AIA Resilience Curriculum WorkshopKick Off

August 16, 2016

Community

Resilience

Community Resilience: A Worldview

School, Quito, Angola - 1997

Interrelated Crises of the 21st Century

Global urbanization

Rising Inequality

Climate Change

Crisis in Governance

Every week, 1.4 million people move into cities.

Our society is being remade.

“The Earth is so hot this year that a limit for global warming agreed by world leaders at a climate summit

in Paris just a few months ago is in danger of being breached.” - Reuters

“Young people are excluded from decision-making and are among the most impacted by economic crises.”

The other global warming

Global Crisis in Governance

Recent Urban Protests across the world – A (Dated) Sample

The Fight for Urban Democracy

demagogues: Public Relations• Sponsors decide on a course of

action and then attempt to sell it to the public.

• people can feel manipulated and suspicious

• often hinders them from thinking effectively about problems and challenges because it avoids exposing them to the full dialogue.

• PR seeks “buy-in”

democrats: Public Participation• Sponsors engage public on the

front end in dialogue to help understand the pros and cons of different actions and seek input, consultation, involvement, collaboration

• Builds common understanding of the issue and decision by hearing and understanding all viewpoints and information

• P2 seeks meaningful involvement

“The city is telling you want it wants, you just have to listen.” – David Lewis

Post-Tornado, Fort Worth, Texas

Augusta, Georgia

Post-Katrina, New Orleans

Downtown Sacramento

The largest fire in state history – Bastrop, Texas

Bridgeport, CT

Skid Row, Los Angeles

Camden, New Jersey

Central City New Orleans, 2007

Martindale Brightwood, Indianapolis

Detroit, Michigan

Washington, DC

Baltimore

Rockaways, NYC, Post-Sandy

Del Paso Heights, referred to locally as “Del Paso Freights” or “The Deepest Place in Hell”

Fifth Ward, Houston, “the bloody nickel”

We are all faced with a series of historic opportunities, brilliantly disguised as insoluble

problems. – John W. Gardner

It’s a simple truth, and this is why curriculum is so important: The world needs design

leadership, now more than ever. The world needs architects. Your time is now.

Sao Paulo, Brazil

Today, we need them both

+

We don’t know what we don’t know

• 20yrs from now, we will look back on today’s practice and laugh at its lack of sophistication.

• Millennial values are going to define a new direction, a more democratic, participatory, collaborative approach

• And kids represent the future.• …BUT, we have much to share and build upon!

Avoiding the Mistakes of the Past

Sprawl circles, Lee County, Florida

“Paradoxically, what is most needed to achieve Jane Jacobs’s vision is to deploy a Robert Moses strategy—redesigning our streets quickly and decisively for an increasingly urban age, this time committed to accommodating population growth and offering residents more options for getting around without a car.”

Today’s Context Emphasizes…

• The Importance of Urban Design

• The Importance of Participatory Design Skills

• The Importance of Facilitative Leadership Skills

• The technical knowledge around energy, land use regulation, architecture, and other core components

“The biggest problem is the understanding of what urban design is… the urban community has become lost in strategic planning, masterplanning, zoning and landscaping … All these have their own purposes, of course – but they don’t address the principal question, which is the relationship in a city between public space and buildable space. This is the art and science of building cities – and until we recover this basic knowledge, we will continue to make huge mistakes … Huge mistakes.” – Joan Clos, UNHABITAT

The citizen architect “To get to the future from where we are now, we must make room for, and nurture, what I call the “citizen architect.” What does this citizen architect look like? This person is committed to universal enfranchisement, and works to see that everyone in the community is given a meaningful stake in, and a part in directing, the future. The citizen architect is committed to seeing that, at the drafting table, the public’s hand exerts at least as much force as the developer’s or banker’s. The practice of architecture must no longer be seen as a luxury that only the wealthy can afford. The public must be a vital part of the process. Architecture is the most public of the arts. It should be collaborative.” - Ted Pappas, President of the AIA, 1988

“We’re not going to rebuild our cities from the top down. We must build them

from the bottom UP!” – David Lewis, FAIA

This work has a context, a history

Charles Harper, FAIA Terrance Brown, FAIA

There is a legacy to build upon…

“I look forward to FEMA’s continued partnership with the AIA and its REDAT group.

Hopefully, the volunteerism exhibited by architects will influence other professions to

join our noble cause.” - James Lee Witt, FEMA Director, October 15, 1996

And AIA has never had more resources or capacity than it does right now

If you want to understand the future, ask the kids

This is all part of a tradition that continues…

High School CompetitionNewport, VT

High School Students -CA

Millennial Values are going to change society

We have to make Education real, meaningful, and EMPOWERING

This involves not just the what, but the how

Birmingham, AL - 2011

R/UDAT: Community Collaboration

• “The coalition of communities and organizations that have come together behind this grant is incredibly impressive. I think we all know we are working in an environment of finite resources, so from a federal standpoint it is always extraordinarily helpful to see a large commitment from the local community, the private and public sector and the region as a whole behind one project.” – Federal official

Two Year Anniversary - 2013

3 year anniversary: Tragedy to Triumph

Remaking Cities Congress, 2013

“Thank you and the American Institute of Architects for all you have done to help move Birmingham forward.” – Mayor William Bell

Auburn Urban Studio + Tuskegee + R/UDAT

“It was definitely a weekend, that looking back on it, changed my life in terms of how I see my degree and where that can take me, and how architecture can impact a community and lives, and how it can

actually be a real asset to a community.” – Fuller Hanan, former Auburn student

The Nashville/Birmingham Connection

“For all its fury in tearing things apart, the tornado — for the first time in many decades — built a bridge across the Cumberland and brought our entire city together.” – Mayor

Community Narrative: From the “wrong side of the river” to…..1998 Tornado disaster to…..catalytic R/UDAT bringing over 1,000 people together from across the city into East Nashville for the first time….to transformation.

Transformative Vision: Five Points

“One of the coolest neighborhoods in the nation” - Thrillist

R/UDAT sketches became prophetic visions for their reality today

The bottom line

These are not communities that just experienced terrible events and recovered. They have and are transforming into something that is an incredible manifestation of community. That is a profound illustration of the power of architecture in today’s world….and these community experiences are building citizen architects who can lead the future!

This is how leadership traditions are built…

Nashville Civic Design Center Urban Design Curriculum Pilot this summer

This is how leadership traditions are built…

It’s not just about what skills you think the next generation of leaders need. What values do you want the next generation to hold? This gets

to the core of what it means to be an architect in the 21st century.

Your mission today

Curriculum is about building the narrative of the future

We need to instill the values of democratic urbanism, and the corollary skillsets around

facilitative leadership and urban design to build the greatest generation of city designers the

world has ever seen.

Imagine….what is possible with an army of citizen architects.

Build Us a Path to the FutureCarpe Diem!