Design Justice

The study of spaces and how they affect behavior and represent issues of justice and equality in society is the focus of the Design Justice in Architecture Creative Inquiry project led by Clarissa Mendez, a senior lecturer in the School of Architecture. To inform their work, the Creative Inquiry team analyzes case studies of institutional racism and social inequities in built environments throughout history, including archetypes such as prisons, school systems, medical systems, museums and political spaces. The students discuss and reconsider how these types of spaces can better serve and maintain justice.

Analyses and discussions of case studies magnify the sheer weight and complexities of these issues. For instance, the Sofi Stadium and Los Angeles California Museum of Art (LACMA) case studies revealed that in a quest to develop tourism, the state grew a disparity gap between the upper class and impoverished groups. Both LACMA and Sofi Stadium were built in low-income areas. The Sofi Stadium caused the cost of living in the surrounding areas to skyrocket, displacing people whose home values increased faster than they could afford. Similarly, the cost of entry to LACMA is so high that local families, especially the many that are homeless or low income, cannot afford to experience this museum in their hometown.

Each discussion is led by a student, but all the students come away with a broadened understanding of the issues surrounding justice and equality in architecture. “Every discussion reveals more of the picture: there’s an issue between race and architecture. It affects more people than I imagined,” Angie Mendoza, a junior architecture major, says. These discussions impact how the architecture students think about design, not only in class but as it pertains to their future careers.

One case study hit particularly close to home for the Creative Inquiry team. “The Village” proposal in Greenville, SC, aims to rename the historically black neighborhood of West Greenville to match the aesthetic of the Center for Creative Arts. In an interview with a family that has lived in West Greenville for three generations, Melissa Ricaurte Munzo, a senior architecture major, found that this family was unaware of the city’s plans to rename and reconstruct West Greenville. The “necessary evil of gentrification,” as this family calls it, is serving to grow the city’s identity but is neglecting its citizens in the process of development.

This spring, the Creative Inquiry team disseminated their work while collaborating with an architecture class, the Invisible Studio. They created an interactive exhibit for the Clemson Chapter of the National Organization of Minority Architecture Students (cNOMAS) Conference (March 17-20, 2022) at Clemson’s Design Center in Charleston, SC).  The theme of the conference was “Addressing Erasure: Designing our Future” and the exhibit, “W’all,” served as a vessel for dialogue about injustices within the built environment. Post-conference, the “W’all” is on exhibit and open for public interactions in the area between the architecture buildings, Lee II and Lee III, on the Clemson campus.