RESEARCH
Research is a big part of our work. During the initial phase of our projects, we embark on research into project precedents, site information, technical issues, and larger issues of historical, philosophical, and conceptual frameworks. We gather information about what has come before, and speculate about what the future of this space, program, and client.
At the same time, our firm principals and designers carry out research as part of our work as academics, advocates for our profession, and as citizens. See below for links to some of our recent writing.
Design in the Age of COVID-19
a project to connect design students to new spatial problems
Through a collaboration with Atelier Cho Thompson and Yale’s Center for Collaborative Arts and Media, Design Brigade will launch in New Haven, Connecticut in June 2020. Multi-disciplinary teams made up of Yale undergraduates and graduate students will research key conceptual questions surrounding the changing social and cultural rituals facing the world. Guided by practicing designers and academics, the teams will then work towards built solutions. By serving and working with community clients, students will develop design skills through real-world problem solving and will deliver plans that can be implemented.
Architect Magazine: A Lost Generation of Female Architects?
Speculations on the COVID-19 crisis
What will happen to female architects in the time of COVID-19? After decades of progress in creating a more equitable profession, this major cultural and economic crisis may create a lost generation of female architects. This crisis will accelerate the reasons women already leave the profession, as imbalances around caregiving will become more acute. What can we do to bring and retain women in the profession?
A Great Leap
Some thoughts for architecture students making the leap into the profession
This timely article, addressed to students graduating from architecture school, addresses the current state of the profession in the United States, and offers up recommendations for how to navigate the job market. This piece was prepared as part of a panel at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.
Equity and the Future of the Firm
Creating an Equitable Practice of Architecture
Women and men graduate from architecture school in nearly equal numbers, but nationwide only 29% of firm leaders are women. Even fewer, 11%, are people of color. We need to find better ways to recruit, retain, promote, and celebrate architects of all backgrounds; only by having a profession that represents the incredible diversity of the public we serve can we begin to address the complex design problems looming ahead. How can we create this change? This question laid the groundwork for the first Leadership and Equity Summit in New Haven on November 1, 2019. Sponsored by the Women in Architecture Committee of the AIA Connecticut, we brought together firm leaders, young practitioners, and graduating students to converge around four key topics: Compensation, Negotiation, Recruitment and Retention, and Bias.