Design & Ethnicity

Looking at Ethnicity in the world of design and you start really pulling it apart there is a lot to discover. Firstly what does ethnicity actually mean. It is when a grouping of people identified themselves with others and what makes them different from other people.

When you think about architects the ones that pop into my mind are ones that you tend to see on tv or maybe you have had home renovations and they tend to be white men. From statistics gathered in 2012 by multiple groups show that architects are most prominently white actually 93.6% and only 0.9% are black. If you break that down even further most of the white architects are male and overall only 34.3% are female. 

From all of this information I find it shocking to realise that equality is still a big issue. Not only do we need to help encourage more ethnic groups to look into doing architecture but there has to be a way of making it more equal for all. 

Making professional places as equal and respectful place to work is the way to move forward. From information that was collected between 2018 to 2020 showed that racism as perceived by BAME groups as being widespread in creased by 10%

If you think about it what would architecture look like with a more diverse influence from different ethnic backgrounds. Would they influence a different view about what a home should look like or be, would a museum be designed and layed out differently or would we have more appreciation for what creativity really means.

Paul R Williams was a architect in the 1920’s creating beautiful pieces of architecture, he was a trailblazer for diversity in the architecture profession. He died in 1980 and in 2017 was the first black African American to be awarded the AIA Gold Medal for architecture. The fact that it took 37 years after his death for his work to be recognised, for me it is still quite unbelievable and not only that but in 2014 the winner on the AIA Gold Medal was the first woman to receive it from when the award began in 1907. 

Paul R Williams ‘The Theme Building’ LAX

PHOTO COURTESY OF KAREN HUDSON

It shows that achieving equality and diversity is still a struggle even in todays world. We are making progress in the right direction and are trying to make the work place a more respectful and equal ground for everyone but more needs to be done.