Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

Tedious administrative tasks are the bane of many peoples working lives and it seems architects are not immune, especially when it comes to preparing planning permissions. There are dozens of disparate, difficult to access pieces of data required to complete an application, and dealing with them takes the architect right out of their creative workflow, says Greg Jackson founder of AI company AutoPlan which has just launched a platform that streamlines the planning permission process for architects, saving them time and money.

Jackson got the idea for his business from his architect father. He was really frustrated with the amount of administrative hassle that comes with the job and asked me if I could automate a really simple but time-consuming task he had finding out if there had been previous planning applications on the sites he was working on, Jackson says.

It turned out to be both an industry-wide issue and a tricky problem to solve as anything involving data is usually more complex than it first appears. But we introduced machine learning into the process, really got inside architects heads to understand how they think in this area and our first product, which allows them to quickly and easily find a site and its history, is now up and running, having been successfully trialled with 30 practices.

Ballina-born Jackson studied mechatronic engineering at DCU and also has a PhD in smart cities technologies from Imperial College London. He has worked with Boston Scientific as a process engineer and spent time as a technical lead with Intel. He is also no stranger to the start-up world having previously been involved with Solar Print and Domus.ai.

Jackson set up AutoPlan in March this year and the company now employs three people. This is set to rise to 10 by the middle of next year. The companys aim is to turn AutoPlan into a one-stop shop for all statutory and data requirements for the architectural process and the company will make its money by offering its solutions on a SaaS basis. There is a free element to the subscription and a tiered pricing structure for additional features such as report bundles.

Digital transformation has changed the way architects design but the administrative process is still very analogue and thats what our platform will change while also allowing architects to deliver more successful planning applications, faster, Jackson says.

On the face of it, architects have an amazing job as they design our cities, homes, and workplaces. The day-to-day process of architecture, however, is very different. It is filled with manual administrative and bureaucratic tasks and unfortunately for the architect, the success of a project is as dependent on this bureaucracy as it is on their design ability. Architects want to design not get bogged down in administration.

The companys frontline customers will be architects, but the platform will also be of interest to planning consultants, property developers, engineering consultancies and banks and insurance firms looking to de-risk projects. We will start with architects because they are like the gatekeepers of the planning process and we want to build their trust in us to begin with, Jackson says. Our first markets will be the UK and Ireland but this is very much a global problem and we intend to be the go-to people who will solve it internationally.

Investment in the business to date is about 125,000 with support coming from the NDRC, New Frontiers at TU Dublin and Entrepreneurs First in London which is Europes version of the high-powered Y Combinator accelerator in the US. The company is now in the process of preparing a seed round of 700,000 to build out the team and the platform.

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AI helps ease the administration burden for architects - The Irish Times

The coronavirus pandemic has presented the aviation industry with an unprecedented opportunity to reimagine how travelers take to the skies, starting with the airport experience.

A large reduction in daily passenger numbers has given airports an abundance of time and space to implement new temporary safety features, but the fact remains that airports weren't built to handle a pandemic.

Architecture firms Gensler and Fentress Architects are using the downturn in travel to envision what future airports may look like. Gensler recently took up a challenge by Washington Magazine to redesign local public areas while Fentress Architects turned to university students to design the airports of 2100 as part of this year's Fentress Global Challenge.

Airport planning is already shifting towards built-in resilience to global health crises, even if it's too late to mitigate the effects of COVID-19, and airports of the future will need to address the possibility of another pandemic. New York's LaGuardia Airport and Salt Lake City International Airport both opened new terminals during the pandemic that came complete with plexiglass partitions, hundreds of hand sanitizer stations, and social distancing reminders.

Take a look at what the future of airports might entail as transportation hubs cope with new safety demands from the public in a pandemic-stricken world.

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Future of travel: architects designing the airports of future - Business Insider - Business Insider

KITCHENER Scandinavia, like Canada, has long, cold and wintry winters, but that reality hasnt prevented architects there from designing buildings that set new standards for energy efficiency and sustainability.

