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RAAS Architects PLC named to the Domus Best Architecture Firms 2020

SKA-1 Apartment RAAS Architects
SKA-1 Apartment
RAAS Architects-Bement Teklemariam
Domus
Led by Ethiopian architect Rahel Shawl, RAAS Architects PLC named to the Domus Best Architecture Firms 2020.
“Built projects …. All have the aim of being innovative while using local knowledge, and being sensitive toward the context and landscape that hosts and generates them.

Highly aware of the strong social component of her trade and position, Shawl has been using Raas Architects as an open platform to encourage young female architects working in a male-dominated industry and culture.”

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REFLECTIONS

REFLECTIONS from Black women architects:
A list of articles by or about BWA from the last few weeks. The range of topics and thoughts has been great. There are many issues to tackle stemming from the racism built into our systems.

Let us know if you have additions to this list.

  • Sharon Sutton in Architect Magazine.

    Envisioning a Communitarian World House
    “We could reinvent ourselves by studying innovations like New York’s Urban Homesteading Assistance Board or Boston’s Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative, where affordability stems from sweat equity, share loans, resident management, mutual aid, and energy efficiency.”

  • Nakita Reed on LinkedIn.

    “As a black, female preservation architect specializing in sustainability, I occupy a unique space in the design profession. Here are some thoughts and resources from the intersection of multiple vantage points”

  • Amanda Williams in Architectural Record

    Do the Work: Amanda Williams on the Road to Justice
    “…many white Americans are only now becoming aware of the racism that underlies much of the built environment. “It’s a metastasis baked into every kernel, from planning and zoning, to multi- and single-family housing, and conversations about public and private space,” she says, pointing out the disconnect…”

  • Pascale Sablan in Architectural Record

    Balancing Act: Pascale Sablan on Advocacy and Action
    “I wasn’t sure if I was even allowed to talk about how I was feeling to my colleagues and clients. When I see petitions and calls for action online, are those things that I’m allowed to share with my family at the office?”

  • Atianna Cordova in Medium

    “….traditional design practice perpetuates and supports the dehumanization and killing of Black people. The intersection between racism, design and the built environment is a part of the primary building blocks of this country. For generations, urban planning, policy making, architecture and landscape architecture have been used as tools to further oppress and marginalize Black people. Collectively, the related professions determine what resources are allocated to our communities, how communities are planned and designed, and who, ultimately, benefits from these decisions (which, largely, isn’t Black people).”

  • From Brazil, Stephanie Ribeiro in ArchDaily

    “Architecture Must Recognize the Debate Around Race and Gender”
    “Architecture that wishes to be truly social must recognize, in addition to class issues, the debate on gender and race. It is known that black women occupy the worst areas in the slums, but we don’t need to undertake any intense research studies to know that we, black women, are the minority in architecture classrooms and city planning throughout the country.”

  • From the UK, Sarah Osei in Involved Magazine.

    How can race have an impact on the architectural language around us?
    “In a fiction in which race reversal is at the heart of this slightly dystopian storyline, it was intriguing to see how much influence race has on the design world around us in reality. In light of this, I think it’s important to raise my concerns on how the architectural industry in the UK is limiting itself from creating a racially diverse architectural language.” [Check out the image of the fictional city.]