What are your values?

Who are you in your biography? Are you your accomplishments? Are you a string of adjectives describing hire-able qualities?

In the Spring of 2023, I wrote a biography of myself at the beginning of the semester, and one at the end. ~ ~ The Difference Is Shocking~ ~

February 2023.

Buildings tell stories of protection, joy, and growth, but they implicitly recite journeys of oppression, injustice, and exploitation. In light of systemic inequities in cityscapes and the urgent action for countering exploitative design and surfacing erased voices, architecture has the power to repair stigmatized relationships and buoy minority cultures. The activist architect embodies compassion and curious intuition as guiding principles; this is Catherine’s ambition in design.

Catherine Wang is a graduate student at RISD pursuing a Masters of Architecture. Previously, she graduated from UC Berkeley in 2022, where she earned her BA in Architecture with a Minor in Environmental Design and Urbanism in Developing Countries— concentration in Latin America. At Berkeley, she founded a NOMAS chapter and led the organization to host design workshops at local high schools, monthly seminars of activist representation, wellness discussions among students and reports to the Dean, and more. Today, Catherine is discovering her role in architecture as activism, desiring ways to expand the definitions of the architect.

As a graduate student, she finds herself at a crossroads. Through an introductory fall experience, she sought courses outside of architecture that surfaced some frustrations with the design practice. As an aspiring activist architect, she has always questioned the utility of the architectural practice as a means to challenge the capacity of the architect’s voice and the unheard implications of their projects; however, she is currently unsure whether architecture would even be an appropriate avenue for these interventions. The conventional practice is additive— building new things, renovating the old into the new, displacing the old with the new— so how can an additive industry be productive and challenging towards systemic inequities where the immediate symptoms of oppression are deeply entrenched in historical and ongoing complexities? Are there ways for architecture to be subtractive, or are there separate modes of practice with a better-fitting infrastructure?

Catherine is seeking experiences that will challenge her perspective of social architectural interventions and their foundations that fostered them. Whether it be architectural or urban design, corporate or grassroot conventions, she is looking for guidance of sensitive architecture— architecture that is unafraid to be political and open to be challenged. Social activists fight for the unheard, oppressed voices-- this service is no different to architects. 

Today, Catherine is eager to find her niche in the design field and apply her development in ways she believes to be productive. She wants to become an activist, an architect, or wherever her intentions lead her– at the end of the day, she will be a responder, a challenger, and a designer.

That was fine, right? Clearly, Catherine here is trying very hard to establish what kind of designer she wants to be, all while catering to what future employers may want to hear. It’s confusing, even a bit misleading as to what really matters.

So… What Matters?

May 2023.

Cath describes herself as an “Aspiring Activist Architect,” and she has been for the past year. But does Cath Wang see herself as an “activist architect” years into the future? Does Cath Wang know what an “activist architect” is? She thought she did… She had certain criticisms of activist architectural precedents, certain opinions of architects who’ve pursued activist design, certain directions as to what kind of architect she doesn’t want to be. Does Cath have a definition of an “activist architect?” No. Has she been speaking out of her ass all this time? Perhaps, to some extent. Is an “activist architect” the accurate term for what she seeks? Not anymore, she thinks.

Activism is something that cannot be expected, designed, controlled, owned, or demanded. Nor are those additional buzzword themes popular in architecture, such as sustainability, community, innovation, etc. A process towards design must be worked for and worked through, and the same goes for the process towards understanding what really matters to the designer. When centering a practice, the practitioner must work their values. It’s funny, because when Cath thought she was an “Aspiring Activist Architect,” she found hypocrisy between her intentions and her outlined career. Through seeking unconventional paths, being told that architecture is not correct (“if you want to change the world, go become a lawyer, a doctor, a legislator…”), assured that the path she’s looking for must be individually forged— Cath has never been more unsure and elated with her future. Cath is happy that she has no idea what she’s doing. 

Cath does take pride in her laundry list of experiences that she’d happily type out with glee. Looking back, these instances seem to be glorious products of work and intellect. But actually, they’ve been earned with tears and compensated by a self-degrading-deprecating lifestyle. But Cath is happy today— happy that her future is finally set in being unknown.

That’s better… for now I guess.