Podcasts about mass design group

In this episode, host Ana Miljački speaks with Christian Benimana, Patricia Gruits, and Alan Ricks, co-executive directors of MASS Design Group, about philanthropy in the design process, the political economy of building, and what is possible across different global contexts. MASS was founded in 2008 as a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. More than 15 years later, this global, multidisciplinary collective has over 200 members with offices in Boston; in Kigali, Rwanda; Poughkeepsie, New York; and Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Jha D. Amazi is a principal at MASS Design Group, a nonprofit organization focusing on social justice and public space. She joins Charles Waldheim to discuss her work as head of MASS's Public Memory and Memorials Lab.

In this episode, we explore culturally mindful housing that prioritizes residents' needs and aspirations. Our guests discuss housing projects and community design processes that have successfully integrated these principles, demonstrating that when housing is designed with people in mind, it becomes a powerful catalyst for social change. Learn more about Salazar Architect here: https://www.salazarch.com/ Learn more about MASS Design Group here: https://massdesigngroup.org/

Welcome to ON CITIES, where we explore the ways that the design of the built environment shapes the quality of our lives. Today, we will be speaking with Alan Ricks, the co-founder and chief operating officer of MASS Design Group. Established on the belief that architecture is more than just buildings, MASS is a global team of over 200 professionals from diverse disciplines, united by a shared vision of architecture as a force for positive change. With a focus on creating purposeful, healing and hopeful design, MASS continues to redefine the role of architecture in confronting history, shaping narratives and fostering collective healing and resilience within communities worldwide. Join us on the Voice America Variety Channel this Friday, April 12th at 11:00 AM EST, 8:00 AM PST as we delve into the transformative power of architecture.

Episode 137: MASS Design Group Business Evolution Why do we need a non-profit architecture business model?A Model of Architecture for Society (MASS) Design Group was founded in 2008 as a non-profit organization with the mission to research, design, build, and advocate for architecture that promotes justice and human dignity. On this episode of Practice Disrupted, we sit down with Patricia Gruits, AIA, Co-Executive Director and Ashley Marsh, Senior Director to learn about how MASS has experienced and moved towards growth in recent years. Patricia and Ashley share why MASS is a nonprofit architecture firm and how their specific business model challenges others to think differently. “Being a nonprofit allows us to challenge policymakers, challenge developers, challenge communities to think more radically, more equitably, more sustainably, about what the potential of the built environment is. That space for failure and learning is something nonprofits are very, very interested in.” - Ashley Marsh To wrap up the episode, Patricia notes the ways the MASS continues to evolve and adapt through challenges. Plus, Patricia and Ashley share their perspective about the reality and reward of the profession — including the significant impact relationships have on each individual's experience at work. Tune in next week for an episode on a new report titled “New Realities: Employee Wellness and Organizational Culture in Design Firms.”Guests:Patricia Gruits, AIA, the Co-Executive Director of MASS Design Group believes that design is a tool to envision a better world — one that is just and beautiful for all people and our shared planet. Patricia also supports the strategy, development, operations and design practice across the North America studios. She works in concert with studio principals, lab leaders and designers, to navigate how architecture can address critical issues of Public Memory, Disability Justice, Food Systems, Native Communities, Climate Resilience, and Restorative Justice. In recognition of her outstanding contributions to architecture, Patricia received the 2020 Flansburgh Young Designer Award by the Boston Society for Architecture. Patricia also frequently speaks at national and local AIA events, including the AIA 2022 National Convention where MASS received the Architecture Firm Award. Ashley Marsh, RA, is a Senior Director of MASS Design Group and is responsible for securing strategically-aligned partners, supports, and funding to advance the mission and secure the long-term health of the organization. She guides the stewardship of existing relationships as well as the identification, qualification and cultivation of new ones. Ashley serves the North American studios by developing and driving earned income strategy and tactics, and has been with MASS Design Group since 2018. Ashley's early career specialized in consulting on the upstream stages of project and owner readiness, advising a spectrum of education, technology, creative and nonprofit organizations in design, strategy and change management capacities. She helped a public school in Oakland, California win a $10 million XQ Super School grant, was named ‘40 under 40' by the San Francisco Business Times, and was part of the team that wrote The Third Teacher–one of Fast Company's best design books of 2010. Ashley is a recipient of the Design Futures Council Emerging Leader award and serves on the Advisory Board of the Boston Architectural College.

Architecture is about the built environment.  But Justin Brown helps lead a firm whose mission is to use architecture to help move communities forward, promote social justice and healing, and expand the possibilities of tomorrow for cities and their residents. Brown is a co-founder and Principal at MASS Design Group focused on expanding architectural work in the U.S. He leads the Hudson Valley Office in Poughkeepsie, NY and is dedicated to the growth of MASS's Social Justice and Adaptive Re-use portfolios. He was the Project Architect for the Equal Justice Initiative's National Memorial for Peace and Justice and founder of the Fringe Cities Design Lab, which researches vulnerable American cities and follows community-engaged design practices to unlock upstream capital to transform liabilities into assets.  Brown has led award winning projects at Gensler in Washington D.C., Perez APC in New Orleans, and Toshiko Mori Architect in New York. He has guest lectured in seminars at Harvard Graduate School of Design, MIT School of Architecture and Planning, University of Toronto, and Dartmouth College. He holds a master's degree in architecture from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Arts in architecture from the University of Pennsylvania.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep.162 features Hank Willis Thomas (b. 1976 Plainfield, NJ). He lives and works in Brooklyn, NY as a conceptual artist working primarily with themes related to perspective, identity, commodity, media, and popular culture. His work has been exhibited throughout the United States and abroad including the International Center of Photography, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Musée du quai Branly, Hong Kong Arts Centre and the Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art. His collaborative projects include Question Bridge: Black Males; In Search Of The Truth (The Truth Booth); The Writing on the Wall; The Gun Violence Memorial Project; and For Freedoms, an artist-led organization that models and increases creative civic engagement, discourse & direct action. Thomas is a recipient of the Gordon Parks Foundation Fellowship (2019), The Guggenheim Fellowship (2018), AIMIA | AGO Photography Prize (2017), Soros Equality Fellowship (2017), Aperture West Book Prize (2008), Renew Media Arts Fellowship from the Rockefeller Foundation (2007), and the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship Award (2006). He is a former member of the Public Design Commission for the City of New York. Thomas's public artworks include the permanent installation of “The Embrace” (2023) was unveiled at the Boston Commons in Boston, MA, symbolizing love and unity the statue pays hommage to the King family; Dr. Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott King, in the city where they met. “REACH,” (2023 made in collaboration with Coby Kennedy, is permanently installed at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, IL. In 2019, Thomas unveiled his permanent work "Unity" in Brooklyn, NY. In 2017, “Love Over Rules” permanent neon was unveiled in San Francisco, CA and “All Power to All People” in Opa Locka, FL. Thomas holds a B.F.A. from New York University, New York, NY (1998) and an M.A./M.F.A. from the California College of the Arts, San Francisco, CA (2004). He received honorary doctorates from the Maryland Institute of Art, Baltimore, MD and the Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts, Portland, ME in 2017. Headshot~ Hank Willis Thomas, Wide Awakes, 2020 Photo Credit: Jeff Vespa Artist https://hankwillisthomas.com/ Mass Design Group https://massdesigngroup.org/work/design/embrace-hank-willis-thomas Pace Gallery https://www.pacegallery.com/exhibitions/hank-willis-thomas-ive-known-rivers/ The Art Newspaper https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2023/01/16/hank-willis-thomas-martin-luther-king-jr-monument-boston NYTimes https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/31/arts/super-bowl-sculpture-hank-willis-thomas.html Tisch https://tisch.nyu.edu/giving/news/nyu-tisch-school-of-the-arts-to-honor-conceptual-artist-hank-wil Art21 https://art21.org/watch/art-in-the-twenty-first-century/s11/hank-willis-thomas-in-bodies-of-knowledge/ Hyperallergic https://hyperallergic.com/792677/hank-willis-thomas-memorializes-mlk-and-coretta-scott-kings-love/ Newcity https://www.newcity.com/2023/05/02/today-in-the-culture-may-2-2023-one-poem-one-chicago-hank-willis-thomas-and-coby-kennedy-reach-at-ohare-the-failure-of-the-nonprofit-industrial-complex/ Artnet News https://news.artnet.com/art-world/hank-willis-thomas-nfl-super-bowl-sculpture-2255436 Archpaper https://www.archpaper.com/2023/02/hank-willis-thomas-debuts-new-sculpture-at-super-bowl/ Ocula https://ocula.com/magazine/art-news/hank-willis-thomas-sculpture-the-embrace/ Time Magazine https://time.com/6249068/martin-luther-king-sculpture-hank-willis-thomas-interview/ Cultured Mag https://www.culturedmag.com/article/2023/05/17/hank-willis-thomas-duality-miami Palm Beach Daily News https://www.palmbeachdailynews.com/story/news/2023/01/19/mlk-sculpture-boston-embrace-hank-willis-thomas-coretta-scott-king/69822342007/

Support the Boston Art Book Fair today! Oliver and Randi talk to Karin Goodfellow, Director of Public Art for the City of Boston.  In that role, she works with artists and other community members on the creation of public memorials, murals, sculptures, and social practice projects that reflect the diversity and cultural values of the people, ideas, histories, and futures of Boston.  In addition to over fifteen years running Boston's public art program, Karin is the Director of the Boston Art Commission, and the founding director of Boston Artists-in-Residence, a residency that has nurtured cohorts of creative partnerships between civic workers and community artists since 2015.   Oliver and Randi sat down with Karin to learn more about her background and the paths that led to her work in the Boston Mayor's Office of Arts and Culture, how she has seen her work evolve over time, and what she's excited about now. And, we got a chance to revisit our excitement over Karin's role in having October 12, 2018 proclaimed Boston Art Book Fair Day in the City of Boston, one of the proudest moments in Boston Art Book Fair history. When: Interviewed May 4, 2023 A few helpful links, to provide context and further information about topics that came up in our conversation.  In particular, we talked about some of the public art and artists in Boston, and about how to access various City of Boston resources and opportunities for artists.  Here you go: Art and Artists: Shepard Fairey Arrested in Boston 2009 Liza Quinoñez in Boston Mayor's Office of Arts and Culture 2023 The Embrace and the 1965 Freedom Plaza, by artist Hank Willis Thomas and MASS Design Group on the Boston Common Tory Bullock Opportunities: Boston Artists-in-Residence Boston Mayor's Office of Arts and Culture Thanks for listening to Weird Sounds: an audio companion to the Boston Art Book Fair!  We look forward to seeing you in person at BCA's Cyclorama November 10-12, 2023 for the fifth Boston Art Book Fair.

