of the challenges and opportunities inherent in community engagement, and specific ideas for how they might start to prepare their firms and clients to do effective community engagement. We hope this discussion will motivate the profession to take active responsibility by doing the hard, ongoing work that is necessary to ensure that all projects meet the needs of the communities within which they are situated while promoting health, wellness, and prosperity for all.

Moderator:
Bryony Roberts, Founder, Bryony Roberts Studio 

Panelists:
Javier Lopez (he/him), Chief Strategy Officer, Red Hook Initiative (RHI)
Chris Rice, Associate, WXY Studio
Daphany Rose Sanchez (she/ella) Executive Director, Kinetic Communities 

About the speakers:

Bryony Roberts is an architectural designer and scholar. Her practice, Bryony Roberts Studio, based in New York, integrates methods from architecture, art, and preservation to address complex social conditions and urban change. The practice has been awarded the Architectural League Prize and New Practices New York award from AIA New York as well as support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Graham Foundation, the MacDowell Colony, and the American Academy in Rome, where Roberts was awarded the Rome Prize for 2015-16. In tandem with her design practice, Roberts instigates research and publication projects about designing in response to social and cultural histories. She guest-edited the recent volume Log 48: Expanding Modes of Practice, edited the book Tabula Plena: Forms of Urban Preservation published by Lars Müller Publishers, and co-guest-edited Log 31: New Ancients. She has also published her research in the Harvard Design Magazine, Praxis, Future Anterior, and Architectural Record. Roberts earned her B.A. at Yale University and her M.Arch at the Princeton School of Architecture. She teaches architecture and preservation at the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation in New York. 

Javier Lopez (he/him) is currently the Chief Strategy Officer for the Red Hook Initiative (RHI). Since joining RHI in 2019, Lopez has been able to incorporate anti-racist tools and practices as a method to co-lead and co-design RHI’s program planning, external affairs, and community organizing efforts. Before joining RHI, Lopez spent over 15 years spearheading BIPOC-centered advocacy, program planning, and research to address systemic racism in the systems and policies that maintain white supremacy. Focus areas include but are not limited to health, housing, police brutality, and gun violence. Currently, Lopez serves as a consultant/advisory to four BIPOC-led organizations: Community Capacity and Development, Nos Quedamos, Radical Health, and Community Justice Action Fund. He advises on organizational design, board development, and program, policy, and research planning. During his free time Lopez co-facilitates “How to advocate for racial justice in your school” with parents of students of color school who attend independent private schools. He is lucky to be the husband to his wife Michelle and a father to Ava, Maximilian, and Leandro.  

Chris Rice is an Associate at WXY Studio, where he leads community engagement, planning, and design projects. Rice's past work includes leading the D15 Diversity Plan and developing a community-based zoning framework in East Flatbush. He is interested in using the tools of urban planning and design to advance social and racial equity. In 2015, he co-founded BlackSpace, a collective of Black urban planners and designers who demand a present and future, where Black people, Black spaces, and Black culture matter and thrive. Rice holds a BA from Oberlin College and a Masters in Urban Planning from the Pratt Institute. He currently teaches at The New School in the Design and Urban Ecologies program.  

Daphany Rose Sanchez is a New York native, who has been passionately working as an energy equity advocate. She founded Kinetic Communities in 2017 when she saw the representation gap in the energy sector and knew something had to be done. Kinetic Communities is a New York-certified social enterprise Benefit Corporation that advocates and implements strategic energy equity market transformations for diverse New York communities. KC3 works with the sector's most impactful leaders. Sanchez has her B.Sc. from NYU Tandon School of Engineering and her M.Sc. from the New School. She has been recognized as a Next City Vanguard Fellow, an NYC Housing Hero in 2018, a 2019 Grist50! Fixer, a 2020 NYC Climate Hero, and a GreenBiz 2020 30 under 30 for her vigorous work, ensuring front line communities and people of color are engaged in a just clean energy transition.