To be an architect, it is often said, is to know something about everything. To lack full understanding of any one context, and yet be entitled to decide the direction in which a team should proceed. To feel at home in any space, physical or conceptual. To walk into a room, knowing little about the situation, and offer the advice to which all nod in assent.

To be an architect is to be a straight cisgendered man of means racialized as White in America.) We know that 78% of architects are men and 92% are White. And yet, when we decide something should be done, we too often concern ourselves with fitting more women, Black people and other people of color, and LGBTQIA folks into the identity of ‘architect.’

Round peg, square hole.

We must change the meaning of ‘architect’ to describe other ways of being in the world. to We must assess with clear eyes the hegemonic cultural Whiteness and cis straight maleness these statistics enforce in architectural practice, and the psychological damage these cultures can inflict on those who don’t fit into their standards - as well as on those who do.

Now we must insist our institutions be led by people gendered as female and identifying as nonbinary, people racialized as Black and other people of color. A vast range of spatial perception and experience, design creativity and practice, exists which we do not yet see represented in our work.

To be White, to be a man, to be an architect must be to recognize that we lack understanding of context, and that we will always be learning from it. To be White or to be a man and to be an architect should mean feeling uncomfortable in many spaces, and recognizing that such discomfort can signal growth. This is a personal journey as well as a professional one. We must be able to walk into a room, knowing little about the situation, listen in humility, learn from others’ experiences and play a role in collective forward movement.