Sarah Kitchin is an architect and faculty member at Montana State University who joined MASS Design Group in 2011 as a founding member of the Kigali Office, contributing to nearly all of MASS's built work in Rwanda. She has led design and implementation projects in various typologies, including healthcare, housing, and education, cultivating deep engagement with local builders, material suppliers, and agencies to maximize impact during the construction process.Full show notes at https://northstarunplugged.kristenrainey.com/

Greetings Glocal Citizens! This week's herstory comes to us from southern Africa. We're exploring Zambia in a big way, especially the role that women have played in forward movement in the country. My guest is award-winning journalist, communications specialist and cultural curator, Samba Yonga. She is Founder and Head Communications Strategist at Ku-Atenga Media and co-founder of the Women's History Museum of Zambia, established in 2017, with the mandate to research and restore African indigenous narratives, knowledge and 'living histories' focused on women. She has curated exhibitions and written papers focused on indigenous African knowledge systems and narratives in Zambia but also for art spaces, museums and universities such as National Musuems of World Cultures in Sweden, Yale University in USA, Windybrow Centre in South Africa and many others. In fact, she joined me in conversation just as she was headed to Shanghai University to present her works in the museum space at Museums, Decolonisation and Restitution: A Global Conversation (https://icom.museum/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Museums-decolonisation-and-restitution-Expert-Seminar-Full-Programme.pdf). Samba has been recognized as 100 most influential Africans by Quartz, New York, and one of 40 most influential Africans. She is also a Google Podcast Creator, TEDx Lusaka speaker and a Museum Lab Fellow for 2022. It's always a treat to connect with other podcasters and after you have a listen, be sure to head over to the museum's Youtube channel to check out the Leading Ladies (https://www.youtube.com/@womenmuseumzambia890) animated podcast! Where to find Samba? www.whmzambia.org (https://www.whmzambia.org/) On LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/sambayonga/) On Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/sambayonga/?hl=en) On Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/samba.yonga/) On Twitter (https://twitter.com/Kuwaha) On YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@sambayonga1235) What's Samba reading? Of Water and the Spirit: Ritual, Magic, and Initiation in the Life of an African Shaman (https://a.co/d/iZOWLyL) by Malidoma Patrice Some (https://www.amazon.com/Malidoma-Patrice-Some/e/B000AQ4F6E/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1) 491 Days: Prisoner Number 1323/69 (https://a.co/d/bP7VCGr) by Winnie Madikizela-Mandela (https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1?ie=UTF8&field-author=Winnie+Madikizela-Mandela&text=Winnie+Madikizela-Mandela&sort=relevancerank&search-alias=books) Wallpaper Magazine (https://www.wallpaper.com/) Vanity Fair Magazine (https://www.vanityfair.com) What's Samba watching? Luther on Netflix (https://www.netflix.com/title/70175633) Chef's Table on Netflix (https://www.netflix.com/title/80007945) East Asian Dramas on Netflix (https://www.netflix.com/browse/genre/109007) What's Samba listening to? Ratchet & Respectable Podcast (https://m.imdb.com/title/tt25054436/) The Comb on BBC (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w13xtv78) Hidden Brain Podcast (https://hiddenbrain.org/) The Moth Podcast (https://themoth.org/podcast) Selam & Hello Podcast (https://www.youtube.com/@selamandhello) Other topics of interest: The Old Drift: A Novel (https://a.co/d/5mR5txz) by Namwali Serpell Lusaka, Zambia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lusaka) About Trendsetters Magazine (https://www.comminit.com/usaid/content/trendsetters) On Settler Societies (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781119063551.ch5) Glocally Speaking in Zambian Languages (https://translatorswithoutborders.org/language-data-for-zambia) Mass Design Group (https://massdesigngroup.org) Third Culture Kids (https://interactionintl.org/third-culture-kid-definition/) Special Guest: Samba Yonga.

In this episode, Alice Rawsthorn interviews Nifemi Marcus-Bello, the Nigerian designer who is at the forefront of the dynamic new design culture now emerging in West Africa. Nifemi describes how he draws on his research into West African design and making – past and present – to develop new objects that reflect the region's cultural identity..Born in Nigeria, Nifemi was brought up there and in Zambia, before moving to the UK to study industrial design in Leeds. After completing his master's degree in 2013, he returned to Lagos and worked for the architect Kunlé Adeyemi there and then for MASS Design Group in Rwanda, before opening his own studio in the city in 2017.Nifemi has since designed objects that are steeped in West Africa's rich culture of making and improvisational design. Most are inspired by the vernacular products he sees in daily use on the streets of Nigeria and its neighbours, including Lagos water carts and Beninese bamboo blinds. His work is also influenced by historic West African artefacts, such as ancient Benin bronzes and 19 th century Igbo sculpture. Nifemi then collaborates with skilled local makers on fabricating his objects, which are smart, resonant, and engaging. At a thrilling time for designers throughout Africa, when many designers from the African diaspora are moving there, Nifemi's conversation with Alice paints a vivid and realistic picture of their impact on our youngest, most rapidly urbanising continent.You'll find images of the projects described by Nifemi in this episode on Design Emergency's IG grid @design.emergency. And you can tune into this episode of Design Emergency and the others on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, Acast, and other podcast platforms. Thank you for listening. Please join us for future episodes when we will interview other design leaders who, like Nifemi Marcus-Bello, are helping to build a better world in different fields and different parts of our planet. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The American Institute of Architects, or AIA, is the leading professional association in the US, and USModernist Radio was there for their national conference last June in Chicago, where George talked with Katie Swenson of MASS Design Group, known for emotionally powerful buildings like the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama. After that, George visits with Kira Gould, a communications strategist, author, and cohost of the podcast Design the Future who was awarded honorary AIA status. Later on, musical guest Michael Sinatra singing from the songbook many Modernists know and love. 

The artist Hank Willis Thomas is a voracious reader, not only of books, but of the world around us—and particularly, of images. Through his practice, Thomas interrogates and investigates, probes and prods, and ultimately helps make sense of various strands of visual culture—advertising, photographs, videos, clothing and ephemera, monuments—to tell necessary stories and shape new forms of meaning and memory. While Thomas's roots are in the medium of photography, his work also extends far into other realms, including sculpture and memorialization. A prime example of this and a collaboration with MASS Design Group is “The Embrace,” a memorial to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife, Coretta Scott King, that will be unveiled in the Boston Common in January 2023. Another is the Gun Violence Memorial Project, organized with the prevention organizations Purpose Over Pain and Everytown for Gun Safety, and also with MASS. Central to Thomas's art are the subjects of truth and reality (best illustrated by his traveling “Truth Booth” installation, which toured all 50 states in the lead up to the 2016 U.S. presidential election), how they're shaped, and by whom. Many of Thomas's more conceptual projects also tend to be collective. Most notable among these is For Freedoms, an artist-run coalition he co-founded in 2016 as a super PAC that serves as a platform for artists of all kinds to meaningfully contribute to public discourse and help raise political awareness in the United States.On this episode of Time Sensitive, Thomas speaks with Spencer about identity as a figment of our imaginations, race as the “most successful advertising campaign” ever, and quilt-stitching as a metaphor for all that he does.Special thanks to our Season 6 sponsor, L'ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts.Hank Willis Thomas[06:36] “Remember Me” [06:56] “Digging Deeper”[12:12] MASS Design Group[15:27] “The Embrace”[18:02] “Raise Up”[19:27] Gun Violence Memorial Project[23:21] “Unity”[27:59] TED Talk: “A Mother and Son United by Love and Art” [38:31] “Along The Way”[39:08] “Branded”[39:08] “Unbranded”[39:08] “Rebranded”[39:23] “Absolut Power” [43:55] “A Place to Call Home”[44:01] “Question Bridge: Black Males”[47:00] “Truth Booth”[49:01] For Freedoms[49:01] “For Freedoms News”[58:46] “Guernica”

Dr. Tara Stoinski, the CEO and chief scientific officer of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, speaks with us about working with MASS Design Group on her organization's new Ellen DeGeneres Campus in Rwanda, how mountain gorillas have become a conservation “success story,” and why her work with gorillas can serve as model for conservation efforts elsewhere.Episode sponsored by Grand Seiko.

For this Break Some Dishes episode, our guest is the Founding Principal and Chief Design Officer of MASS Design Group, Alan Ricks! MASS stands for Model of Architecture Serving Society and Alan does just that, leading the strategy and design of projects around the globe and advancing the role of design to create a more equitable and just world. In this episode, Alan, Jon, and Verda come together to discuss the importance of creating a balance in the built environment and the impact of design choices to create change, social justice, and more. Get to know MASS Design Group: https://www.massdesigngroup.org/ Break Some Dishes is an Imagine a Place Production, presented by OFS: https://ofs.com/imagine-a-place

Alannah Weston, Chairman of Selfridges Group, speaks to business leaders who are reinventing their sectors for a sustainable and just future. In this episode, she is joined by Christian Benimana, Senior Principal and Managing Director of MASS Design Group in Rwanda. Its mission is to research, build, and advocate for architecture that promotes justice and human dignity. MASS believes that architecture has a critical role to play in supporting communities to confront history, shape new narratives, collectively heal and project new possibilities for the future.  Christian introduces a new concept of beauty, one that moves beyond the aesthetic and only really blossoms when it brings social and environmental value to communities.  How to Lead a Sustainable Business is brought to you by Selfridges Group and Intelligence Squared. If you enjoy this episode, please take a moment to rate and review us wherever you get your podcasts.

Katie Swenson, a Senior Principal at MASS Design Group, joins the podcast to discuss the Rwanda Institute for Conservation Agriculture, working in cross-cultural environments, and how MASS is redefining the organization of architecture firms.

