Presentation to the AIA Resilience Curriculum Workshop, Aug 2016.

1. AIA Resilience Curriculum Workshop
Kick Off
August 16, 2016

2. Community Resilience: A Worldview
School, Quito, Angola - 1997

3. Interrelated Crises of the 21st Century
Global
urbanization
Rising Inequality
Climate Change
Crisis in
Governance

4. Every week, 1.4
million people move
into cities.
Our society is being
remade.

5. “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

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

9. The other global warming

11. Global Crisis in Governance
Recent Urban Protests across the world – A (Dated) Sample

12. 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

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

15. Post-Tornado, Fort Worth, Texas

16. Augusta, Georgia

17. Post-Katrina, New Orleans

18. Downtown Sacramento

19. The largest fire in state history – Bastrop, Texas

20. Bridgeport, CT

21. Skid Row, Los Angeles

22. Camden, New Jersey

23. Central City New Orleans, 2007

24. Martindale Brightwood, Indianapolis

25. Detroit, Michigan

26. Washington, DC

27. Baltimore

28. Rockaways, NYC, Post-Sandy

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

30. Fifth Ward, Houston, “the bloody nickel”

32. We are all faced with a series of historic
opportunities, brilliantly disguised as insoluble
problems. – John W. Gardner

33. 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

34. Today, we need them both
+

35. 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!

36. Avoiding the Mistakes of the Past
Sprawl circles, Lee County, Florida

37. “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.”

38. 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

39. “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

40. 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

41. “We’re not going to rebuild our cities
from the top down. We must build
them from the bottom UP!” – David
Lewis, FAIA

42. This work has a context, a history
Charles Harper, FAIA Terrance Brown, FAIA

43. 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

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

45. If you want to understand the future,
ask the kids

46. This is all part of a tradition that
continues…

47. High School Competition
Newport, VT

48. High School Students -CA

49. Millennial Values are going to change
society

50. We have to make Education real,
meaningful, and EMPOWERING
This involves not just the what,
but the how

51. Birmingham, AL - 2011

52. 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

53. Two Year Anniversary - 2013

54. 3 year anniversary: Tragedy to Triumph

55. 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

56. Auburn Urban Studio + Tuskegee + R/UDAT

57. “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

58. The Nashville/Birmingham
Connection

59. “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.

60. Transformative Vision: Five Points

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

62. R/UDAT sketches became prophetic visions for their reality today

63. 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!

64. This is how leadership traditions are
built…

65. Nashville Civic Design Center Urban
Design Curriculum Pilot this summer

66. This is how leadership traditions are
built…

67. 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

68. 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.

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

70. Build Us a Path to the Future
Carpe Diem!