Toronto architect Heather Dubbeldam is the featured speaker in a free online public lecture Thursday, hosted by the Grand Valley Society of Architects and the Kitchener Public Library.

In her talk, The Next Green: Innovations in Sustainable Design, Dubbeldam will talk about the lessons her firm Dubbeldam Architecture + Design learned in researching innovative sustainable designs after it was awarded the 2016 Professional Prix de Rome in Architecture from the Canada Council.

The firm has been exploring firsthand how Scandinavian architects set new standards for sustainable buildings in which energy efficiency and design merge seamlessly while achieving better environmental and socially sustainable outcomes in their built environments, from individual buildings to cities.

The talk explores the huge opportunity architects have as cities and countries set aggressive new targets for greenhouse gas reductions and lower energy use. Although sustainable, high-performance building design is often considered a technological concern, Dubbeldam has found from her research in Denmark, Sweden and Norway that design and form can have a major impact on energy efficiency.

The talk happens Thursday, Nov. 26 from 7:00-8:30 p.m. Register online at kpl.org under events.

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Talk will explore how Scandinavian architects have blended design and energy efficiency - TheRecord.com

Oyler Wu Collaborative and Ren Lai Architects to Re-Envision the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts in Taiwan

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Oyler Wu Collaborative and Taiwanese partner Ren Lai Architects have won a competition to re-envision the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts in Taiwan. Selected among finalists including Asif Khan with C.M.Chao Architects, Sou Fujimoto Architects with WSAA Design Team, and Liao Architects and Associates, the winning project proposes a newly renovated exterior that seeks to reconnect the building with its evolving context.

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Organized by the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts (KMFA), the renovation competition attracted proposals from Taiwan, America, UK, and Japan. Highlighting the innovative image of the brand-new museum, and further strengthening the visibility of the KMFA to the city and to the world, the winning scheme by Oyler Wu Collaborative and Ren Lai Architects is both a transformation and a rebirth.

A cultural interface between newly developed and historic neighborhoods, the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts has always been at the forefront of the citys expanding arts culture. Encompassed by an extensive ecological park, the museum was looking to reinvigorate its image as an artistic extension into the surrounding city. Oyler Wu Collaborative and Ren Lai Architects proposal has created an addition to the museums existing facade that will engage the building in an entirely new, more lively dialogue within the growing context. In fact, the winning scheme puts in place a series of ethereal volumes and articulate framework that hovers in front of the existing faade.

Embodying the artistic aspirations of the museum, an outstretched sculptural canopy, unfurls delicately as it welcomes guests into the new sunken plaza [] The redesigned landscape of the park encourages meandering and offers moments of intimacy in which wanderers might find a seat among the architectural elements. Composed by contrasting complex forms against a subtle grid, the canopy volumes, gripping lightly to the columns, interfacing with one another, appear to billow loosely at moments.The sculptural elegance of the canopy brings an entirely new vitality to the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, and allows the institution to fulfill its integral role as the cultural interface between Kaohsiung and its citizens.

Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts

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Oyler Wu Collaborative and Ren Lai Architects to Re-Envision the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts in Taiwan - ArchDaily

Nov 21st 2020

JOHN STANKEY is an American chief executive from central casting. The 58-year-old has a square jaw, a lanky frame and, as one friend put it, the worlds deepest voice. During his 35 years as a telecoms executive, he has been a voracious dealmaker. He helped set Southwestern Bell Corp, one of the Baby Bells spawned by the break-up in 1984 of American Telephone & Telegraph (AT&T), on an M&A blitzkrieg that eventually consumed the original Ma Bell herself. He then helped orchestrate its $176bn push into entertainment, buying DirecTV, Americas largest cable provider, in 2015, and Time Warner, a media colossus, three years later. In July he took over as AT&Ts boss. A self-confessed Bell-head, he doesnt flinch when confronting media moguls. Yet before one constituency he practically cowers: widows, orphans and other investors that depend on AT&T as the worlds second-biggest dividend-payer after Microsoft.