Michael Murphy believes in architecture that promotes connectivity, collectivity, and health, in the broadest sense of the term. As the founding principal and executive director of MASS Design Group, a 14-year-old nonprofit architecture and design collective with main offices in Boston and Kigali, Rwanda, he creates buildings with the aim of aiding individuals and communities, and addressing complex issues—particularly ones exacerbated by politics and time. In addition to hospitals and health centers around the world, MASS has created schools, public and private housing, farms, campuses, and other projects centered around healing and hope. This focus shines in some of the firm's recent efforts, including MASS's Restorative Design Justice Lab, which seeks to design decarceration, and its Covid-19 Design Response team, which provides resources to vulnerable populations, such as Indigenous communities and those in senior housing. “Design and Healing: Creative Responses to Epidemics,” an exhibition at the Cooper Hewitt (on view through February 20, 2023) that MASS curated and designed, highlights how architecture can serve people in moments of crisis. MASS's work on memorials further illustrates the firm's dedication to creating affecting architecture. The practice's designs for the National Memorial for Peace and Justice (2018) in Montgomery, Alabama; the Gun Violence Memorial Project (2019); and “The Embrace,” a sculpture created with artist Hank Willis Thomas that will rise from the Boston Common this year, offer visceral, multisensory experiences. On this episode, Murphy talks with Spencer about creating a “Slow Space” movement, architecture as a storytelling device, and why the most successful memorials are those that offer tools for collective engagement.Special thanks to our Season 5 sponsor, L'ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts. Show notes:Full transcript[03:15] MASS Design Group[21:30] The Architecture of Health: Hospital Design and the Construction of Dignity[21:30] “Design and Healing: Creative Responses to Epidemics”[22:10] Michael Murphy's 2016 TED Talk [34:30] Restorative Justice Design Lab[44:39] National Memorial for Peace and Justice[44:39] “The Embrace”[47:21] Kigali Genocide Memorial—African Center for Peace[55:18] Gun Violence Memorial Project [01:06:30] Butaro District Hospital

Dr. Richard Jackson, emeritus professor of public health at UCLA and former Director of the CDC National Center for Environmental Health and has argued that architects and planners can have more impact on the health of the next generation of kids than all the physicians in the world. His words are best proven correct through the work of renowned architect Michael Murphy of MASS Design Group, dedicated to the construction of dignity and rooted in healthcare design. Listen in on their conversation reinvigorating what it means today to design for health, safety, and welfare.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, so many of us found ourselves looking at the places we visit in our daily lives, weighing factors like ventilation and ability to social distance, and asking ourselves a new question: will going here make me more or less likely to become sick?   For architect Michael Murphy, this is the kind of question he has spent his life thinking about. As the Founding Principal and Executive Director of MASS Design Group, one of the most innovative architecture and design collectives working today, Michael is devoted to designing better buildings that improve health, bring people together, and promote equality and dignity. In this episode, Michael joins President Clinton to talk about projects they've worked on together in Haiti and Rwanda, his new book “The Architecture of Health” and the simple design elements that can limit the spread of disease, and his involvement with the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama. They also share personal reflections on the impact that their mutual friend and partner Dr. Paul Farmer, who passed away unexpectedly the day before this conversation, had on their lives. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today I am joined by our guest Alda Ly, the founder and principal of Alda Ly Architecture (ALA), a New York City firm that focuses on interiors with a specialty in tech-driven commercial projects. Join us as we discuss her work across the country for Tia, a women's health network and, in particular, their location in San Francisco. More broadly, we will be talking about the future of commercial design in a post-pandemic world. Alda's firm has designed a new and vibrant space for Tia, a full-service women's healthcare platform creating a women-centric model of care with a blend of in-person and virtual services. It is a place for women to work and to work together, thrive, and build a network. The new San Francisco clinic is located in the mission district near tech giants like Twitter.Join us as we discuss ALA's contribution to designing this space, including moving beyond traditional construction materials and including living elements in design, the future of commercial design in a post-pandemic world, and learning how to create innovative, forward-thinking designs. Listen in as we discuss these topics and much more on today's episode of American Building!About the Guest:Alda Ly is the founder and principal of Alda Ly Architecture, a New York City firm that focuses on interiors with a specialty on tech-driven commercial projects. She previously worked at the design firms, Leong Leong Architecture, HWKN, and Rafael Viñoly Architects — where we actually overlapped for a few months while studying at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard. Alda launched MASS Design Group, a spectacular nonprofit design practice focused on humanitarian work. It has since grown to a team of over 140 architects landscape architects, engineers, designers, writers, filmmakers, and researchers representing 20 countries around the globe. Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, or on your favorite podcast platform. Topics Covered:Future of commercial design in a post-pandemic worldAlda Ly's work across the country for TiaExposure to art and design and particularly what it meansGoing beyond traditional construction materials and including living elementsWhat does it mean to design with empathy?About Your HostAtif Qadir is the Founder & CEO of REDIST, a technology company making it easy for commercial real estate professionals to find and use the $100B of real estate incentives given out every year in the US.Resources and LinksAlda's LinkedInAlda Ly Architecture PLLC LinkedInAlda Ly Architecture PLLC WebsiteGrab our exclusive guide Seven Tips on How to Stand Out in Your FieldLearn more on the American Building websiteFollow us on InstagramConnect with Atif Qadir on LinkedInLearn more about Michael GravesLearn more about REDIST

Michael Murphy, Int FRIBA, is a Founding Principal and Executive Director of MASS Design Group, a collective of architecture and design advocates dedicated to the construction of dignity. Since MASS's beginnings, Michael's portfolio documents work in over a dozen countries and spans the areas of healthcare, education, housing, urban development, food systems, indigenous sovereignty, and the public monument. Murphy's 2016 TED talk has reached over 1.7 million views, and he was awarded the Al Filipov Medal for Peace and Justice in 2017. Michael is the Thomas W. Ventulett III Distinguished Chair in Architectural Design at Georgia Institute of Technology, Baumer Visiting Professor at The Ohio State University's Knowlton School, and has lectured at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, University of Michigan, Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation. Under Michael's guidance, MASS has been awarded globally and featured in over 900 publications. Most recently, MASS was selected as the 2022 AIA Architecture Firm of the Year, featured on CBS' 60 minutes and recognized as the winner of the AIA 2021 Collaborative Achievement Award, Wall Street Journal's 2020 Architecture Innovator, the National Arts and Letters Award for 2017, and the 2017 Cooper Hewitt National Design Award. Check out Michael's new book, “The Architecture of Health: Hospital Design and the Construction of Dignity” and visit the “Design and Healing: Creative Responses to Epidemics” exhibit at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in NYC! Bon and Michael geeked out about design and health for so long that we had to split the conversation into two episodes. They talk about the evolution of the modern hospital, creating buildings that breathe, bringing beauty into healthcare and so much more.

Michael Murphy, Int FRIBA, is a Founding Principal and Executive Director of MASS Design Group, a collective of architecture and design advocates dedicated to the construction of dignity. Since MASS's beginnings, Michael's portfolio documents work in over a dozen countries and spans the areas of healthcare, education, housing, urban development, food systems, indigenous sovereignty, and the public monument. Murphy's 2016 TED talk has reached over 1.7 million views, and he was awarded the Al Filipov Medal for Peace and Justice in 2017. Michael is the Thomas W. Ventulett III Distinguished Chair in Architectural Design at Georgia Institute of Technology, Baumer Visiting Professor at The Ohio State University's Knowlton School, and has lectured at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, University of Michigan, Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation. Under Michael's guidance, MASS has been awarded globally and featured in over 900 publications. Most recently, MASS was selected as the 2022 AIA Architecture Firm of the Year, featured on CBS' 60 minutes and recognized as the winner of the AIA 2021 Collaborative Achievement Award, Wall Street Journal's 2020 Architecture Innovator, the National Arts and Letters Award for 2017, and the 2017 Cooper Hewitt National Design Award. Check out Michael's new book, “The Architecture of Health: Hospital Design and the Construction of Dignity” and visit the “Design and Healing: Creative Responses to Epidemics” exhibit at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in NYC! Bon and Michael geeked out about design and health for so long that we had to split the conversation into two episodes. They talk about the evolution of the modern hospital, creating buildings that breathe, bringing beauty into healthcare and so much more.

In this special Best Of Shared Space Season 2! We talk with architects, psychologist, designers, activists, writers, urban planners – a host of amazing community changemakers on season two and we weave all of those together for you all. We start with a basic understanding of what is loneliness, social health, and social capital and why is it so important? Then we dive into office spaces, public places, housing, and more – exploring examples from across the globe as to what types of design strategies and approaches foster health, happiness, social connection and combat loneliness. Interviews Dr. Mario Luis Small, sociologist, endowed professor at Harvard University, and Panama native - shares his studies on social networks, and starts by defining a key component of our social health – social capital, and why it is critical for so many of the other social determinants we think of from transportation, education and habit formation. Nigel Oseland, author and environmental psychologist – shares findings from his recent book Beyond The Workplace Zoo: Humanizing the Office. He specializes in workplace design for human connection, and I was honored to be his first interview for his new book. Emily Anthes, New York Times reporter and author shares findings from her book – The Great Indoors: The Surprising Science of How Buildings Shape Our Behavior, Health, and Happiness. Mitchell Reardon, urban planner with Happy Cities – talks about what it means to create truly accessible spaces for everyone, where everyone feels welcome. He shares fascinating research findings around Streets for People, a study they did in Canada at the beginning of the Pandemic. Katie Swenson, design activist and author of MASS Design Group just published two books – Design with Love: At Home in America about her time with Enterprise Communities, and In Bohemia about her personal journey. She discussed how architecture needs to rethink and evaluate the success of spaces and the importance of dignity in design as a fundamental need. Shelby Blessing, Architect and Activist in Austin Texas shares her experiences working with the Community First Village in Austin – designed specifically for community building and connection for formerly homeless individuals. June Grant, Okland based activist and architect shares her experiences working with AARP – the largest non-profit dedicated to older adults to create a guidebook for Accessory Dwelling Units – as a method for maintaining community fabric and fostering social connection in communities. Andrew Howard, urban planner with Team Better Block and WGI talks about what is really important about not only the product but the process of community design. Judy Sullivan and Meg Moschetto from the Cochrane Heights Neighborhood Association in Dallas, Texas share their perspective of citizen activists that transformed a rundown empty space into a vibrant public community space. They share what it took to get it done and what it changed for their neighborhood community. ... About the Host: Erin is an architect and design researcher bridging the gap between research and practice with a focus on design for health. Website: www.erinpeavey.com Twitter: @erin_peavey Instagram: @design.for.health --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/erinpeavey/message

Most low-wage workers in the United States don't currently make enough to rent a one-bedroom apartment. Millennials aren't able to buy homes because they are, on average, poorer than their parents were at the same age. However, the last thing we need is to worsen the climate crisis as we solve America's housing crisis. Every time we build a new structure, we put carbon emissions in the air. If we had to provide housing for every American by building new apartment blocks, that would put us deep in the red on carbon emissions. Now, if we could convert existing buildings into affordable housing, that would be something. To discuss that and other avenues to address both climate and housing security, senior editor Kelly Beamon sat down with two guests: Katie Swenson, senior principal at MASS Design Group and author of Design With Love: At Home in America, and Shelley Halstead, executive director of the nonprofit Black Women Build.  Resources: How Recycling Buildings Could Solve the Urban Housing Crisis: metropolismag.com/sustainability/reuse-urban-housing-crisis Connect with Metropolis: metropolismag.com Instagram: @metropolismag Facebook: facebook.com/MetropolisMag/ Deep Green is a production of SANDOW Design Group.

