This panel is a follow up to a previous panel discussion, "Architectural Work and Activism”. This one includes panelists who are testing different approaches to architectural work in firms of various kinds and sizes, in all cases putting in place approaches that offer more reward, relevance, and empowerment.
Moderated by Peggy Deamer, Professor Emerita, Yale School of Architecture
Peggy Deamer is Professor Emerita of Yale University’s School of Architecture and principal of Deamer, Studio. She is the founding member of the Architecture Lobby, a group advocating for the value of architectural labor. She is the editor of Architecture and Capitalism: 1845 to the Present and The Architect as Worker: Immaterial Labor, the Creative Class, and the Politics of Design and the author of Architecture and Labor. Her theory work explores the relationship between subjectivity, design, and labor.
Abigail Coover
Abigail Coover is founder of Overlay Office - a practice that layers innovative design, development and project management. She is also a member of two architectural cooperatives - WIP and Design Advocates. Abigail received her Masters of Architecture from the Yale University School of Architecture. Her work and writings have been published in the New York Times, Wired, Metropolis, Tarp, and Project and exhibited at the The Druker Gallery, the A+D Museum, the Yale Architecture Gallery, One Night Stand, and the New York Center for Architecture. Along with Nathan Hume, Abigail is also a partner at Hume Coover Studio and co-creator and editor of suckerPUNCHdaily.com a website that reviews the work of contemporary artists, architects and designers who offer the stunningly unexpected. Abigail teaches at. Pratt and has previously taught architectural design at PennDesign and Yale School of Architecture.
A.L. Hu
A.L. Hu is a queer, non-binary registered architect of color who is the Design Initiatives Manager at Ascendant Neighborhood Development. Previously, they were an architectural designer at Solomonoff Architecture Studio in New York. Hu is an activist working at the intersection of architectural labor and gender equity. They are the facilitator and core organiser for Dark Matter University, the core organiser for Design as Protest Collective, an initiator for Queeries, and an active member of the AIA. Their research focuses on working with other people and communities to understand and rethink the architect's role in creating inclusive spaces. They have an M.Arch. from Columbia University, as well as a B.A. Arch. and minor in sustainable design from the University of California, Berkeley.
Bryony Roberts
Bryony Roberts, Yale BA 2004, MArch Princeton University 2011, leads the design practice Bryony Roberts Studio and is a founding member of WIP Collaborative. Roberts approaches design as a social practice, working with local community groups and advocates to respond to the lived experiences and cultural histories of the public realm. She guest-edited the volume Log 48: Expanding Modes of Practice and edited the book Tabula Plena: Forms of Urban Preservation, and teaches architecture at Columbia University GSAPP.
www.bryonyroberts.com
Jennifer Siqueira:
Jennifer Siqueira is an architect who was one of the leaders of the unionization effort at SHoP, where she worked for four years before she was laid off during the pandemic. She is a registered architect with experience in both large-scale publicly-oriented projects and small-scale private buildings. While pursuing her Masters of Architecture at UC Berkeley, Jennifer won the prestigious John K. Branner Fellowship allowing her to explore the role of architecture in housing displaced communities in Haiti, Sri Lanka, India, Mexico and Brazil. Her work related to the topic has been published in various publications and is the topic of lectures at various institutions including University of California at Berkeley and Florida International University. Prior to Graduate School, Jennifer founded and directed the Miami Chapter of Architecture for Humanity for several years and later became the Studio Leader for socially-driven architectural projects at Oppenheim Architecture. She is an active member in The Architecture Lobby’s unionization campaign.