That is a problem not because AT&T cannot afford this years anticipated $15bn payout. Despite the travails of covid-19, it easily can. The rub is that it has become a treadmill. This year is the 36th since AT&T was broken up in which it has increased the dividend. Such a legacy may not be strange for a stolid telecoms firm. But with a flighty media business on the side, it is a foolish promise. Moreover, AT&Ts acquisition spree has saddled it with almost $150bn of net debt, even as its two core businesses, mobile telecoms and entertainment, are in the throes of upheaval that requires immense financial flexibility. Instead of revitalising each of them, AT&T has so far done what many dividend aristocrats dotry to sell the family silver to make ends meet.

Yet there are indications that Mr Stankey may be prepared to challenge the old ways of thinking. He ought toeven for the sake of those widows and orphans.

He started the job with the odds stacked against him. Not only has the covid-19 pandemic clobbered WarnerMedia, the renamed Time Warner, by disrupting film releases, accelerating the decline of cable TV and reducing advertising spending. He also had to overcome doubts about his leadership abilities first aired last year by Elliott Management, an activist hedge fund, when it took a stake in AT&T. When his former boss, Randall Stephenson, announced his retirement in the midst of the pandemic, it was hard to imagine that an outsider could run a company with a market value of $200bn and a phone books worth of problems by Zoom. So Mr Stankey won the contest, despite his role as Mr Stephensons lieutenant during years of value destruction. Since then, he has soothed some nerves, taking further acquisitions off the table, promising to repair the balance-sheet and lengthening debt maturities. Yet the share price languishes, as investors wonder if he can sustain the dividend while competing against two fierce rivals, T-Mobile in telecoms and Disney in entertainment.

One big test of his mettle will be an auction next month of wireless spectrum. Mobile, after all, is AT&Ts mainstay, generating as much core earnings, or EBITDA, in a week in the third quarter as WarnerMedia did in a month. Yet T-Mobile, once a distant third in wireless subscriptions, is now running neck-and-neck with AT&T and has its sights on Verizon, the leader. After its merger with Sprint, T-Mobile has also surged ahead of both rivals in the coverage and speed of its fifth-generation (5G) network, adding to its appeal. In order to catch up, AT&T and Verizon will take part in an auction of mid-band 5G spectrum starting on December 8th. Verizons balance-sheet is robust enough to bid what some expect to be at least $15bn. AT&T may feel more constrained. Yet those who keep a careful eye on its credit rating think it should splurge, both on spectrum and the fibre networks it lays across America. Davis Hebert of CreditSights, a research firm, calls them the core tenets of its business. (How quickly it can sell long-in-the-tooth assets like DirecTV to ease the financial strain is another matter.)

On November 18th Mr Stankey may have shown promising signs of audacity, though, when WarnerMedia announced an unexpected move in support of HBO Max, AT&Ts streaming platform that competes with Disney+, not to mention Netflix. It said it would release Wonder Woman 1984, a potential Christmas blockbuster, simultaneously on HBO Max and in American cinemas on December 25th (it will hit cinemas in other countries earlier). That will break a long tradition of releasing films in theatres first to recoup production costs at the box-office, and to support the cinema business. It shows the company may be prepared to cannibalise revenues in one part of the firmWarner Bros, the film studiofor the greater goal of driving subscribers to its streaming service, which is potentially a bigger long-term source of value. If going all-in on streaming attracts hordes of subscribers, it could reward Mr Stankeys dogged faith in the marriage of phone and film.

It is time for more of such hard choices. Yet the risk is that Mr Stankey feels he has time on his side. He now appears to enjoy Elliotts support (reports that the asset manager had sold its equity stake do not mean it has thrown in the towel; it may still have a large derivatives position). The rating agencies are patient. Neil Begley of Moodys says that because of coronavirus and other reasons, it has put big investment-grade firms like AT&T on a longer leash. Many remain convinced the dividend is a sacred cow.