Jeffrey Yasuo Mansfield is a design director at MASS Design Group and a Ford-Mellon Disability Futures fellow, whose work explores the relationships between architecture, landscape, and power. Jeffrey is a recipient of a Graham Foundation grant and a John W. Kluge Fellowship at the Library of Congress for his work on Architecture of Deafness, which explores how Deaf schools and other Deaf Spaces emerged as sites of cultural resistance. Jeffrey holds a Master of Architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design and an AB in Architecture from Princeton University. Deaf since birth, Jeffrey is a Yonsei, or fourth-generation, Japanese American, and attended a deaf school in Massachusetts, where his earliest intuitions about the relationship between aesthetics, geography, and power emerged. Interpreting services provided by codabrothers.com

In this edition of Straight Talk Africa, host Haydé Adams looks at Africa's urban development. She is joined by Wandile Mthiyane, architect and CEO of Ubuntu Design Group, Emana Nsikan-George, climate researcher and sustainability practitioner on climate actions, Christian Benimana, managing director of MASS Design Group and Johnny Miller, photographer of Unequal Scenes.

In this edition of Straight Talk Africa, host Haydé Adams looks at Africa's urban development. She is joined by Wandile Mthiyane, architect and CEO of Ubuntu Design Group, Emana Nsikan-George, climate researcher and sustainability practitioner on climate actions, Christian Benimana, managing director of MASS Design Group and Johnny Miller, photographer of Unequal Scenes.

In this edition of Straight Talk Africa, host Haydé Adams looks at Africa's urban development. She is joined by Wandile Mthiyane, architect and CEO of Ubuntu Design Group, Emana Nsikan-George, climate researcher and sustainability practitioner on climate actions, Christian Benimana, managing director of MASS Design Group and Johnny Miller, photographer of Unequal Scenes.

In this edition of Straight Talk Africa, host Haydé Adams looks at Africa's urban development. She is joined by Wandile Mthiyane, architect and CEO of Ubuntu Design Group, Emana Nsikan-George, climate researcher and sustainability practitioner on climate actions, Christian Benimana, managing director of MASS Design Group and Johnny Miller, photographer of Unequal Scenes. 

In this edition of Straight Talk Africa, host Haydé Adams looks at Africa's urban development. She is joined by Wandile Mthiyane, architect and CEO of Ubuntu Design Group, Emana Nsikan-George, climate researcher and sustainability practitioner on climate actions, Christian Benimana, managing director of MASS Design Group and Johnny Miller, photographer of Unequal Scenes. 

In this edition of Straight Talk Africa, host Haydé Adams looks at Africa's urban development. She is joined by Wandile Mthiyane, architect and CEO of Ubuntu Design Group, Emana Nsikan-George, climate researcher and sustainability practitioner on climate actions, Christian Benimana, managing director of MASS Design Group and Johnny Miller, photographer of Unequal Scenes.

How do all the in-between spaces in our lives – not quite public, not quite private – impact our feeling of ownership, pride & community in the spaces we live, work and play?    Join Jennifer and Max as we talk to 5 great guests – Katie Swenson, Sean Kelly, Marvell Adams, Steve Bailey, and Jude Rabig – about the importance of these in-between spaces for older adults living with dementia. First, we speak with Katie Swenson, who is a nationally recognized design leader, researcher, writer, and educator. She is a Senior Principal of MASS Design Group, an international non-profit architecture firm whose mission is to research, build, and advocate for architecture that promotes justice and human dignity. Before joining MASS in early 2020, Swenson was vice president of Design & Sustainability at Enterprise Community Partners, where she led the Rose Fellowship program, recruiting and mentoring 85 fellows who are the next generation of leaders in architecture and community development. Previously, Katie served as a fellow with the Piedmont Housing Alliance in Charlottesville, VA and founded the Charlottesville Community Design Center. Next, we talk to three members of the leadership team of Kendal: Sean Kelly, Marvell Adams, and Steve Bailey. Sean Kelly, President & CEO, joined Kendal in 2008 and took on his current role in 2016. Prior to 2016, while at Kendal, Sean was responsible for fostering a culture of continuous improvement through leading and managing new opportunities for growth and evolution for Kendal. Sean came to Kendal after 10+ years working with development, finance, marketing and operations consultant to senior housing and service providers throughout the United States. Marvell Adams Jr., COO, served as Executive Director/CEO of Kendal's metro Washington, D.C.-area affiliate, Collington, for seven years, before being named The Kendal Corporation's Chief Operating Officer in October 2018. Marvell came to Collington from Rochester, New York, where he was COO/Administrator at The Highlands at Pittsford, a continuing care retirement community affiliated with the University of Rochester Medical Center. Steve Bailey, SVP of New Business and Development, joined Kendal's corporate staff in 2012 as Project Director and has directed major expansion and repositioning projects for several Kendal communities, including Kendal on Hudson and Kendal at Ithaca. He also has served as a key resource for planning and developing new Kendal communities, including development plans for Kendal at Sonoma in northern California in partnership with the San Francisco Zen Center. Steve's experience includes more than 30 years in real estate development and planning. Finally, we speak with Jude Rabig, a nationally recognized leader, speaker, and change agent who served as the first Executive Director of the National Green House Project. She assisted in shaping the model of care and leading the implementation of the first Green Houses in Tupelo, Mississippi. Through her company Rabig Consulting, she provides customized change consultations to help communities develop innovative strategies for change in long term care.  She has worked with scores of organizations nationally and in Canada to develop small house communities.  In addition to providing Small House consulting nationally, she also founded and leads Lifespace Senior Services based in Schenectady, NY to provide home and community based clients with support for their holistic well-being with an emphasis on thriving despite limitations or frailty. She has served in many roles including Director of the Office for Aging and Continuing Care in Oneida County New York and Professor of Gerontology at Utica College. In each of these positions she has worked tirelessly, exhibiting a commitment to fighting ageism, and championing programs and practices that support autonomy, dignity and enhanced quality of life for older adults. She is a former Atlantic Philanthropies, Hartford Foundation Practice Change Fellow, and a Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services Innovation Adviser. She holds a PhD in gerontology and a business certificate from Stanford School of Business.   Continue the conversation in our LinkedIn group Shaping Dementia Environments: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/9044567/ Learn more about Perkins Eastman insights: https://www.perkinseastman.com/white-papers/

In this episode we tackle the question of how culture and lifestyle influences operations, policy creation, and design for dementia environments. Barbra McLendon, Eloy van Hal, and Katie Swenson share a very wide breadth of experiences on this topic, and our discussions range from highly complex public policy challenges to defining intrinsic notions of ‘home'. Our first interview is with Barbra McLendon is Director of Public Policy at Alzheimer's Los Angeles, a non-profit organization serving the Los Angeles area for over 40 years. The organization aims to improve the lives of local families affected by Alzheimer's and dementia by increasing awareness, delivering effective programs and services, providing compassionate support, and advocating for quality care and a cure. Then, we speak with Eloy van Hal who is director of Van Hal Advisors and senior managing advisor in the Be The Hogeweyk Care Concept Advisory team of the Vivium Care Group. Eloy managed several nursing homes and assisted living communities over more than 20 years before managing the former nursing home of Hogewey and eventually developing and co-founding the Hogeweyk (the Hogewey dementia village). He was instrumental in its design, construction, implementation and maintaining and improving the concept. Eloy managed the Hogeweyk from 2008 to 2015, and now works to share his knowledge and experience with others across the world by providing strategic and operational advisory service to clients in the public and private sectors. Our last conversations is with Katie Swenson, who is a nationally recognized design leader, researcher, writer, and educator. She is a Senior Principal of MASS Design Group, an international non-profit architecture firm whose mission is to research, build, and advocate for architecture that promotes justice and human dignity. Before joining MASS in early 2020, Swenson was vice president of Design & Sustainability at Enterprise Community Partners, where she led the Rose Fellowship program, recruiting and mentoring 85 fellows who are the next generation of leaders in architecture and community development. Previously, Katie served as a fellow with the Piedmont Housing Alliance in Charlottesville, VA and founded the Charlottesville Community Design Center.   Continue the conversation in our LinkedIn group Shaping Dementia Environments: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/9044567/ Learn more about Perkins Eastman insights: https://www.perkinseastman.com/white-papers/

What can architecture do in the time of a pandemic? What is an architecture of medical necessity? This week, we talk with Michael Murphy of MASS Design Group to discuss architecture in the time of COVID-19.

