Today begins a short series of guest writer appearances for cause of the week, each of whom has a role in the new book Expanding Architecture: Design as Activism. Published by Metropolis Books, they introduce the text as follows:

Expanding Architecture presents a new generation of creative design carried out in the service of the greater public and greater good. Questioning how design can improve daily lives, editors Bryan Bell and Katie Wakeford map an emerging geography of architectural activism that is rich in its diversity of approaches. More than thirty essays by practicing architects and designers, urban and community planners, landscape architects, environmental designers, and members of other fields present recent work from around the world that suggests the countless ways that design can address issues of social justice, allow individuals and communities to plan and celebrate their own lives, and serve a much larger percentage of the population than it has in the past.

Azure Magazine calls Expanding Architecture "the Barack Obama of books... a story about the change we need in the fields of architecture and urban design, professions that have lost their way, easily seduced by wealthy clients."

Co-editor Bryan Bell is our first guest to cause of the week. If you haven’t heard of Bryan you're probably not running in architecture circles or reading design magazines. He worked at the Rural Studio with Sambo Mockbee in the mid-80s, and has since led over a dozen of the design/build thesis projects including the Greensboro Children’s Center and the Mason’s Bend Community Center. He founded Design Corps in 1991 with the mission “to provide the benefits of architecture to those traditionally un-served by the profession.” He collaborates annually with a university or non-profit to produce the Structures for Inclusion conference which exposes new professionals to alternative forms of community-based and socially-conscious practice. SFI 9 will be in Dallas this March. (I worked with Bryan on SFI 7 in Charlotte). Finally, an interview with Bryan can be found by clicking here.

In addition to his entry that follows, Bryan suggests two courses of easy action.

1. Go to change.org and vote for his suggestions regarding sustainable policy (and to see a lot of other great activist work in progress).

and

2. Get the latest info on SFI 9 in Dallas and go to the conference to join the chorus of voices discussing progressive forms of conscientious practice.

And I will add a third, taken directly from his text that follows. Consider your vision of yourself, of how you practice in this world and what you hope that practice will contribute (and I mean 'practice' in the largest sense of the word). Lead as an activist and an advocate, regardless of your task at hand.

A big thank you to Bryan for kicking this off. Here is Bryan Bell's entry for cause of the week:

Architecture has so much unrealized potential.

The benefits of design could do so much more for so many more.

Design can play a role in addressing the most critical social, economic and environmental issues that we face.

Architects have been absorbed in what we can accomplish technically, structurally, and aesthetically. We have recently made great progress in what we can accomplish environmentally. Where we have failed, is to show what we can accomplish socially and economically.

The process of creating can allow communities and individuals to define and celebrate their lives. It can also help solve their struggles by reshaping their existence, recovering from disasters as well as meeting day-to-day challenges. This is an exciting time, not just for designers but for everyone who can potentially benefit from our greater role.

The expansion of design is a transformation of our identity, not just our vision of ourselves but a transformation in the collective consciousness of how design can make a positive difference in the world today.

This is not something proposed for the future, a master plan hatched in a few minds. It is already happening with real projects helping real people, face to face encounters on the streets and in the fields. Some are large and many are quite small. We have documented these In 30 essays, capturing a shared spirit and best practices while not limiting the richness of the great diversity of the work.

This expansion is happening in three ways:

• serving more of the public
• taking on a greater scope of issues
• offering a greater range of services

The first expansion –- serving a larger segment of the public -- has gained attention recently: that the current practice of design serves only the few, the elite, the wealthy and the powerful. I have used the statistic that 98% of new home buyers work without architects. Paul Pollack suggested the term the Cooper Hewitt used for it’s show that 90% of the world's designers focus on only 10% of the world’s population. But regardless of the statistic, the point is being made. That design could serve more.

The second expansion is design taking on a greater range of issues. Perhaps the worst limit we currently have is what is seen as design-related issues. We have limited ourselves by this narrow definition and we must ask the question again: what are design issues?

The third way this expansion is happening is in providing a wider range of services and approaches. As we embrace these new roles, we become activists engaging in action for the public good. And as the definition of activism suggests, we take intentional actions to bring about positive change. We can become activists in so many ways. I’d like to highlight a few of these mechanisms from examples in the book.

This work doesn’t have to be in another country, cost a lot, or take a major commitment. It can take place as equally through a guerrilla group of artists in Croatia or in a New York neighborhood. It can be a life-time commitment or a quick weekend project using salvaged materials. Lest anything here seem overwhelming, just remember that helping others through design is the goal and can be simple.

The concept of Expanding Architecture, of expanding all the design professions, is to move from our current limited role and realize our greater potential. We need to change our vision of ourselves first, in the goals we set for ourselves. Only then can we hope to change the public perception of what we can contribute. As these projects show, this is happening. The collective consciousness of designers role is changing, both for the professions and of the public, giving us not just an opportunity to do some good work, but to make a permanent change in our collective future.

We need to fix this idea into the collective consciousness of the general public. This is not going to happen by supernatural forces. It will only happen by many being activists; being advocates.
What we hope is that this is moving from the margins of practice to the mainstream of practice, where the needed resources and energy are available.

