Design Justice at the University of Pittsburgh: A CALL TO ACTION
To the faculty and staff of the University of Pittsburgh Department of History of Art & Architectural Studies,
We, the students and alumni of the University of Pittsburgh History of Art & Architecture, Studio Arts, Urban Studies, and Civil Engineering departments, have come together to create a necessary Call to Action for our departments to acknowledge and commit to forefronting anti-racism in our institution. The history of systemic racism and the continued dehumanization of Black people has sparked a collective movement for the liberation of Black lives. The design profession has been complicit in this oppression, and must capitalize on this opportunity of global urgency and action to dismantle racist systems that are embedded in its core. We are requesting the recognition, support, and action for how our department will undertake the racial inequities and injustices that are an ongoing issue in higher education.
Design is something used to challenge existing ways of thinking and incite change, however, existing design education draws on learning from predominantly white male voices and teaches students to design and build in ways that are rooted in racism. As students, we have not been taught the tools to go into the world to design and advocate against social injustices.
Being a fairly young program, the HAA department has a unique opportunity to develop in this area. We must restructure our foundation and implement ways of learning to teach individuals how to advocate and design for just futures. Currently, we are being asked to imagine a world that we have never seen before: a world without systems of oppression and inequity in place. As architects, designers, and planners, it is our job to create this world and support radical imagination in order to aid in the creation of truly liberated communities and spaces.
It is with a sense of urgency that we present this Call to Action. We are here to support, collaborate with, and amplify the voices of students and alumni as well as to strengthen our department. Our team has disseminated a survey to current undergraduate students and some alumni to ask them for their input in envisioning our path forward. The actions below represent a culmination of these voices and aim to actively institute anti-racism, justice, inclusion, representation, and equity into the foundation of our programs. These actions are as follows:
1. Restructure our core curriculum courses to include BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) voices, design, and theory outside the current colonized lens. Concurrently, existing global courses should be strengthened and offered more regularly.
In the HAA program at the University of Pittsburgh, students have widely expressed that they have felt generally supported and cared for by the staff and faculty. Despite this, there is still much work to do. A baseline curriculum that is fully representative, inclusionary, and teaches design justice requires constant review and the input of students in the decision making process. Departments related to HAA such as Urban Studies and Studio Arts must also collaborate and take steps with us to move forward in this vital process. These changes will not be a one time event, but a continuous dialogue and will set the framework for a system of accountability.
We invite action from HAA leadership starting with the following:
This letter is our pledge to see these actions through and begin to address the systems of injustice that exist at our institution.
We, the students and alumni of the University of Pittsburgh History of Art & Architecture, Studio Arts, Urban Studies, and Civil Engineering departments, have come together to create a necessary Call to Action for our departments to acknowledge and commit to forefronting anti-racism in our institution. The history of systemic racism and the continued dehumanization of Black people has sparked a collective movement for the liberation of Black lives. The design profession has been complicit in this oppression, and must capitalize on this opportunity of global urgency and action to dismantle racist systems that are embedded in its core. We are requesting the recognition, support, and action for how our department will undertake the racial inequities and injustices that are an ongoing issue in higher education.
Design is something used to challenge existing ways of thinking and incite change, however, existing design education draws on learning from predominantly white male voices and teaches students to design and build in ways that are rooted in racism. As students, we have not been taught the tools to go into the world to design and advocate against social injustices.
Being a fairly young program, the HAA department has a unique opportunity to develop in this area. We must restructure our foundation and implement ways of learning to teach individuals how to advocate and design for just futures. Currently, we are being asked to imagine a world that we have never seen before: a world without systems of oppression and inequity in place. As architects, designers, and planners, it is our job to create this world and support radical imagination in order to aid in the creation of truly liberated communities and spaces.
It is with a sense of urgency that we present this Call to Action. We are here to support, collaborate with, and amplify the voices of students and alumni as well as to strengthen our department. Our team has disseminated a survey to current undergraduate students and some alumni to ask them for their input in envisioning our path forward. The actions below represent a culmination of these voices and aim to actively institute anti-racism, justice, inclusion, representation, and equity into the foundation of our programs. These actions are as follows:
1. Restructure our core curriculum courses to include BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) voices, design, and theory outside the current colonized lens. Concurrently, existing global courses should be strengthened and offered more regularly.
- These voices will not be included to be tokenized, but to be studied across the vast amount of topics that they have contributed to, as we do with their white cis male counterparts.
- There is a pattern across departments where courses that are supposed to study topics globally only touch on the U.S, Canada, and Europe, which speaks again to the colonized nature of our curriculum. Topics for new courses can include:
- Highlighting the achievements of minority + women architects left out in historical oversight + active discriminatory behavior juxtaposed with the synonymous development of other historical architectural achievements at the time
- The history/legacies/impact of BIPOC artists
- Afrofuturist, afro modern, + architecture across the African continent
- This seminar course should cover how architecture can act as an oppressor, how the built environment is tied with planning policy, and topics of redlining, racial steering, blockbusting, gentrification, urban renewal, and other unjust processes + theories that negatively impact BIPOC communities. Pittsburgh is an example of many of these processes and we should be required to study the environment we inhabit.