Katie Swenson is a nationally recognized design leader, researcher, writer, and educator, and a Senior Principal at MASS Design Group. Katie and I explore how love can be a power to transform the world. Katie shares how she has learned to think about and practice designing with love, and how designers can use love to help dismantle systemic injustices. “Talking about Love gives us clarity. Love and abuse, or love and racism, or love and discrimination, fundamentally cannot coexist.” - Katie Swenson 2:10 Katie shares her earliest memories of architecture, and her path to becoming an architect, writer and community development expert. 10:30 Katie's shares her process of discovery. She unpacks what she meant when, in Design with Love, she said, “I naively thought that design could be the answer … it was my mistake to think that design by itself could solve a problem, without recognizing that it takes people, joining together and using many tools, including design, to support their community ... I realized this job didn’t require me to be an expert, it required me to be humble and a facilitator”. 12:00 Katie and I discuss parallels to the Hippocratic Oath in architecture, and how we design for the betterment of society. 13:40 Katie shares what shaped her understanding of architecture and design's role in “dismantling systemic injustice rather than contributing to its perpetuation," a passage from her book. She shared lessons from her seminar with April De Simone, Undesign the Redline, and discusses historic injustices in urban and rural areas. 20:00 Katie shares what she thinks we are currently getting right and getting wrong when it comes to designing to dismantle systemic injustice. 24:30 Katie shares what she sees as the role of love in design and why it is so important. Sharing definitions from Bell Hooks All About Love, and Martin Luther King Jr.’s studies on the Beloved Community as an achievable aim. 29:40 Katie shares the example of Franklin Square in Baltimore, Maryland from her book, Design with Love. She shares the stories of the community and what they created. 37:00 Katie shares a very different type of love story and her experience suddenly losing her fiancé in May 2017, and the book that came from that experience, In Bohemia. 40:00 Katie shares her final takeaways around how we design for connection. I hope this episode can inspire and empower you to use Love and Design as forces for positive change. If you want to find out more about Katie and her work at MASS Design, Enterprise Communities, and more, check out the links below: Katie’s work at Enterprise Communities & The Rose Fellowship Katie’s work at MASS Design Group Katie’s book: Design with Love: At Home In America Katie’s book: In Bohemia: Memoir of Love, Loss, and Kindness Katie’s website --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/erinpeavey/message

Sustainable planning and design. Joseph Kunkel, Principal at MASS Design Group and Director of the Sustainable Native Communities Design Lab, joined the podcast to talk about planning projects with Native communities. He discussed his work on affordable housing in Indian Country and engaging with the community to incorporate local context and art. He also shared examples of projects incorporating placemaking. This episode is part of ELGL’s Creative Community series, a partnership with ArtPlace America and CivicArts to write, explore, share, and learn about creative placemaking. Host: Ben Kittelson

Have you ever thought of buildings as a cinematic experience? Have you considered how architecture is used to welcome people into a space, to promote healing, or to narrate important stories through memorial? This week we’re exploring how the design of our built environments can improve health outcomes and impact our social systems with Michael Murphy of MASS Design, the firm named 2020 Architecture Innovator by Wall Street Journal.This week's episode features Michael Murphy, Founding Principal and Executive Director at MASS Design Group, an architecture and design firm geared towards improving social equity and health outcomes through design innovation.

Architect, affordable housing expert, and leadership cultivator Katie Swenson joined MASS Design Group early this year, after years at Enterprise Community Partners, where she expanded the Rose Fellowship, bringing design expertise into collaboration with communities. While Katie was a Loeb Fellow at Harvard GSD, she asked: “What role do love and kindness play in urban design?” Love is also at the core of Katie’s two new books (Schiffer Publishing, 2020). In Bohemia: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Kindness, which Katie wrote following the death of her partner, is also about architecture, history, and home. Design with Love: At Home in America, chronicles the work of the Rose Fellowship, uplifting these collaborations.

Katie Swenson is a nationally recognized design leader, researcher, writer, and educator. She is a Senior Principal of MASS Design Group, an international non-profit architecture firm whose mission is to research, build, and advocate for architecture that promotes justice and human dignity. Before joining MASS in early 2020, Swenson was vice president of Design & Sustainability at Enterprise Community Partners, Inc., a national nonprofit that invested over $43.6 billion in community development. She founded Enterprise’s National Design Initiative, directing the Affordable Housing Design Leadership Institute, the Pre-Development Design Grant, and the Rose Fellowship. The Rose Fellowship partners emerging architectural designers and cultural practitioners with local community development organizations to facilitate an inclusive approach to development resulting in sustainable and affordable communities.  A prolific writer, she released two books in the fall of 2020: Design with Love: At Home in America, and In Bohemia: A Memoir of Love, Loss and Kindness, both by Schiffer Publishing. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Comparative Literature from the University of California, Berkeley and a Master of Architecture from The University of Virginia. Katie was also a Harvard University Graduate School of Design Loeb Fellow in 2018-2019, and has taught at the Boston Architectural College and Parsons School of Design at The New School and lectured extensively on sustainable community development and affordable housing.  

Do you ever wonder how can we socially connect and still be safe? What is the role of the design of the physical spaces around us? What strategies could work for both you, and perhaps your loved ones living in senior housing? In Episode 9 of the Shared Space podcast, I sit down with Patricia Gruits of MASS Design Group to explore synergies between designing for COVID-19 and designing for social connection with a special focus on senior living. Patricia shares findings from her recent report “Designing Senior Housing for Safe Interaction The Role of Architecture in Fighting COVID-19”. Understanding the toxic health effects of loneliness, her team identified ways to help people safety connect. We explore how to design for joy, hope, and connection rather than fear. Not ignoring the dangers, but rather finding the synergies in these. Patricia is a Senior Principal & Managing Director with MASS Design Group, a leading not-for-profit design firm, where she leads both design and research projects in health, education, and equity. Her work has been featured in journals of architecture and design as well as on the BBC World News and the Discovery Channel. She has lectured and taught design across the nation. Patricia has a Bachelor of Science and Master’s in Architecture from the University of Michigan, a program that is well known for their integration of purpose driven design and research that continues to inform her approach today. Link to the abbreviated transcript of our interview will be here soon: https://www.erinpeavey.com/sharedspace To learn more about Patricia & The work at MASS Design: Patricia Gruit's Bio at MASS Design Portable Light Project: The Portable Light Project enables people in the developing world to create and own energy harvesting textiles, providing the benefits of renewable power as an integral part of everyday life. Links from topics and projects mentioned during our interview: Green House Project: A different way to design for aging at scale Research on how Green House project homes have fared through COVID-19. Spoiler alert - Green House Project residents have fared much better than other types of skilled nursing. Designing Senior Housing for Safe Interaction: Link to Full Report on MASS Design. The team (excerpt from report): MASS Design team members, Patricia Gruits, Katie Swenson, and Regina Yang -- who led the development of the senior living COVID-19 guide. This guide and its design principles were developed through research and focused conversations with leaders in affordable housing development, operation, and design. We are grateful to Jennifer Molinsky of the Joint Center for Housing Studies; Emi Kiyota, founder of IBASHO, for their partnership and to Alma Balonon-Rosen, Massachusetts Housing Partnership; Susan Gittelman, B’nai B’rith; Carrie Niemy, Enterprise Community Partners; Jane Rohde, JSR Associates; and Enterprise Rose Fellows Peter Aeschbacher, Sam Beall, Nick Guertin, Yuko Okabe, Kelsey Oesmann, and Jason Wheeler for their experience, consultation and review. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/erinpeavey/message

In today’s podcast Wilma Noah Training and Development Specialist of the Native Learning Center sit and talk with Joseph Kunkel, a Northern Cheyenne Tribal Member and Director: MASS Design Group, Sustainable Native Communities. Joseph’s team at MASS Design Group have partnered with The Native Learning Center to share articles of information pertaining to COVID-19 and its effect on architecture, food environment and essential workforce. In this week’s release, they cover Post COVID: What architecting a new normal means for Indian Country. - What has the Coronavirus exposed within Indian Country? - What opportunities lie ahead post COVID? - How can we as a peoples move forward towards long-term recovery?

In today’s podcast Krystal Cedeno Training and Development Specialist of the Native Learning Center sit and talk with Joseph Kunkel, a Northern Cheyenne Tribal Member and Director: MASS Design Group, Sustainable Native Communities. Jospeh's team at MASS Design Group have partnered with The Native Learning Center to share articles of information pertaining to COVID-19 and its effect on architecture, food environment and essential workforce. In this particular week they cover Protecting Essential Workforce During Covid-19.

In today’s podcast Krystal Cedeno Training and Development Specialist of the Native Learning Center sit and talk with Joseph Kunkel, a Northern Cheyenne Tribal Member and Director: MASS Design Group, Sustainable Native Communities. Jospeh's team at MASS Design Group have partnered with The Native Learning Center to share articles of information pertaining to COVID-19 and its effect on architecture. In this particular week they cover Food Environment During Covid-19. - How can we be thinking about the effects of COVID on our food systems? - In what ways can our native food vendors prepare for reopening?

In today’s podcast Wilma Noah and Krystal Cedeno Training and Development Specialist of the Native Learning Center sit and talk with Joseph Kunkel Executive Director of MASS Design Group. Jospeh's team at MASS Design Group have partnered with The Native Learning Center to share articles of information pertaining to COVID-19 and its effect on architecture. In this particular week they cover Rules of Thumb for Limiting Contagion in Makeshift Facilities. Topics covered: -What are makeshift facilities? And why are they happening? -What are the unintended consequences of makeshift facilities? -How can Indian Country protect itself, once we come to realize a new normal?