Our potential is waiting to be realized.

The need is undeniable.

The only thing stopping us, is us.

Now is the time to show what we can do.

USAService.org - Renew America Together.

Yes, some people may be sick of Obama hype (is it possible??), but as long as his vision and my vision keep colliding like magnetic balls (and probably even way past that), I'll be here spreading the good word. The latest effort from Obamaland is Monday's Day of Service. Hard to believe it took more than 40 years and a revolutionary election for our country as a whole to be ready to live up to this call in what I imagine will be record numbers. Of course, isn't this exactly why it was a revolutionary election in the first place? Because we have come to our common senses and recognized not just our hope, but our responsibility in creating it? Coretta must be smiling as the day she worked so hard to get on the calendar is finally growing to represent the mission of the man it was intended to remember. Once again, Obama central has used the internet to make it easy for us to both find and post events where we can make individual choices that contribute to the collective call. Click here and choose something within five miles of your house or fifty to devote your time to your choice of posted worthy causes. Thanks, OTeam, for doing the work on this one.

Next week we're staring a guest writer series that I'm super excited about. Stay tuned.

Yes PeCan! and A Good Hard Kick.

Sometimes a good cause is simply so good that it is effortless to take action. This one was brought to my attention through a facebook post (thanks, Marty!) and wins the creative capitalism prize for do-gooders and ice cream lovers. Reported by the Huffington Post, Ben & Jerry's will donate the proceeds from every scoop of 'Yes PeCan' ice cream sold in the month of January to the Common Cause Education Fund. And if that isn't enough, if you join common cause or donate a dollar to the Common Cause Education Fund, they will match your dollar with a dollar of their own. See the Ben & Jerry's or the Common Cause website for more information.

And even if ice cream isn't your thing, Common Cause is worth checking out. It's a "nonpartisan, nonprofit advocacy organization...committed to honest, open and accountable government, as well as encouraging citizen participation in democracy." In addition to a national coalition, they support 36 state organizations and several city-scale branches that organize local activities devoted to government accountability and ethics. Broadly, their causes include: election reform, government accountability (including 'watchdogging the bailout'!!), ethics in government, and media and democracy. Check out their website for the political cause that fits your personal activism, or just eat more ice cream. (As if I needed another excuse!)

Secondly, I have to mention that this week's People magazine (January 12th - 19th) has a fantastic five page article on Street Soccer USA, the homeless soccer league born in Charlotte by my friend Lawrence Cann. Some of you may know the 'converted soup-kitchen parking lot' they refer to in the article as our very own ARTPARK. If you're waiting in line at the grocery store with your cart full of Yes PeCan, be sure to pick it up and take a look, pages 50 to 54 (sandwiched like Oreo filling between Oprah's weight frustration and women now half their size!).

And, oh my gosh, congratulations to Robby Johnston for being the first of his cohort (and maybe the first of my former students?) to become a registered architect! I know you take into that heady responsibility a commitment to be a conscientious leader in forming a more beautiful, meaningful, and thought-provoking world. As you have always championed, life is too short and our worlds too small for mediocrity.

So much more to come in the next few weeks. Thanks for all the encouragement, and all of your own small actions. Happy 79 degrees and sunny in LA this January.

Design Resolutions

Last week the common cause was family. Sometimes that's all the work - and joy - we can each handle.

This week I'm acting as easy facilitator and passing on the annual update from one of the few architecture-based organizations borne of the dearth of design activism. An organization that was founded just under a decade ago, Architecture for Humanity continues to grow in size and influence by supporting branch chapters and global initiatives. December 27th - apparently a boxing day tradition - they posted their 'Year in Review'. Take a look at their latest accomplishments by clicking here. They also include the user friendly post 'Ten Ways to Give'. Though many of the ten are variations of a 'donate to AfH now' theme (a worthy cause), my favorite is #5, give your staff a sabbatical. If anything is true about architects, it's that we work too hard for too little money and often in the name of sacrifice and adoration of the art of making. So, regardless of your field, if you have yet to incorporate opportunities for volunteerism into the schedule of your staff, make 2009 the year to do so. If you are the staff, then maybe it's time for a grassroots suggestion. If you're willing to do a short term commitment sans salary, then you may also be donating a small bit to the survival of your own office. From all I have read, the reward in spirit revitalization and gratitude with a side effect of employee loyalty, heightened morale and new knowledge is well worth the perceivable inefficiency. It might be one day a month - time to paint a room or two, clean a park, build a ramp - or the chance to pool those days into weeks, even months, over the life of a single job. Imagine a client/office volunteer collaboration, where the way you really get to know their tastes and needs and earn their trust is through a tangible and shared commitment to a better environment. Six hours, or 6 months, no effort is wasted.

AfH also asks for your Design Resolutions. Reading the list is both inspiring and dispiriting. So many designers are stifled by the limitations of low expectations. I send good karma to everyone who is vowing to inject design back into their lives and the lives of their clients, family, friends, and unsuspecting strangers. The latter is my Design Resolution, to be produced and implemented through my course this semester at Otis College of Art & Design. This week, this year, how do you design a better world?