That breeds complacency, however. The payout saps AT&Ts financial flexibility just when it needs all the leeway it can find. It encourages defensiveness, when T-Mobile and Disney are, as Roger Entner, a telecoms analyst, puts it, surrounding it like wolves. Come what may, one day it will have to cut the dividendpreferably to be complemented with more flexible share buy-backs. If Mr Stankey does that to make the company more nimble, he might emerge a corporate superhero. If it is forced upon him by weak earnings, it will be kryptonite that could cost him his job.

This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline "Wring out those Bells"

Excerpt from:
Can one of the architects of AT&Ts woes turn it around? - The Economist

Alison Brooks Architects has been named studio of the year while Gad Line+ Studio has won the title of emerging architecture studios of the year at Dezeen Awards 2020.

Based in the UK, Alison Brooks Architects was selected from a shortlist of six studios, which was determined by our jury of 25 leading figures from the world of architecture.

Chinese architecture studio Gad Line+ Studio beat four other emerging studios to win the award.

The winning studios were revealed at the Dezeen Awards 2020 architecture show, which was streamed on Dezeen on 23 November.

The interiors and design studio category winners will be revealed on 24 November and 25 November.

Alison Brooks Architects named studio of the year

The architecture jury, which consisted of London-based Sally Mackareth, Mariam Kamara of Studio Masomi, Alexandra Hagen of White Arkitekter, Penda China's Sun Dayong and Issa Diabat of Ivory Coast-based Koffi Diabate Architects, chose London-based Alison Brooks Architects as the winning architecture studio of the year.

They said that the practice is "conscious and questioning, and adopts a public interest approach" and that "this is the direction we want architecture to move towards".

"A groundbreaking practice with great ethos particularly the way that they question both norms and the profession itself," they further explained.

Projects by the studio include an art-filled black house alongside a Georgian farmhouse in Gloucestershireand a housing development in King's Cross.

Brooks founded her eponymous architecture studio in 1996 with a portfolio ranging from urban design and landmark developments to private houses, higher education projects and buildings for the arts.

The studios were chosen by this year's architecture master jury, which virtually met on 4 November. Their selections were based on evidence of strong vision and achievement, business success, client satisfaction and positive impact.

Gad Line+ Studio named emerging studio of the year

Gad Line+ Studio, a Hangzhou-based architecture studio, founded by Meng Fanhao and Zhu Peidong in 2018, has won the emerging architect of the year category. The architecture master jury was "hugely energised by this young studio" and praised it for "its youthful, spirited and exciting work".

Based in Hangzhou, the studio was also shortlisted in the cultural building of the year category for its Jiunvfeng Study on Mount Tai this year and previously for an affordable housing scheme it designed in Fuyang District at Dezeen Awards 2018.

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Alison Brooks Architects and Gad Line+ Studio named architecture studios of the year at Dezeen Awards - Dezeen

Theres a common joke among car nerds that Audis are driven by architects but theres actually some truth to it. Architects appreciate when something is expertly designed and built and the way Audis look and are constructed actually appeals to many architectural minds. In this new video, Audi plays with that stereotype by showing an architect go a bit nuts over an Audi Q7.

The video starts off buying showing an architect constructing a gingerbread version of his own house, as Christmas-y music plays in the background. As hes about to finish his expertly crafted gingerbread house, he sees the newly facelifted Audi Q7 driving down the road. Hes so transfixed by the Q7s beauty, he leans on the gingerbread house to get a better look and breaks it.

By the time the Audi Q7 is gone, the architect is kneeling on top of the gingerbread house and its completely destroyed. His daughter walks buy, catches him completely on top of the gingerbread house, and yells to her mother, Mom, it happened again! Clearly, the man is known for being a bit obsessed with Audis.

The ad is short and decently funny but I feel like Audi could have picked a better looking car than the Q7. The Audi Q7 is a fine looking car but its not even Audis best looking SUV. The Q8 or the e-tron both would have been much better options. Audi really should have chosen the RS6 Avant, though, as its combination of stunning design and wagon practicality would have really appealed to an architect. More so than the humdrum Q7.

Its a bit too early for Christmas ads but Audi is usually pretty good at making them, so we welcome them anyway. Plus, I think we could all use some holiday vibes at the moment.