BE SURE TO SEE THE SHOWNOTES AND LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE HERE. Eve Picker: [00:00:17] Hi there, thanks so much for joining me today for the latest episode of Impact Real Estate Investing. Eve: [00:00:24] My guest today is Katie Swenson. Katie joined MASS Design in 2020 as a senior principal after having worked for many years on affordable housing with enterprise community partners. There she was, a vice president of Design and Sustainability. Her role at MASS, a design practice that embraces issues of economic and social equity, is to help them to define Mass Version 2.0. Eve: [00:01:06] Katie's career has spanned both arts and design, from comparative literature to modern dance. When she finally decided to attend graduate school, she chose architecture as her discipline. And that's when the magic really started to happen. "It allowed me to become a community-based architect," she says, "one who brings ideas to the local level and works with the city and community to make things happen." Eve: [00:01:37] Be sure to go to evepicker.com to find out more about Katie on the show notes page for this episode. And be sure to sign up for my newsletter so you can access information about impact real estate investing and get the latest news about the exciting projects on my crowdfunding platform, Small change. Eve: [00:02:00] So hello, Katie. Thank you so much for spending some time with me today. Katie Swenson: [00:02:04] So glad to be here. Thank you, Eve. Eve: [00:02:07] I'm really fascinated. You've built a career around this question: How do we create an equitable, sustainable, affordable city? And I'm just wondering how you would answer that very big question. Katie: [00:02:20] Yes. Thank you for that question. How do we create an equitable, affordable, sustainable city and communities, I would say, as well. Eve: [00:02:30] Yes. Katie: [00:02:30] You know, my work has taken me into communities mostly across the United States, both large cities and small cities, rural communities and tribal communities. And I think at the base of everything that we've been trying to do is to understand how people can create lives for themselves and their families that give them the opportunity to become and be the people that they want to be, to live lives with purpose and dignity and have the resources and abilities to contribute to the world at large and to their families. So I think that has to happen and in all kinds of environments, certainly so much of the focus of both the sort of economic engines as well as a lot of the environmental work has been around densifying cities and creating cities as urban centers where so much of our work and life can happen. But I think it's also important to understand the broad spectrum of communities that we have throughout the United States and understand that we need to address critical issues around housing and jobs and health and education resources for everybody in the country. Eve: [00:04:01] Basically, one one size does not fit all, right? Katie: [00:04:04] You know, America is much more diverse, I think, than we necessarily give it credit. I've had the incredible opportunity over the last dozen years to really travel quite a lot throughout the United States. And last year, I partnered with a photographer named Harry Connolly and the two of us have been working on a book that we called 'Design with Love at Home in America'. And we went and revisited 10 of the communities where we've been working in partnership for many years with local community development corporations. And the experience kind of re-revealed for me how diverse America really is, from border communities to very rural tribal communities. We worked in geographic diverse locations from the Mississippi Delta through Yakima, Washington, which is sort of the breadbasket of America for produce and fruit production, through inner cities in Baltimore and elsewhere. So, I think one size does not fit all in some ways and in other ways, of course, there are so many common themes that unite best efforts throughout the country. Eve: [00:05:33] Yes, I think about one size does not fit all, I immediately think about, you know, the very typical residential project that developers will build, which really seems to be one size for all. And what you're describing is something very much more diverse. Katie: [00:05:53] Yeah, I think that communities need to grow to reflect themselves. That's the essence of place-based attitude towards building MASS Design. We have talked too often about the provenence of a building. You think of, let's say, wine that comes from a certain region and is grown from a certain type of soil. And buildings and communities also have the opportunity to be grown from their place and to be designed, really, in concert with the values and ambitions and aesthetics and goals of the people who both are responsible for creating them and then will live and grow their own communities. So, yes, I think it's really important to understand that diversity is not an abstract goal, but is the result of, sort of, expression of an environment and that of people and community values that create something that's unique and individual to a place. Eve: [00:07:09] Yeah, I love that thought that a building has a provenance. I think that's great. So, the question of the architect's role within community has sort of continued to grow and change in recent years, but I don't think it's fully formed yet. And how would you like to see that role continue to evolve? Katie: [00:07:28] You know, through our work with the Enterprise Rose Fellowship program, we've learned a lot about a role that an architect can play in local communities. So, just to give a little bit of context, I worked for almost 15 years at Enterprise Community Partners. Back in 2001 to 2004 I participated in a program called the Enterprise Rose Fellowship Program and as an aspiring architect, I was partnered with a community-based development corporation. And the goal was to bring an architect or designer on to the development team of a community development group. The Community Development Group could use the resources of a dedicated designer, and the designer would be able to learn the ins and outs of not only affordable housing development, but also community engagement processes and the regulatory processes that contribute to the creation for affordable housing. So, over these past nearly 20 years, Enterprise has partnered 85 Rose Fellows with community-based groups, and it's been an incredible privilege to be able to witness the growth that has happened through these partnerships. Each one has looked very different. In all cases, there are definitely some sort of underlying values. The architects who are attracted to this work and who succeed at it are generally very humble people who approach the work with the desire to uplift, first and foremost, the goals of the community, but also have to be able to be both brave enough and resourceful to bring the best resources from the architectural and design communities to sort of bear in the local work. So, it's been wonderful to watch these relationships and partnerships grow over time, and each one has resulted in very different kinds of outcomes. Eve: [00:09:49] Do you want to give me some examples? What should a community architect be thinking about that's perhaps different than a rock star architect might be thinking about? Katie: [00:09:58] Absolutely, I'd be happy to share a few examples. I think I would start back in the early days, maybe in 2001, when David Flores was partnered with a community group in San Ysidro, California, called Casa Familiar. A local non-profit that is now about 50 years old and has been working as a kind of community organizer in San Ysidro for many years, helping families navigate life on both sides of the border and provide affordable housing and other community development resources in San Ysidro. And David Flores was a member of my class of fellows, so we both started work in 2001. At the beginning, David started building what he called Casitas, small houses along some of the alleys in the historic part of San Ysidro. But I think he quickly started to realize what the larger challenges that families were facing at the border, including, of course, the border itself. And as the San Ysidro land port of entry has expanded and increased its, I guess, militarization of the border process for crossing, it also took up more space and land space in the community, more energy and also, because of the long wait times to cross the border, was creating environmental effects from stalled vehicles. So David, not only has been working as the design director at Casa Familiar, he was there for almost 20 years working to oversee the development of affordable housing in the neighborhood, but he also joined, for a time, he led the Planning Commission efforts and he got involved in the design and planning of the border control station so that it would be more receptive and welcoming to pedestrians and people crossing each way. And he got involved in environmental studies and testing air quality in the region. Katie: [00:12:16] So I think that architects and designers like David show that an architect's job is not only on distinct projects, that, absolutely he's been involved in helping to realize some very beautiful pieces of architecture including a project which just opened recently that Teddy Cruz and Fonna Forman designed for Casa Familiar, a longtime project in development. But that these building blocks of housing and libraries and parks also need to be knitted together into a larger point of view and larger ability to help a community, as a whole, feel supported and able to grow a family's life and capabilities in some of the most stressful, you know, environments that we have here in the country. Eve: [00:13:16] That's a lovely story. So, I'd really love to hear about how you came to be such a powerful advocate for equitable cities and communities and where did that passion come from? I think you started life academically in a very different place by the sounds of it. Katie: [00:13:32] Yes, I was asked recently who one of my architectural mentors was and, as a child, and I said my mom and the response was one of surprise, actually, and I thought it was so interesting because my mom was a professional, but she was also a home maker. And I've been thinking about these words, not homemaker, one word, but home maker, maybe two words. And I think in many ways, I grew up with a very strong attachment to home, the idea of home, the physical reality of home, how both the design and feeling of your home as well as the stability and platform that your home kind of provides you is just a critical piece of this formation of who you are. And I think in high school, while I had a very stable and wonderful home, I also had the chance to volunteer for what started as a month engagement and ended up being a little over a year and a half at a homeless shelter in Boston. And I think that in the mid-eighties, when homelessness was starting to, kind of, take hold of America and we had, kind of, a high point in the mid-80s, I realize now that actually has not dissipated much. So for me, as a high school student, sort of understanding this dichotomy, not just the power of my own home and what it meant for me, but what happens when you don't have a home and how slippery a slope it becomes and how quickly life can fall apart without a stable home. So I think that this has guided so much of my passion for my work and while it hasn't necessarily been a linear path in terms of my career, I studied comparative literature as an undergrad and I have spent time as a modern dancer and I've done a lot of different things throughout my life, but some core essence around the importance of home and making homes, making my own home and making homes for others has been something that has driven me as long as I can remember and to this day. Eve: [00:16:12] You also sound like you've had a lot of fun. And, you know, I think people have this idea that your life should be linear. But I think, you know, all of those interesting things that you've done must surely feed into what you do now and the way you look at the world and I love that idea. I wanted to talk a little bit about the pandemic as well. It's taken me a while to get my brain around it, but I'm starting to think about what does it mean? And what does our world look like when and if it comes to an end? And if it wasn't already bad enough, the affordable housing crisis just got a lot worse with the onset of the pandemic and many people losing their jobs. And I don't even know how to begin to think about how the U.S. can tackle this monster problem and I'm wondering if you have any thoughts about that. Katie: [00:17:04] Oh boy. Well, I wish I could say that I was able to get my mind around what this is going to mean for all of us. I think we're still in this period of profound uncertainty. And I am really grateful for the wide-spread activism that I've seen from the housing community, first and foremost, on protecting renters and working to stop evictions and understand that that's one critical base of all of this is, again, I guess, the importance of having a home right now. We talk about stay at home, right? Stay at home. Eve: [00:17:43] If you don't have a home, how do you stay at home, right? Yeah. Katie: [00:17:47] Oh, my goodness. I mean, that means very different things for different people. And the importance of home has maybe never been so, kind of, revealed, right? I heard Governor Cuomo talking about the subways in New York, ridership is down 92 percent and they were going to start to close the subways in the mid-morning hours because many people were in many ways taking up residence on the subways. Eve: [00:18:16] Oh wow. Katie: [00:18:16] So this kind of crisis around home, whether it's becoming increasingly unaffordable because you're out of work, whether it's a place that is not safe, perhaps. I mean, not everybody is living at home in a safe environment or you have no home. So, we think this moment, certainly we all want to, kind of, understand what is the future of, you know, our public transit system, what is the future of our work spaces, what's the future of the restaurant and food industry? There's so many questions, but I think one of the most elemental questions is going to have to be what is the future of our housing policy and are we going to use this moment when it could not be more clear how important it is, both for each of us as individuals and for all of us as a society, to be able to safely house every member of our community? Eve: [00:19:26] Yeah, and more, you know, you can't really say that home is just a roof over your head because there's so much inequity around who has a computer and who has broadband, and if you even have a place to work in your home. And I think all of that, surely, has to come into play as well. If we're really looking at schools being closed, and I know my husband's a teacher and his university is already talking about online classes only in the fall, all of that is going to really matter quickly. I mean, as an architect, I'm grappling with, you know, what does that mean in the way we even design homes and cities? Katie: [00:20:07] You know, in some ways, you're right in that this is sort of exciting time to think about home, right? I think everybody's looking around and going like, oh, my goodness I have to sort of expect so much more of this space. And I hope that that notion of expecting more from our buildings and our spaces is one of the things that will come out of this time. You know, the idea that our buildings need to keep us healthy is an idea that really attracted me originally to MASS Design Group who started during a tuberculosis epidemic and designing hospitals with the goal of having the hospital itself, the building itself, participate in enhancing the health of the staff and patients and visitors who experienced it. That the buildings have such a role to play. Buildings shape us, they shape our experience. They shape our health outcomes. And so, I hope that this will be a moment where we are understanding that we need to ask more of our buildings and participate in a greater spatial awareness and spatial literacy to understand the profound effects that the built environment in general, and the buildings that we occupy in specific, have on our health outcomes and our quality of life and productivity outcomes and that we gain a sort of awareness and capabilities around our ambitions for the built environment. Eve: [00:21:59] Yeah, and that, you know, the buildings shape cities. And I think cities, too, will need to be re-thought in terms of how do you make them safe places for larger groups of people? You know, some cities in other countries are starting to think about changes to their transportation patterns or, in Lithuania they've given over all public spaces to outdoor restaurants so restaurants can operate again. I mean, these are kind of baby steps but in amongst the misery of all of this, it's interesting to watch how creative people can be. That's encouraging, I think. Katie: [00:22:37] It's hard to talk about silver linings at this moment. I mean, I think people are going to be experiencing so much grief of all kinds from lost loved ones to lost, you know, hopes or experiences. So, there's going to be just a wide swath of, kind of, having to recover from this moment but, as you say, there's also a lot of opportunities that are being revealed. Like in New York City, where they're coming up with strategies to re-occupy the city streets in a different way, I think that's so exciting. And I think it's really important, I mean, if home is important, though is. I guess, you know, the old words home and garden, right? Home is as equally reflected in the sort of outdoor space. and I think our ability to kind of get more creative about understanding how we can use our outdoor spaces more effectively is really important. Katie: [00:23:39] I also think that different kinds of projects. We have just been involved in a project in a community in West Baltimore where neighborhood leaders started leading the charge to create a park where there had been three homes which, over time in a disinvested area of Baltimore, had been first made vacant and then started to deteriorate and eventually were taken down and the lots that were left had become a dumping grounds. And one of the local neighbors, so a block leader, a block captain on his block, his name is Donald Quarles, started working with one of our Rose Fellows and his neighborhood group and the Bon Secours Community Development Group to clean up first this lot and now turn it into what has become this incredibly beautiful small pocket park that they call Kirby Lane Park. And the process has taken about two years and we figure that in the end, it's been mostly volunteer labor, but the hard costs have been less than one unit of housing costs to create in that community. And it's provided this outdoor space, a kind of backyard or a front porch, whatever you want to call it, for this community at large. So I think from big ideas to how do we re-occupy city streets and city parks and beaches, to small ideas of how to prioritize and re-integrate smaller outdoor spaces into our day-to-day lives, there are lots of models and ideas that we need to be working on simultaneously at different scales. Eve: [00:25:41] I think what excites me is the people I talk to who are incredibly creative and they're all going to put the brainpower to this. I can't wait to see how they make things better. It's fascinating to me. But, in the meantime, I would just like to ask you one final question, and that is what's next for you? You have a brand, new job with MASS Design Group and where's that going to lead you? Katie: [00:26:06] Oh yes, it is so exciting. I started at MASS Design on February 3rd. I've been a friend and sort of champion and cheerleader to the organization since 2010 when I first met them and then had joined their board. So, I came on full-time in February, thank goodness, really just in time to be able to participate in this moment with this incredible group. Katie: [00:26:34] So, the very first morning that we, sort of were all getting on our first Zoom call with one hundred and twenty five people from around the world at nine a.m. Eastern Time on Monday morning, one of our design directors, Chris Scovel, had gotten a call from one of our partners at Boston Health Care for the Homeless, saying that were going to be putting up some makeshift tents to be able to test and treat people without homes in Boston and would we look at the plans? And so, Chris and a team got on to making really makeshift design recommendations. We're not calling them designs because it's not about designing a tent or creating something ideal in any way, it's about trying to apply our experience and design for infection control that we've learned over many years through, not only tuberculosis, but also Ebola and cholera, and to understand with our medical partners how Covid19 is manifesting itself and what can we do from a spatial guidance to help limit contagion and keep health care workers and patients healthier. So we started in on this immediately and realized that if one group needed it, as one partner needed it, probably so did others. So, we set off on this kind of larger understanding about, how can we use our spatial cues, spatial literacy, to help respond in this crisis? You know, I think that obviously architects are not on the frontlines of this crisis. Health care workers are on the frontlines of this crisis and make no mistake about it, but the rub is that our buildings are on the front lines. And so, we need to be there, showing up to understand how do we need to adapt? What are the retrofits that we need to do? How can we learn from this experience so that our buildings are able to support health care workers, to be able to support our communities, getting back into our lives in so many ways, but to do it safely? Katie: [00:29:04] It's been an incredible process and I feel very, very lucky to work not only with an incredible team at MASS, but also such a robust network of amazing partners both in the medical fields and in all of the sort of social service fields. Eve: [00:29:22] Well, I really can't wait to see what comes next. And thank you very much for spending this time with me today. Katie: [00:29:30] Thank you. Really a pleasure to join you and we'll look forward to having this conversation evolve and thanks for highlighting all the creative efforts. Appreciate it. Eve: [00:29:41] Thank you. Eve: [00:29:56] That was Katie Swenson. I loved that her early professional years meandered through the arts from comparative literature to dance before she landed on architecture. Her trajectory shows that climbing the ladder is not necessarily the path to success. Her career as a community architect started later than most but that didn't stop her from becoming a star in the field. And she brought with her creativity and a human passion for making better places for everyone. Eve: [00:30:27] You can find out more about impact real estate investing and access the show notes for today's episode at my web site, evepicker.com. While you're there, sign up for my newsletter to find out more about how to make money in real estate while building better cities. Eve: [00:30:44] Thank you so much for spending your time with me today and thank you, Katie, for sharing your thoughts. We'll talk again soon but for now, this is EVe Picker signing off to go make some change.

