Woodbury School of Architecture (WSOA) is excited to announce the Year of Power. This year has two main aims to investigate the regulatory systems that underpin the built environment and to consider our ability as designers to create, influence, and even challenge these systems.
The Year of Power seeks to consider several fundamental questions:
Who possesses power and authority?
How is it acquired and administered?
How can we challenge or shift existing power structures?
Throughout the upcoming year, we will examine power dynamics, from the macrocosm of policies and societal norms to the realm of the classroom, coming together to consider new ways of teaching and learning.
From scrutinizing policies that define cityscapes to critiquing educational paradigms, we aim to provoke thought and foster constructive dialogue. Whether we contemplate the long-term effects of redlining in Los Angeles or rethink traditional pedagogical foundations, we strive to question how we teach, learn, and practice.
Central to the Year of Power is the notion that, as creators, we wield a unique form of power—the power to envision, design, and build. It reminds us that we can be part of a larger story, lending our skills to communities, sometimes leading, but also following, supporting, and always listening. Our responsibility as designers encompasses a commitment to enhance, innovate, and cultivate. It is our creative thinking and ability to solve complex problems that enable us to operate within power structures that may be inherently inequitable. We are strategic thinkers and creators equipped to impactfully collaborate and transform.
As we reconsider societal norms and industrial paradigms, we will also look inwards. The Year of Power encourages introspection—identifying and rectifying our practices and beliefs. Through this introspection, we hope to pave the way for personal and collective growth.
We hope to develop a deeper understanding of the power structures in which we live, but also the power we all have to stand and act, to create something, to realize that we do not require the permission of anyone but ourselves to do something, to make something. We each possess the agency to ignite change, create, and reshape our surroundings.
The Year of Power beckons us to recognize and acknowledge the frameworks that shape and govern the built environment and leverage such acknowledgment to embrace our boundless potential as change-makers.
We are looking forward to an exciting year of dialogue, innovation, and learning.
Last Updated on September 7, 2023.