Equity and diversity in architecture

This Focus Group was concerned with cultures and institutionalized patterns of equity and diversity within the field of the built environment, both in professional practice and in higher education. We aimed to show how (in)equalities are embedded, produced, and reproduced in architectural representations, discourses, norms, policies, curricula, and working regimes.

Focus Group: Rethinking Patterns of (In)equity and Diversity in Architectural Education and Professional Practice

Prof. Meike Schalk (KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm), Alumna Anna Boyksen Fellow | Prof. Dietrich Erben (TUM), Prof. Uta Graff (TUM), The Parity Board (TUM), Prof. Paula-Irene Villa Braslavsky (LMU), Collaborators | Host: Prof. Benedikt Boucsein (TUM)

(Image: Liv Løvetand)

We defined five areas of action: 1) diversifying research education through online courses; 2) strengthening the work of the TUM School of Engineering and Design’s Parity Board; 3) curriculum workshops; 4) gender research on professional practice; and 5) future European research collaboration on EDI (equality, diversity, and inclusion) and learning.

Diversifying research education in architecture

We developed an online, one-year-long program for doctoral training, Approaching Research Practice in Architecture, with the BauHow5 Alliance – TUM, Delft University of Technology, ETH Zurich, Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, University College London (UCL) – and the Swedish research school ResArc (KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Lund University). The program ran twice, 2020-2021 and 2021-2022, starting with an international workshop for doctoral candidates in October 2020 and 2021. Due to its accessibility, the online program could include doctoral candidates from universities in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. Broadening the participation made us review the standard Eurocentric references and rework literature lists, agendas, and research questions, making each module critical and meaningful for a more diverse group of 25-30 doctoral candidates. The program concluded with the publications “Species of Theses and Other Pieces” (2022) [1], and “Material Practices” (2023) [2]; the latter was also conceived as an exhibition and shown at AJA 2023, the annual exhibition of the TUM Department of Architecture (Fig.1).

Figure 1

Fig. 1, Approaching Research Practice in Architecture, a two-year-long research education program, concludes with its second publication and an exhibition at AJA 2023, Jahresausstellung, TUM Dept. of Architecture, 9-14 October 2023. © Isabel Mühlhaus

Parity Board and Parity Jour Fixes

The Focus Group is part of the Parity Board (PB) at the TUM School of Engineering and Design, an exemplary self-organized and student-led entity, which includes students as well as teaching and administrative staff on all levels. It works to strengthen gender equality, diversity, and equal opportunities by formulating aims, developing strategies, and critically monitoring the progress of the implementation of EDI policies. The PB organizes public Parity Jour Fixes that foreground structural discriminations within institutions and respond to and discuss actual issues at TUM. Public events include joint activities with similar groups at related architecture departments, i.e., in Switzerland, Austria, Sweden, and the USA. The PB also conducted a study visit to KTH in 2022 (Fig. 2).

Figure 2

Fig. 2, Parity Jour Fixe No. 29: Code of Conduct, at TUM Pavillon 333, on 21 July 2023. Workshop with staff and students of TUM Dept. of Architecture on equitable and sustainable working culture, with presentations by Torsten Lange, Uta Leconte and Meike Schalk, curated by the student initiative SOFT – School of Transformation. © Matthias Faul

Curriculum workshops

Two workshops on curriculum changes and learning were held in December 2021 with students, junior staff, and the invited guests, Ann Fontayne of ETH Zurich, Khensani de Klerk of Matri-Archi(tecture) and ETH Zurich, and Rosario Talevi (Floating University Berlin). The workshops led to the emergence of new networks among the students and the co-organization of the symposium Curriculum Comedy in October 2022. Twenty interviews were conducted with the symposium speakers on curricula and pedagogies in the face of climate and social justice crises to be published in the forthcoming Curriculum Report (2024) [3].

Gender equity in architectural practice research

The ongoing pilot research project Invisible Labor: Women Steering Large Architectural Firms (IL) is inspired by the TUM pilot research project Women in Architecture [4], which presented statistical data on gender gaps and experiences through interviews with women working within architecture in Germany. IL has gathered comparative Swedish data and conducted interviews with leading women architects in two of the largest Swedish architectural companies, which are predominantly led by women (59 %) [5]. The study asks how these equitable gender relations regarding status and income were made possible and where the Swedish model also fails. Based on the findings of the two studies, the Focus Group aims to develop a larger research application that goes beyond the category of gender equality to include intersectional perspectives on architectural labor and alternative professional practices.

Future research collaboration

The Focus Group collaborates with the BauHow5 EDI group in the research proposal Mapping and Intervening in Obstacles to Inclusive Built Environment Design and Education, which was submitted to Horizon Europe. It states that future learning needs to innovatively tackle intersecting obstructions to inclusive learning in the built environment sector to support students marginalized by inequalities, such as poverty, racism, LGBTQ+, mental health, or disability. The proposal extends from an understanding that built environment learning methods still predominantly privilege competitive behaviors and higher-income / educated familial backgrounds. This issue undermines the sector’s ability to create cohesive societies and respond effectively to critical challenges. The application proposes intervening through co-development, with students and staff, of inclusive learning resources to mitigate against discrimination. The aim is to prioritize EDI in the education of future generations of built environment designers to meet the complex societal and environmental challenges that shape our cities and communities.

The main aims of this Focus Group were to raise awareness of existing inequities in studies and practices of architecture and to address possible cultural and structural changes within the TUM Department of Architecture.

[1]
Schalk, M. et al. (2022).

[2]
Schalk, M. et al. (2023).

[3]
Schalk, M. et al. in press (2024).

[4]
Schuster, S. et al. Women in Architecture. Munich: Technical University Munich, Chair of Architectural Design and Timber Construction (2018).

[5]
Stjernberg, M. S. “Gender balance on architectural companies’ boards ”. Arkitekten (2019).
www.arkitekten.se/nyheter/sa-ar-konsfordelningen-i-arkitektforetagens-styrelser/

Selected publications

Schalk, M., Lange, T., Putz, A., Stevanovic, T. & Markus, E. Species of Theses and Other Pieces. Dimensions. Journal of Architectural Knowledge 2(3), 13-22, (2022). www.doi.org/10.14361/dak-2022-0302.
Schalk, M., Reisinger, K., Markus, E. & Leconte, U. Material Practices: Positionalities, Methodologies, Ethics. Munich: TUM School of Engineering and Design (2023). Publication and exhibition posters. Retrieved from https://mediatum.ub.tum.de/172572.
Schalk, M., Schmidt, J., & SOFT – School of Transformation (TUM). Curriculum Report. Munich: TUM School of Engineering and Design, in press (2024).
Schalk, M. Bredella, N., Hallama, D. & Lange, T. Frauen in großen Architekturburos. Figurationen von Gender. Berlin: TU Berlin University Press, in press (2024).

Full list of publications