Design is an Act of Hope
what does design
say about us why should you care
i would offer that design is an act
of hope i’m an architect
i design buildings for a living i was a
part of the team
that worked on the martin luther king
library just down the street from many
of you here tonight
in the king lincoln brownsville
neighborhood this neighborhood has such
a rich
history and legacy in the black
community
right now we the broad community are
struggling
with acknowledging our history of
failure
designers have failed you designers have
been complicit
in allowing systemic challenges to be
introduced
when you look at specifically at the
history of redlining
and when it’s met in real estate and
wealth creation
we failed it’s led to distrust
but that distrust is really not about
the design or the buildings it’s about
us
it’s about what we value before we
designed anything
on the martin luther king branch we
could feel that distrust
when columbus metropolitan library
unveiled their new design principles
and around town new library branches
began to pop
up designed with those principles there
was a lot of concern about whether or
not that would work in this neighborhood
whether or not it could stand up to that
legacy there’s a lot of distrust
not a lot of people know this but the
old east side branch
was the first library in the country
named after dr martin luther king jr
about 50 years ago martin luther king
senior
came to this neighborhood to dedicate
the eastside branch to his son
just after his passing now i always
struggled personally to directly relate
to that history
until i read tigerland by will haygood
in that book he gives context to this
neighborhood
through the lens of east high school’s
back to back state winning basketball
titles and baseball teams
during the civil rights movement what i
could put myself
in the mindset of what it was like to be
in high school think about prom
think about homecoming think about just
playing a basketball game or a baseball
game
and thinking about the recent
assassination of dr martin luther king
i could begin to understand the weight
of that legacy
this neighborhood has a strong legacy
and you should hold designers
accountable you deserve design that
stands up to that legacy and reflects
the heritage and power of this community
i do know one thing for sure about us
we the broad community you the broad
community
you deserve better design
now great design looks forward
when we started our early design ideas
we had little sketches and little models
and we gave them names like dream
mountaintop and hope
when dr keem gave the dream speech he
went off script
if you listen closely to the audio files
you could hear faintly in the background
right the moment when he does it
you can hear mahalia jackson saying tell
them about the dream martin
designing is kind of like dreaming it
literally means to draw
and long long ago when things like
perspective drawing were invented
people were afraid of it they were
afraid of the idea that if you could
take a blank canvas
and construct a dream or reality that
didn’t exist
you were giving people the power of
being the creator
now the problem with that thinking is
we’re all designers we all do it
whether we know it or not if you were to
dream with me just for a minute
i like to dream about buildings so if
you were to dream
about building a new home might take you
two or three months to find the right
piece of land
might take you a month or two to figure
out things like the carpet
the paint the bathrooms the tile
probably figure out all the paperwork in
a month or two
you could probably build that house in
about six months
statistically speaking you’re likely to
live in that house for at least five to
ten years
can you see it that reality that you’re
dreaming about right now
exists in a future that’s six to eight
years from now
great design is ahead of its time and
often
when we’re taught about the history of
design we’re taught so from a very
specific western eurocentric perspective
and that perspective ignores its stolen
legacy
from africa where designers from places
like egypt and zimbabwe
were so far ahead of their time they
don’t get credit for their design
innovation
i also believe it should be an act of
hope when dr king
specifically in his writings talks about
buildings he mentions buildings like
training centers and libraries as places
where you can connect people
to resources to build a better future
where we have
a collective wisdom now i’m just one of
the
ultimate believers that building is one
of the the truest things that we can do
when people are willing to invest time
effort and resources
and so much an effort that it becomes a
physical manifestation manifestation
it is ultimately an expression an act of
what we value
so when you when you think about
something like the internet
and most of you tonight this whole event
is possible because of the internet
we have seen that access to the internet
is not just a luxury
it is a part of critical infrastructure
but
here in the king lincoln brownsville
neighborhood 39
of residents have no access to reliable
fixed internet
eleven percent of residents have no
access to internet at all
building a computer area where people
can connect to the internet and do
things like
search for a job is an act for those
residents
when you think about parents who might
be struggling to find affordable child
care
which is also pretty likely because here
in franklin county
we live based on our population and
density in a child care desert
and 30 of black residents live below the
poverty line
so building a team space where kids can
go and play video games
get help with their homework and find
age-appropriate resources
until their parents get home from that
job is an act for those parents
and looking at kids here in franklin
county
23 percent of our pre-k students are not
ready for kindergarten
22 percent of k-3 students are not
meeting their reading goals
building a children’s space that’s
supported by
kindergarten readiness and third grade
reading programs
is an act of hope for those kids future
but why hope hope is
protest before every demonstration
before every peaceful protester
martin luther king and peaceful
protesters they’d come to a site
and they’d kneel to pray and then they’d
link arms and connect
and go out and demonstrate hope
is defined as an outward expression of
our belief in good
expression is action protest
is simply defined as an expression of
disapproval
the hope that we had for this library is
if that we could physically
build a building that brought together
the components
of children library staff community in a
space where they were connecting to
resource and demonstrating their desire
to improve themselves
that this could be a space of protest
right now so many people are struggling
with how to express
their disapproval and they’re saying
things like
we want to go to normal we want normal i
don’t ever want to go back to normal
normal is ordinary average
uneventful unexceptional what we are
saying that’s so clear
we don’t want normal we want better
i have to remind myself as an architect
over and
over again it is not about the building
directly from the dream speech it’s time
for us to cash
our check the architects of our republic
wrote
a promissory note for every american
50 years later martin luther king iii
came back to this same neighborhood and
dedicated the new building to his father
on the same site there was hardly a
place where you could stand
there were people who went into the
building and they were in tears saying i
can’t believe this is for me
not excited about the building excited
about the promise
about its hope we gave this library a
porch
to continue the legacy of this
neighborhood where every resident
has the opportunity to engage and
participate
in their neighborhood from their space
we know that what you see from that
porch the background won’t always be the
same
i mean it took 400 years to construct it
it’ll take little efforts
every day to dismantle that history but
this is a space where you can see and be
a part
of what it takes to make those changes
we are all designers we all do it we all
do things that signify we want to create
a better future
every one of those acts we are designing
with acts of hope
whether we know it or not so when you do
things
like vote for a levy to build a new
school or library
or go to a community meeting and say to
a designer who you’re holding
accountable i want this for my kid’s
future
when you actively engage and participate
in your street from your balcony from
your stoop
from your porch for your community
those are acts of hope
so i ask these questions and i hope you
hear them a little different this time
what does design say about us
why should you care
what are the acts you’re doing each day
to make a difference
what do you hope for thank you