FILM

Sitting Still

Growing up in Alaska, legendary landscape architect Laurie Olin learned early the importance of shared spaces, especially in impoverished communities. It was there that he began to see and understand the world through drawing. “Out of ordinary things come moments of perception. It’s the fact that you get more, and you savour more and learn more if you move a little slower. And drawing really slows you down,” he explains in this documentary about his human-centred design approach, directed by Gina Angelone and presented in January at ADFF’s Humanity in Architecture event. The democratization of space has become a throughline in Olin’s epic body of work, turning parks from “a repository for the people society doesn’t want to deal with” into thriving urban hubs. People, he says, are the flowers in the composition of his landscapes. Throughout the film, his contemporaries (among them, Frank Gehry, Billie Tsien and Walter Hood) speak to this social mission: “His work is really about caring for places, and the people who live in these places,” Hood explains.

BOOK

Architecture and Social Change

In the fall of 2020, Brian Holland taught a course called Activist Practices at the University of Arkansas. In it, he tasked his students with interviewing design leaders tackling the key issues of our time. Those conversations have been compiled and edited to form this book. Germane Barnes, for instance, unpacks how he brings design to disadvantaged communities without displacing culture, while Dana Cuff, director of cityLAB, outlines her work in reshaping California’s housing policy. The interviews dive into traditional design work but also illustrate that building a practice that prioritizes public good is a design exercise in and of itself. Holland, however, doesn’t view this pursuit solely through rose-coloured glasses. He acknowledges that other advocacy tools are needed — and highlights the harms (intentional or not) that have been done in the name of progress. “It is worth noting that, by definition, any effort at social change can only be understood in relation to the status quo. This is as true for architecture as it is for politics,” he writes in his introduction.

PODCAST

Better Buildings for Humans

What makes a great building? Ask the guests featured on this podcast and you’ll receive answers as diverse as the topics it covers — from neuroaesthetics to adaptive re-use. Host Joe Menchefski poses that question at the end of each episode with the goal of inspiring architecture that addresses human comfort, health, energy efficiency and more. While each guest offers important insights, one episode stands out: In “Advocacy through Architecture,” architect and activist Pascale Sablan tells the story that led her to start her own advocacy organization, Beyond the Built Environment, which works to celebrate minority groups within the field. Her public work is also at the heart of her design practice as CEO of Adjaye Associates’ New York studio. “The process of community engagement must be very tailored and unique, and it also needs to understand that it’s starting from a position of repair. There has been harm done by the built environment,” she explains. “It’s a conversation, not a monologue.”