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VIDEO: Architects Love the Audi Q7 in Latest Christmas Ad - QuattroDaily - Audi Blog, Audi News and Audi Test Drives

The National Gallery of Victorias new contemporary gallery will be designed and built by an Australian team, with a design competition to determine the architectural team.

NGV Contemporary will be located at 77 Southbank Boulevard. At 30,000 square metres, it will the largest facility of its kind in Australia, showcasing contemporary art, design, fashion and architecture of local, national and international significance.

The gallery confirmed that an Australian team would design the gallery after the Victorian govenment locked in its funding in the the 2020/21 state budget. The government allocated $1.4 billion to fund the development, making it Australias biggest ever cultural infrstructure project.

Id like to acknowledge the incredible vision and leadership demonstrated by the Victorian government through this commitment to build NGV Contemporary, said Janet Whiting, president of the NGV Council of Trustees. This state-of-the-art gallery will be a major attraction for millions of visitors from across Victoria, Australia and the world. NGV Contemporary and the surrounding Melbourne Arts Precinct will be an important beacon for tourism akin to New Yorks Highline.

The larger gallery spaces will accommodate a variety of the NGVs exhibition program including Triennial, the architecture commission, large-scale contemporary and art commissions, fashion exhibitions, and major exhibitions of the worlds top artists and designers.

The Australian Institute of Architects welcomed the announcement of an Australian design competition for NGV Contemporary.

We are delighted that the Andrews Government is promoting and supporting Australian architects as part of what they have promised will be Australias biggest ever cultural infrastructure project, said Tim Leslie, state manager of the Institutes Victorian chapter.

We commend the Andrews Governments for recognising and exercising the power of government procurement to support Australian business.

Australias architects receive worldwide acclaim for their creativity, innovation and truly exceptional design capability.

Having Australias largest contemporary gallery designed by Australians is a tremendous outcome.

Procuring local architectural talent, which Australia has in abundance, will have a vast multiplier effect on the benefits this landmark project will deliver, concentrating them locally where they are needed most.

The Institute is working with Development Victoria to finalize the competition documents. The Institute has also strongly argued that design competitions should preference Australian professionals rather than opening competitions up to international consultants when the expertise exists here, Leslie continued.

We have recommended that in the current context governments need to focus on supporting Australian industry by buying local. This is exactly what the Andrews Government is now delivering and Victorians will reap the rewards for many years to come.

The redevelopement of the Melbourne Arts Precinct, masterplanned by ARM Architecture and TCL, was first announced in 2018.

Tony Ellwood, NGV director, added, NGV Contemporary will form an intrinsic part of Melbournes creative and cultural identity, a universal civic space where visitors can gather, socialize, learn and interpret our world through a year-round presentation of exhibitions and programs that reflect contemporary life and culture.

NGV Contemporary will be a dynamic cultural hub that all Victorians will be proud to call their own and present an unrivalled opportunity to showcase Australian and international art, design and architectural practice to the world.

View gallery

A new 18,000 square metre public space at the Melbourne Arts Precinct by Hassell and So-il.

The new Melbourne Arts Precinct will also include new 18,000 square public space, to be designed by Hassell and So-il, and upgrades to the Arts Centre Melbourne Theatres building by NH Architecture and Snhetta. It is the biggest cultural infrastructure project in Australia.

The new public garden will be vibrant, immersive and ever-changing. It act as a green lung for Southbank and include a range of spaces for performances, gatherings, and installations and festivals. The design of the garden is ongoing.

Its going to create an open space that is the equivalent size of the MCG right in the heart of Melbourne, said Danny Pearson, minister for creative industries.

Later phases of Melbourne Arts Precinct project will include a new building that will house the Centre for Creativity. The centre will be run by Arts Centre Melbourne with spaces and facilities for arts organizations, new performing arts gallery and an expanded Australian Music Vault.

This project will rejuvenate our creative heart, bringing visitors and energy back to Melbourne as we rebuild, said premier Daniel Andrews. It will showcase the best of our creativity, create thousands of jobs and give people more open green space to relax and take in the best of our city.