In todays’s podcast Wilma Noah and Krystal Cedeno Training and Development Specialist of the Native Learning Center sit and talk with Joseph Kunkel Executive Director of MASS Design Group. The novel coronavirus, also known as COVID-19 has the potential to be devastating for Indian Country. As COVID-19 starts to become a threat to our communities, our housing, healthcare systems, and other essential spaces, facilities will struggle to meet the needs of its inhabitants, and surges will rely on the quick mobilization of “temporary” spaces. Shelters that are meant as “pop-ups” usually end up being used for much longer than intended, some beyond 20 years. Whether erecting a tent clinic or retrofitting a lobby, decisions we make now will have long term effects on institutions and communities. When the spigots of relief dollars begin flowing to temporary structures invest in spaces that will last for a year, not a month. Architecture has a crucial role during this pandemic.

What can architecture do in the time of a pandemic? What is an architecture of medical necessity? This week, we talk with Michael Murphy of MASS Design Group to discuss architecture in the time of COVID-19.

Michael Murphy, the founding principal and executive director of MASS Design Group, discusses the links between architecture, design, and public health; how Slow Food has helped pave the way for a “Slow Space” movement; and his tactful approach to memorial making.

In this podcast episode, founding principal and executive director Michael Murphy discusses his firm's Covid-19 response, as well as how architects can use design to help fight the pandemic.

MASS Design Group's Founding Principal, Michael Murphy, sits down to discuss architecture as a non-profit, social driven causes within the profession, and how they founded MASS Design Group 

Police violence and law enforcement violence is a pressing public health issue. Period. In particular, indigenous, Black, Latinx, disabled, mentally ill and poor people are disproportionately targeted by police violence. In this episode, we talk to Dr. Rupa Marya who co-leads the Justice Study, a community-based study that researches health outcomes in communities where there is police violence and no justice. We talk about what true community partnership means, how art & music blend with Rupa's justice work, and how we can use white coat privileges to join in the fight for the communities that continue to experience trauma related to law enforcement violence. For more about the Justice Study, visit: https://www.donoharmcoalition.org/the-justice-study-english.html Bio: Rupa Marya, MD is an Associate Professor of Medicine within the Division of Hospital Medicine. Her interests center around the intersection of society and illness, focusing research on how social structures may predispose different disadvantaged groups to certain illnesses. She is Faculty Director of the Do No Harm Coalition, a 450+ member strong group of health workers and students dedicated to ending racism and state violence. In partnership with Dr Sara Jumping Eagle, Dr Linda Black Elk and MASS Design Group, she is currently helping to set up the Mni Wiconi Health Clinic at Standing Rock, at the invitation of Lakota and Dakota health leaders to create a space for the practice of Decolonized Medicine. She is the co-investigator of The Justice Study, a national effort to understand the link between police violence and health outcomes in communities most affected by that violence. Since residency at UCSF, she has been the composer and front-woman for the international touring group Rupa & the April Fishes, a project that uses music as a way to explore the intersection of society and disease.

This episode starts with a question: “what if the architectural design of an obstetric unit influenced the c-section rate in that unit?” That question occurred to obstetrician/gynecologist Neel Shah when he attended a presentation by Michael Murphy, the co-founder and executive director of Mass Design, an architectural design and research firm that focuses particularly on healthcare architecture. Neel thinks about c-section rates all the time and is a leading researcher in the field of maternal health. C-section rates vary widely throughout the US – from 7 to 70%, and where a woman delivers better predicts whether she will get a c-section than her own personal risk factors. So, Michael Murphy’s contention that “Architecture is never neutral. It either heals or hurts” stayed with Neel and inspired him to pursue a research initiative between Mass Design and his research group, Ariadne Labs. Neel Shah and two of his collaborators, Amie Shao and Deb Rosenberg, researchers and architects with Mass Design, join us to talk about their collaboration and the report they produced. Amie Shao is a director with MASS Design Group, where she oversees research focusing on health infrastructure planning and evaluation. In addition to guiding impact research for MASS built projects, she coordinated the production of National Health Infrastructure Standards for the Liberian Ministry of Health and has been involved in the design and evaluation of healthcare facilities in Haiti, Africa, and the United States. Deb Rosenberg joined MASS in 2015, with a unique background in healthcare and architecture. Throughout her career in nursing and architecture is a common ambition to promote health and well-being, and she believes that the spaces where people live, work and heal have the capacity to greatly support or restrict our human potential. Neel Shah, MD, MPP, is Assistant Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology at Harvard Medical School, and director of the Delivery Decisions Initiative at Ariadne Labs. His team is currently collaborating with hospitals across the United States, and using methods from design, systems engineering, and management to reduce the epidemic of avoidable c-sections. If you enjoyed the show, please give us 5 stars wherever you listen. Tweet us your thoughts @RoSpodcast and check out our facebook page at www.facebook.com/reviewofsystems. Or, you can email us at audreyATrospod.org. We’d love to hear from you, and thanks for listening.

