Design as Protest
Sitting in a row home near historic Lancaster, PA I am thinking about the quaint visit to the Central Market I enjoyed this morning and all the delicious goodies I was able to acquire thanks to the longstanding culture of community enjoyed in this well developed region of the United States. Here there is little poverty and high levels of privilege. It is a stark contrast to the struggling city of Tulum, Mexico where I’ve been working lately. Both urban systems have grown up under different pressures and thus their development has proceeded to varying degrees of order. Doing design and planning work here in this already over developed place feels sacrilegious, like a waste of my time. The levels of consumption here have already been set into place, the city of Lancaster operates within and relies upon a massive system which is being used by a small group of the faceless elite of global society.
Make it meaningful, let it stand for something.
Whatever it is, everything we design has an impact on others and the world around us.
I am realizing how long I lived a life without a true symbol of holy and sacred union anywhere to be seen. Growing up, there were fewer experiences of Natural Law than there were of violence, carelessness, and abandonment. I have woken up from the world of superficial definitions of success and social norms, I have realized my role as a catalyst of new paradigms.
As an architect i have never shied away from my role as an activist, humanitarian campaigns and social justice reforms have always played a role in my designs and intentions for my practice. For example, I have used GIS technology to assist and catalyze regenerative community development in Peru, Costa Rica, Mexico, Jamaica, and Philadelphia. Some of my favorite projects were using mapping systems to calculate the most impactful locations for public works projects like parks, bioswales, street trees, community gardens, composting, recycling, and bike share.
The Urban Climate Catalyst for Lima, Peru was my first project in 2013 which demonstrated the systemic approach to addressing complex urban sustainability issues at any scale.
Read the full proposal here:
UrbanClimateCatalyst.com
In it the approach to holistic ecological urbanism outlines the city as an organism having the following systems
Skeletal -
Muscular
Nervous
Digestive
and they were to be used to address the issues related to
Air Quality
Sanitation
Water
Land Use/ Building Systems
Waste.
Looking back, I’m not sure I would continue to classify the issues as such. I’ve been enjoying the 12 Global Challenges paradigm proposed by Dr. Sharif Abdullah (link). Although, I am sure I extracted that classification of issues from an academic source, so I’ve decided to share it.
What changes when we decide to see our built environment as a living system, instead of as a lifeless machine?
do it for the children
When I left the market this morning it was drizzling lightly and I took a wrong turn to end up in the plaza near the busiest intersection in Lancaster, it was warmly colored brick and ornamented neoclassical buildings. There I encountered two old ladies standing with signs of protest and a clipboard with a petition. Their signs invited signatures and photos with the Grandmothers for Climate Mercy. It touched my heart deeply to see elders taking a stand and using their voices and influence to advocate for future generations, and I told them so. In our brief chat, Claudia told me about how their generation had believed the problems were solved, that climate change was already being addressed an the issues were resolved already. She shrugged her shoulders to indicate how much of a non issue it had seemed to them until recently. I nodded in understanding and mentioned what I’d heard on the public radio station about a youth for climate justice conference in Milan and the statistics about the long term problems those of us under 40 will have to face without significant change.
Only a couple weeks ago I realized how often people forget that our generation of Millennials was the first to be born with a lower quality of life than our parents.
I always prefer to focus on where we want to be headed as a society instead of focusing on the problems and where we don’t want to go.
Places make people.
The way we build our communities makes a difference and influences whether we can come together or not.
Design Activism
How does one vision a world which works for 100% of all life?
Together.
We need spaces to come together, meeting points and gathering places where conversations can emerge, information can be exchanged, and thoughts can be shared so we can experience healing union.
Transformation can happen quickly if we are prioritizing cross-pollination and multidisciplinary thought. Collaboration across silos is our greatest untapped resource as a co-evolving species with the planet as she goes through a turbulent period of change.
Art and design are the means of creating a culture of consciousness and birthing a new humanity in the natural process of evolution as a species. Because of this, I am so excited to have been accepted to the Buckminster Fuller Institute’s Design Science Studio artist incubator! We had our first introductory meeting today and I cannot believe the incredible energy of this group of 144 revolutionary artists working on the regenerative renaissance. I can’t wait to share more about the project they’ve agreed to support.
HOMEdash is a planetary regeneration system and platform for storytelling and investment in global sustainability initiatives. Check out more information and learn about our partners at the Born Global Foundation here.
Set your Intention
Healing Union was the phrase I chose this year for my annual intention setting ritual.
Looking up at the wall where I’ve hung a sheet of colorful notes I took over the summer I spent in Tulum, I notice the word Synarchy under the category WHY.
syn·ar·chy
/ˈsinərkē/
“To rule jointly.”
We are entering a completely new paradigm which transcends power over dynamics and the creation of victims along with perpetrators. This is a time of integrating polarities, of de-hegemonization, the removal of hegemonies. I think it’s easiest to see this shift in the move away from patriarchal structures of extraction (e.g. fossil fuels), exploitation (e.g. equal pay), and domination (e.g. criminal justice reform).
he·gem·o·ny
/həˈjemənē
“Dominance by one group over others.”
Imagine a world where dominance was no longer the default, where coexistence was the norm. Humans would work with nature, whiteness would weave harmoniously with blackness, and disability would thrive alongside ability. The non duality of this vision sends waves of peace deep into my being, resonating profoundly and powerfully reminding me why I am here.
Remember why you came here,
Remember your life is sacred.