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NGV Contemporary will be designed by Australian architects - Architecture AU

architects, not architecture (AnA), the platform that invites well-known architects to talk about themselves, rather than their work, is celebrating its fifth anniversary with a virtual world tour. with this new series, AnA brings the architectural community a bit closer together by taking participants on a tour around the globe to visit selected cities and virtually meet some of their most relevant architects. the scheduled list of countries includes singapore, the united kingdom, france, denmark, the netherlands, south korea, china, ukraine/lithuania, south africa, mexico, and the united states with events set to continue until april 2021.

the first destination in the series is australia, with AnA hosting talks with melbourne-based architects kerstin thompson and john wardle. as a media partner of the event, designboom brings you the first talk, which can be seen in full in the video at the top of this page. watch each architects segment, and read more about their talks, below.

kerstin thompson talk and interview

principal of kerstin thompson architects and adjunct professor at RMIT and monash universities, kerstin thompson discusses her experience of growing up with architecture, her childhood spent on building sites and how the architects she admires most have influenced her own work. she builds her talk around the question of how our buildings are perhaps the combination of this overlap of childhood, life or special experience with the formal education of an architect and how this overlap informs the repertoire of an architect.

thompson goes on to explore her relationship with landscape and what a trip to the aboriginal community of the goolarabooloos in western australia taught her about space and its relationship with its users. she explains that physical space remains empty without a cultural framework, daily habits and practices to bring it to life. in the further course of her lecture, thompson talks about the concept of special empathy as the heightened anticipation of the sensorial aspects of an eventual space while still in its imagined beginnings. it is an attempt to put oneself in the others shoes. watch her talk, and interview with AnAs fermn tribaldos, above.

john wardle talk and interview

john wardle, the founder of john wardle architects, follows a distracted chronology of the influences in his life as the guiding thread of his talk. he begins by reminiscing about his upbringing in the city of geelong where he fostered his interest in collecting objects, something that he indulges in today by visiting markets in different parts of the world. besides the aesthetic interest, it is the elevation of the status of things and the backstory of those objects. wardle describes the influence the melbourne theater had on him when it flourished in the late 70s and explains that he and his team draw in inspiration from other parallel and seemingly unrelated areas of creative idea making instead of architectural discourse.

john wardle goes on to share a lesson he learned on his trip to the teatro olimpico in vicenza, italy, where he engaged in a conversation with an elderly italian about the nature of perspective. he talks about the cognitive process of perception of distance and scale and describes it as the way we register our place in space and how were aware of all that sits beyond. he is of the opinion that it is part of the responsibility of architects to provide architecture that has aspects of enclosure that contain the dynamic of human life, but also express its place in the civic experience in the urban environments that we also work within. watch his talk, and subsequent interview with AnA host fermn tribaldos, in the video above.

kerstin thompson and john wardle in discussion with AnA host fermn tribaldos

watch kerstin thompson and john wardle in discussion with AnA host fermn tribaldos above, and stay tuned as architects, not architecture continues with its virtual world tour.

philip stevens I designboom

nov 22, 2020

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architects, not architecture begins 'virtual world tour' with talks from kerstin thompson and john wardle Nov - Designboom

In the eyes and minds of Black America the two professions of medicine and law sit at the apex of respect, envy, and essentiality as well they should. In my book, African American Architects: Embracing Culture and Building Urban Communities, 2020 (and several published summarizing articles) I alluded cryptically to the issue of Black architects and our subconscious wish that Black America (and particularly Black youth) see our profession as being as equally essential and prestigious as they see the medical and legal professions. I wish to explore here whether this is a viable aspiration.

In Black America the mention of architects in proximity to MDs and Lawyers applies only in a prestige ranking. On the scale of the 25 most desirable paying jobs, medical doctors are still at the top. Lawyers are in the bottom fourth tier. Architects (who do not rank in the $100,000 annual salary paying category) also do not make the list of the top 25 most desirable jobs in the eyes of Black America.

