1st Edition
Architecture and Social Change Shaping an Impactful Practice
Introduction
Part I. Taking the Initiative
1. Rethinking Standard Practices
Jonathan Tate, OJT
2. Finding Opportunity in Excess
Ivi Diamantopoulou and Jaffer Kolb, New Affiliates
3. Prototyping Speculative Infrastructures
Tei Carpenter, Agency—Agency
4. Making Something Out of Nothing
Roger Sherman, Gensler
5. Radical Resourcefulness
David Barragán, Al Borde
Part II. Empowering Communities
6. Industry, Infrastructure, and the Public Interest
Marie Law Adams, Landing Studio
7. Debating Community Design Through Gameplay
Janette Kim, California College of the Arts
8. Prioritizing Design in Disadvantaged Communities
Germane Barnes, Studio Barnes
9. Participatory Design to Foster Inclusive Communities
Joana Dabaj, CatalyticAction
10. Advocating for Other Species
Joyce Hwang, Ants of the Prairie
Part III. Practicing with Purpose
11. Architecture as an Act of Engagement
Georgeen Theodore, Interboro
12. Care as a Core Value in Architecture
Paola Aguirre Serrano & Dennis Milam, Borderless Studio
13. Democratizing the Built Environment
Jae Shin, HECTOR
14. Building a Citizenship Culture
Teddy Cruz, Estudio Teddy Cruz + Fonna Forman
15. Converting Convictions into Practice
Dana Cuff, cityLAB
Biography
Brian Holland is assistant professor at the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design at the University of Arkansas, where he teaches courses on housing and urbanism. In his current research, Holland explores alternative frameworks for conceptualizing the architect’s agency in society.
‘Brian Holland’s new book opens up an urgent debate. Through 15 captivating interviews, Architecture and Social Change: Shaping an Impactful Practice takes on a range of knotty issues, from our accountability to communities and the natural environment to issues of design authorship and spatial justice….The 15 interviews can be understood as 15 sketches of alternative forms of practice that, despite all their inherent economic and systemic challenges, are already changing the lives of people around the globe. Architecture and Social Change embraces ethical and philosophical debate, but it is also full of pragmatism, illuminating in detail the methods and approaches that architects have taken to tackle the challenges of ordinary citizens.’
- Jan Kattein. Review of the book Architecture and Social Change: Shaping an Impactful Practice, edited by Brian Holland. Building Design, 30 May 2025.