This episode starts with a question: “what if the architectural design of an obstetric unit influenced the c-section rate in that unit?” That question occurred to obstetrician/gynecologist Neel Shah when he attended a presentation by Michael Murphy, the co-founder and executive director of Mass Design, an architectural design and research firm that focuses particularly on healthcare architecture. Neel thinks about c-section rates all the time and is a leading researcher in the field of maternal health. C-section rates vary widely throughout the US – from 7 to 70%, and where a woman delivers better predicts whether she will get a c-section than her own personal risk factors. So, Michael Murphy’s contention that “Architecture is never neutral. It either heals or hurts” stayed with Neel and inspired him to pursue a research initiative between Mass Design and his research group, Ariadne Labs. Neel Shah and two of his collaborators, Amie Shao and Deb Rosenberg, researchers and architects with Mass Design, join us to talk about their collaboration and the report they produced. Amie Shao is a director with MASS Design Group, where she oversees research focusing on health infrastructure planning and evaluation. In addition to guiding impact research for MASS built projects, she coordinated the production of National Health Infrastructure Standards for the Liberian Ministry of Health and has been involved in the design and evaluation of healthcare facilities in Haiti, Africa, and the United States. Deb Rosenberg joined MASS in 2015, with a unique background in healthcare and architecture. Throughout her career in nursing and architecture is a common ambition to promote health and well-being, and she believes that the spaces where people live, work and heal have the capacity to greatly support or restrict our human potential. Neel Shah, MD, MPP, is Assistant Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology at Harvard Medical School, and director of the Delivery Decisions Initiative at Ariadne Labs. His team is currently collaborating with hospitals across the United States, and using methods from design, systems engineering, and management to reduce the epidemic of avoidable c-sections. If you enjoyed the show, please give us 5 stars wherever you listen. Tweet us your thoughts @rospodcast and check out our facebook page at www.facebook.com/reviewofsystems. Or, you can email us at audreyATrospod.org. We’d love to hear from you, and thanks for listening. Listen at the end of the episode for a promo code to receive 15% off registration fees for an upcoming conference from the Harvard Center for Primary Care: Primary Care in 2020 – Future Challenges, Tips for Today.

This episode was interesting to work on. Turns out offices are wonderful to poke fun at. Here is some of the research I did for the episode. Some of it has to do with the open plan office, which is not the same as cubicles. Open plan offices don't have the cubicle walls (obviously) and are even worse for productivity than the cubicle farms.  Jason Fried started a company called Basecamp, which is a hugely and (at least in the web design industry)  project management tool helping them to manage projects and collaborate with clients. He has a TedX talk with nearly a million views on why people don't like going to offices. Click here Oliver Baxter quoted Gallup's research. I've used the same research in my consulting practice. They have a lot of tools and interventions that you can get from them. Here is a report on their 2016 findings. Oliver Baxter works with the Herman Miller Insight Group, which is responsible for the commissioning, overseeing and presenting of Insights into the latest thinking in workplace design and associated issues. The subjects covered include Happiness in the workplace, Generations at Work, Creativity in the Workplace, Agile Working and the Psychology of Collaboration. He tweets at @HMInsightMEA. Here are the links he promised. Click on the links for Herman Miller's "Living Office", or case studies here (Mass Design Group), here (Slack and Company) and here (Tavistock). Case studies:    Here's their paper on how to catalyze your workplace for growth (and remember his tip: 20% spike in engagement by letting people work from home one day a week).  Geoffrey James wrote an article in Fast Company about the open plan office. https://www.fastcompany.com/90285582/everyone-hates-open-plan-offices-heres-why-they-still-exist In the article he links to another piece he wrote back in 2016 on how implementing the wrong office design is like stepping over dollars to pick up pennies. https://business.linkedin.com/talent-solutions/blog/hr/2016/open-office-plans-are-a-lot-less-cost-effective-than-you-may-think And I commissioned office comedy from Josh Murphy. He's on twitter at @JoshPMurphy For productivity coaching, design thinking workshops and strategy sessions, contact erichv@stratervation.com If you want an idea covered by the podcast, please mail ideas@doesthatevenwork.com Oh: And if you wanted to hear more from Claire Rousell, she's no longer in academia and didn't want to post her social media links. Additional reading. The Ladders is an excellent on-line magazine, really brilliant, for all things work-related. https://www.theladders.com/career-advice/report-working-anywhere-but-your-desk-makes-you-more-effective

We sit down with entrepreneurs and organizations that are bringing sustainable processes and ideas to life ? Today we catch up with Alan Ricks, Founding Principle and Chief Design Officer of MASS Design Group. As a firm providing wealth management services to clients, UBS Financial Services Inc. offers both investment advisory services and brokerage services. Investment advisory services and brokerage services are separate and distinct, differ in material ways and are governed by different laws and separate arrangements. It is important that clients understand the ways in which we conduct business and that they carefully read the agreements and disclosures that we provide to them about the products or services we offer. For more information visit our website at ubs.com/workingwithus. UBS Financial Services Inc. is a subsidiary of UBS AG. Member FINRA/SIPC.

In this episode, Talking Practice host Grace La interviews Paul Nakazawa, Associate Professor in Practice of Architecture at the Graduate School of Design, whose career as a consultant includes managing several international design practices in the fields of strategy and business development. Having taught practice classes for over twenty years, Nakazawa shares his belief in the importance of fostering personal relationships and a collaborative attitude during the course of a designer’s education, and the necessity of adapting to a changing cultural enterprise as we consider the future of architecture and design. With cities increasingly adapting to parametric operations as the driver of real estate development, Nakazawa discusses the tension between humanism and the algorithm, and what kinds of techniques design practices must employ to survive—and thrive—in today’s changing landscape. Nakazawa reflects on the role of mentorship in architecture and reflects on his own experience mentoring leaders across the design professions, highlighting the value of social capital that lies at the heart of practice. For more information about Nakazawa’s work and teaching, check out his latest course, “Elements of the Urban Stack.”     Paul Nakazawa is Associate Professor in Practice of Architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where he teaches Frameworks of Practice, the longest running professional practice class at the GSD. He currently serves as a Director and Vice Chairman of MASS Design Group, Boston, and as Chairman of Snøhetta, New York. Nakazawa's career spans four decades as an architect and 25 years as a practice strategy consultant to leading firms in architecture, landscape architecture, and urban design. He has lectured and taught at the Southern California Institute of Architecture, Los Angeles; Architectural Association, London; Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City; and University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He is a graduate of the University of Chicago (BA, MBA) and Harvard University (MArch). About the Show Developed by Harvard Graduate School of Design, Talking Practice is the first podcast series to feature in-depth interviews with leading designers on the ways in which architects, landscape architects, designers, and planners articulate design imagination through practice. Hosted by Grace La, Professor of Architecture and Chair of Practice Platform, these dynamic conversations provide a rare glimpse into the work, experiences, and attitudes of design practitioners from around the world. Comprehensive, thought-provoking, and timely, Talking Practice tells the story of what designers do, why, and how they do it—exploring the key issues at stake in practice today. About the Host Grace La is Professor of Architecture, Chair of the Practice Platform, and former Director of the Master of Architecture Programs at Harvard University Graduate School of Design.  She is also Principal of LA DALLMAN Architects, internationally recognized for the integration of architecture, engineering and landscape. Cofounded with James Dallman, LA DALLMAN is engaged in catalytic projects of diverse scale and type.  The practice is noted for works that expand the architect's agency in the civic recalibration of infrastructure, public space and challenging sites. Show Credits Talking Practice is produced by Ronee Saroff and edited by Maggie Janik. Our Research Assistant is Julia Roberts. Practice Platform Support is provided by Jihyun Ro. The show is recorded at Harvard University's Media Production Center by Multimedia Engineer Jeffrey Valade. Contact For all inquiries, please email practicepodcast@gsd.harvard.edu.

In this week’s episode we speak to Theophile Uwayezu, architect and associate at MASS Design Group in Kigali, Rwanda. This week’s episode was recorded in Kigali as part of a series of episodes we’re bring you from East Africa, exploring identity and architecture. Identity is the theme of this year’s LFA. MASS Design Group was … Continue reading "MASS Design Group – Kigali"

Co-founders Chiara Eisner and Julia Shivers direct all aspects of oncart.org. Chiara is an artist trained in public health and an advocate of immigration reform. After working for MASS Design Group, she teaches her own curriculum at Saint Mark's Community Education Program for immigrants in Dorchester, Massachusetts, and is making a docuseries funded by the City of Boston. Julia is a writer who plans and develops content for digital media teams, publishers, and production companies. A former French translator, she is also a student of local East African languages and culture. Julia and Chiara joined forces to make OncArt more than just a good idea.

Architecture and design affect your attitude, your health, and even your life. Architect Michael Murphy, executive director of MASS Design Group, and Ken Oringer, one of Boston’s most notable chefs and restaurateurs, talk to Billy Shore about how good design can drive systems change. “We see architecture as a crucial piece … of our daily lives and as a systems approach to how we live either more productive or less productive lives,” says Murphy. Oringer knows the importance of design in his restaurants. “We work 16-hour days, and you have to create an environment that can make everybody happy … and inspire creativity,” he says. Murphy describes a hospital his group designed for a village in Rwanda that had to address tuberculosis. Because TB spreads through the air, they had to mitigate risk by designing better ventilation, creating outdoor waiting areas, and eliminating hallways. “A hospital is an incredible system… but it’s only successful if we’ve designed it well enough to influence medical policy on how we’re designing hospitals in the future,” Murphy says. Chef Oringer faced a similar challenge redesigning 3 school kitchens in the Boston public school system. “If we create spaces where the kids get excited to eat, that’s the start of getting kids to be motivated by [good] food,” he observes. He is currently talking to the Mayor about redesigning 30 to 50 more Boston school kitchens next year and eventually all of them. Murphy is inspired by this plan. “If we can solve it one place, can it affect an entire system?,” he asks.Oringer - a long-time supporter of the No Kid Hungry campaign - believes chefs need to be leaders because food is the common denominator in our world. “Chefs have the DNA to take care of people,” he says. Murphy believes there are similarities in his field. “Architects don’t become architects for the paychecks. It’s a passion industry,” he explains. He and his partners set up the non-profit MASS (which stands for Model of Architecture that Serves Society) to bring great design to organizations and communities that would not be able to afford it otherwise. Part of its mission is to build a pipeline of projects and partners around the world to change the system. “I want to work with innovators or thought leaders or organizations who are doing real big systems change work,” he concludes.Listen to gain a deeper understanding of how the built environment affects our lives and can be used to drive systems-level change.

We’re always talking about the future of design, the future of technology, the future of MAKING. In a world where disease and sickness can be identified via a sensor and a mobile device, a world where museum visits can be experienced virtually across the world via a robot, how do we find the next big [...] The post Maker Galaxy E30: Design for Social Innovation (Patricia Gruits of MASS Design Group) appeared first on SolidSmack.

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