A bit of historical background perspective on the development of the three professions is in order. In 1895, the year that Booker T. Washington was giving his famous accommodationist speech in Atlanta, the National Medical Association (NMA) was also founded. There were already hundreds of Black doctors. There were a dozen Black medical schools (before being reduced to two after the 1910 Flexnor Report that revolutionized medical education). The essence of the Black doctors declared mission remains intact to this day - The elimination of the health disparities of Black Americans.

Just 30 years later, the National Bar Association (NBA) was founded. At the time of that 1925 NBA founding there were over 1,000 Black lawyers in the U.S. thanks mainly to the 1869 founding of a law school at Howard University in Washington, DC. The Black lawyers mission was as clear and compelling as the medical doctors mission; the acquiring of civil rights, civil liberties, and constitutional protections for Black Americans.

In stark contrast to the Black doctor and lawyer, between 1895 and 1925 the idea of a Black architect was still undergoing invention. The first formally educated Black architect in the U.S. MIT-trained Robert R. Taylor was on the Tuskegee, Alabama campus during that 30-year period. Taylor and a small band of other formally trained Black architects were offering drawing courses. In reality, Taylor and his faculty architect recruits would be best characterized as master builders. The actual building of the Tuskegee campus required a fully integrated approach to design, construction, materials development, and finance capital. Interestingly, in 1907 a 13-year old Los Angeles paperboy, Paul R. Williams was exposed to the accomplishments of Sidney Pittman, one of the Tuskegee Institute architects.

The formal training of architects as we understand that word today - in a historically Black university would not occur until 1934. That program at Howard University in Washington, DC was not accredited until 1951 by a then nationally authorized body. Black architects did not establish their own professional/fraternal organization the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA) - until 1971. This was 76 years after the founding of the NMA by Black doctors, and 61 years after the founding of the NBA by Black lawyers.

Black architects constrained their mission to alignment with the anodyne gentleman architect mission of the American Institute of Architects. Consider had that mission mirrored that of the medical doctor. Only a single word would have needed to be changed; the elimination of the wealth disparities of Black Americans. Interestingly, between 1890 and the 1934 founding of the program at Howard, that appears to have actually been the mission of the still small number of Tuskegee-trained or faculty affiliated master builder-architects.

Fast forward to today, 2020, and the issue of Black architects versus Black medical doctors. Clarity of mission and educational curriculum structure emerge as the key differences. To be clear, I see no value to be gained by challenging the current mission and structure of todays rejuvenated NOMA. Similarly, for the extant architecture academy enterprise. Todays 170 accredited first professional degree architecture programs have a continuing role to play in educating the next generation of Black architects. But that role must be supplemented by an apostate architect wing whose mission is as clear and as compelling as those of the Black doctors and lawyers. The apostate architect wings first order of business must be the establishing of new educational institutions and curricula possibly as many as one dozen. Each would respect regional and ideological differences, e.g., pro or anti-capitalist, for- or non-profit, etc. but all united by a priority allegiance to the elimination of wealth disparities in Black Americas communal spaces.

A common short dictionary definition of an architect is a person who designs buildings and houses. An honest 21st century redefinition of the Black apostate architect would be a person who designs and produces buildings, housing, and communities.Several of Americas Traditionally White Institutions have already provided the reality that a well-grounded licensed architect can be produced in a four-year post-baccalaureate, non-architecture degree program. The apostate architect curricula structure needs to resemble the medical education curriculum model.

The by-products of such a curriculum must be persons who understand that they cannot expect to be selected by others, Black or white, to design/produce Black Americas housing and community facilities. That is a world that has rarely existed for Black architects (the architect selection paradigm is recognized as a dying proposition by a growing number of white and other architects of color). Black Americas need over the next several generations is for an apostate architect wing that is capable and motivated to play a vital role in the business of a wealth creation-centered community development through a wholistic approach to affordable housing production and related community facilities. Given the reality that ambitious Black people who could be interested in careers in architecture are not willing to take the architecture professions de rigueur vows of poverty, this repurposed doctor-lawyer curriculum model would also solve the architects unacceptably low compensation issueto be continued.

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Black MD's, Lawyersand Architects | Features - Archinect