Let’s design an equitable future
Our reimagining of museum design focused on the potential and measurable impacts of cultural and civic spaces. Three themes emerged from our collective insights.
Room for Everyone
This theme ties together issues relating to the emotional dynamics of space: awareness of spatial histories and embodied trauma; using space as an act of reparations; spaces designed for social cohesion; awareness of emotional needs of visitors; awareness of threshold barriers; metaphors embedded in design; storytelling; the restorative value of nature.
“Holding space for repair or reparation is a first step toward acknowledging the impacts of inequity and injustice. Architects design spaces that reflect spatial needs, but how might a design reflect the need for healing and create the conditions to hold painful truths? The answer must begin with a holistic approach to inclusive space, combining intentional design with programming to create a welcoming environment. A nonhierarchical design diminishes levels of power and allows for visual inclusivity. The programming can set common expectations of engagement and lead with active listening for community-led ideas. Don’t take criticism personally—it reflects the system.”
— Shalini Agrawal, Inclusive Design Charrette
“Over the past decade or so, we’ve shifted our programming as well as our audience-development goals at the Oakland Museum of California. We asked ourselves, What is our real social impact? We turned to social science research, and after a lot of conversation internally and with community members, we identified social cohesion as the critical issue we are uniquely poised to address. Now the experiences of our visitors have become our north star. We serve our community as a place of healing, and part of our reparation is to center the stories and experiences of people who have been most harmed and most marginalized. We are committed to doing this internally as well as in our programming and engagement with our community.”
— Lori Fogarty, Civic Hubs Charrette
Civic Continuum
This theme ties together issues relating to the social dynamics of space: challenging the typology of museums as hierarchical and authoritative; shifting from product to platform in order to dismantle hierarchies of consumptive culture; democratization of the ground floor; spatial solutions to community engagement; human centered design; libraries as non-judgmental spaces; culture as a vehicle for personal narrative and collective storytelling.
“We had a public engagement phase where Dr. Lonnie Bunch traveled the country listening to different audiences, asking, How do you want your story to be told? How should the National Museum of African American History and Culture address painful subjects? Their answers shaped the transparency of the content in the museum. Seeing the African American struggles documented and exhibited for the world to see is empowering. So is the site’s visibility. Open to view within 800 feet of the Washington Monument, the stories are there right in front of you. And by its relationship to the Monument and the other museums on the Mall, the museum is now part of iconic Washington, D.C.”
— Brenda Sanchez, Inclusive Design Charrette
“As a public institution, the museum’s charge is to serve the secular ‘we,’ which means multiple worldviews, arguments, and entanglements as well as deliberative processes that are just, respectful, and caring, grounded in democracy. The ‘sovereignty of context’ refers to how a site—or frameworks of thought or the conditions of life—generates the meaning that governs culture, community, and one’s relationship to the land. How we honor and affirm context and its localism in social movements and in social conditions engenders a communal sense of belonging.”
— Roberto Bedoya, Civic Hubs Charrette
“‘Sustained engagement’ means openness and comfort and new modes of ‘being’: break down hierarchical structures and take a more communal approach. Make your museum a place to do other things besides look at art, a central open place for the community. Show that artists are not defined by their work, but integral to society just by being who they are. Validate and serve the local community’s needs and wants. Be transparent with correspondence and decision making. Take the museum into the neighborhoods with pop-up spaces. Create pathways. Every time you participate, share the privilege with someone in the community.”
— Sharon Louden, Belonging Charrette
The Imperfect Present
This theme introduces the political dynamics of space: consideration of culturally determined systems of production; reinvestment in communities; equity ownership; space as a resource for power redistribution; reimagining the value of time (past, present, future); space as a container for future needs; consumptive culture.
“Recently I have been posing the question whether the typical design process, consisting of modest ethnographic research and a few engagement sessions, can enable the architect to grasp the complex relationships of the natural, physical, and social realities. Built form supports lifeways and rituals while offering ample inspiration for Indigenous futures, as centuries of learning exist in multiple biomes around the world (orientation, climate, building materials, construction techniques). Balkrishna Doshi’s solution, which we follow in our practice, centers on process. Process can reveal all the biological, cultural, social, economic, and political factors—the ‘cultural undercurrents’—that connect us to the ‘total environment.’”
— Wanda Dalla Costa, Inclusive Design Charrette
“I firmly believe that the presentation of cultural content should not be motivated by the desire to create and engage new audiences. Ironically, institutional mandates to capture new communities creates redundant, patronizing, and often uninspired programs. I advocate for programs that are counterintuitive, for example, small not-for-profits that foreground far-reaching global initiatives or community cultural centers that support rigorous scholarship. More experiments with institutional shape and reasoning are needed to achieve true cultural multiplicity.”
— Michelle Grabner, Belonging Charrette
“Truly seeing and hearing the community can mean addressing things that seem basic and un-innovative—fixing sidewalks, planting trees, creating even more surface parking lots—alongside more overtly innovative, unprecedented development. Building dozens of Black monuments and works of art throughout the public right of way and employing almost entirely local Black workers in locally growing fields are some of the many things Destination Crenshaw is doing in South LA to hear people while “keeping place.” The historical context of disinvestment in many Black neighborhoods in our nation can make the act of addressing seemingly basic needs revolutionary and seemingly vain projects basic.”
— Joanne Kim, Civic Hubs Charrette