- This should be one of the foundations of our curriculum. It is important to constantly be reminded that architecture is never neutral.
- Due to their direct impact to the environments we live in, the necessity of learning how to advocate against social injustice applies to all HAA, Studio Arts, Urban Planning, and Civil Engineering courses. From a survey given to students and alumni of these departments, all of these individuals agreed that having a studio like this in their curriculum interests them and would greatly benefit them. Furthermore, a studio course with the focus on design justice would be provided for students in all of these departments and would teach design strategies that work when designing equitably and conserving the health, economy, and cultures of neighborhoods within Pittsburgh.
- All of our sites are in and around Oakland, which gives us the perfect opportunity to learn how to design with a community instead of for a community. Existing community studio projects produce architecture that would gentrify the community (especially as they are placed in predominantly Black communities) and contribute to “white savior” ways of thinking. Instead, classroom discussions need to include dialogue that addresses the repercussions of a student’s design when placed in different contexts.
- This studio pairs nicely with the seminar course that introduces topics relating to spatial inequality in Pittsburgh as well as with accompanying workshops and courses.
- It should also be stressed that community design = accessible design.
- Multidisciplinary education is essential for teaching design and planning to students on how to navigate the built environment collectively. Cross-listing can promote a transdisciplinary education, while increasing the amount of seats offered and filled between these smaller departments.
- The expenses of supplies that serve as our “required textbooks” are a big reason why many Black students do not consider studying architecture in the first place or cannot continue with their studies. Professors should have reasonable expectations of how much can be spent each semester + provide an expected cost for supplies and softwares before the course. With the support of the university, when possible, the department should implement changes to decrease costs. That includes: providing cork boards for pinups instead of requiring the purchase of foamcore, sourcing opportunities to provide discounted materials to students (beyond the 10% discount at art stores), and setting a goal of providing a computer lab space that provides all necessary design softwares and access to a plotter. The lack of access to adequate softwares also puts us behind in our education.
- Shift to focus less on hand model making, which is extremely expensive + produces excessive waste. A final model can cost a minimum of $100. Too much emphasis on model making also takes away from the opportunity to focus on other important parts of design thinking.
- Students need to be supported through the job searching process to make these opportunities truly accessible.
- This list should also include where past students have interned, where alumni currently work and whether these firms pay students for their efforts. Existing lists being compiled by different universities are great resources that should be utilized. Firms that do not pay their interns should not receive free promotion from the department. To do so would mean to support their discriminatory and exclusionary practices.
- The identities listed above must be evenly represented while also making up at least 50% of the guest critics. For many students, having faculty and guests from an array of races, genders, and sexualities to educate and critique their work immensely encourages them to accomplish their goals. Regarding studio guest critique panels, a diverse group of individuals can bring greater feedback for students.
- This might include issuing a letter to all guests before reviews to make sure behavior is equitable and ensures a positive learning experience for all.
- Create the course workload keeping in mind that students may be working outside jobs. Students should be able to work without the fear of falling behind in class. Supporting a healthy art and design studio culture would help with this. This in no way means that students are asking to do less for their education and not work for their grades. In fact, this creates stronger work from the students as they are able to put their needs first.
- The term jury may hold a lot of power over students. A jury’s purpose is to have a dialogue rather than deem work as right vs wrong. Instead, “juror” could be replaced with “guest reviewer.”
- Professors must support each student’s design thinking and leave room for individual agency in how the project is interpreted, encouraging students to express their backgrounds as part of the learning experience. This supports the notion that there is not only one way of thinking.
- At a minimum, professors must be trained in order to easily connect their students to resources, support and empathize with all students, recognize their biases, as well as prevent microaggressions from occurring. This will also prepare them for open dialogues about social justice in design.
- Collaborating can include: service, fundraising, advertising, and design workshops. A NOMAS chapter can create a supportive space for minority students wanting to pursue architecture.
In the HAA program at the University of Pittsburgh, students have widely expressed that they have felt generally supported and cared for by the staff and faculty. Despite this, there is still much work to do. A baseline curriculum that is fully representative, inclusionary, and teaches design justice requires constant review and the input of students in the decision making process. Departments related to HAA such as Urban Studies and Studio Arts must also collaborate and take steps with us to move forward in this vital process. These changes will not be a one time event, but a continuous dialogue and will set the framework for a system of accountability.
We invite action from HAA leadership starting with the following:
- A letter of commitment to this initiative.
- A plan of action for the department including an accountability matrix and general time table.
- A department-wide town hall meeting to discuss this call to action.
- The creation of a student advocacy group that makes sure to represent marginalized voices in the department.
- A commitment, joining other universities, architecture firms, and organizations to the demands of the Design as Protest Collective.
This letter is our pledge to see these actions through and begin to address the systems of injustice that exist at our institution.