Linda Bennett of Archi-ninja asked us to contribute to her collection of New Year Resolutions from architectural bloggers. We were delighted to participate.
You can read our thoughts below, and find the whole set of resolutions on Archininja.
2014 is going to be a busy year for Parlour: women, equity, architecture. The larger research project which gave rise to the website will be completed by the end of 2014, and over the course of the year we will disseminate extensive evidence of the need for change in the profession. This will be complemented by material and resources aimed at helping architecture become fairer, more equitable and stronger.
It has been an amazing ride so far – we have been heartened by the support the project has received, and thrilled to be an important part of the international push for gender equity in architecture. We have heard some very sad stories and some quite incredible ones, but perhaps more importantly, we have collected a large body of material that helps us all understand the (widely varying) everyday circumstances of women in architecture.
2014 will also be a turning point for Parlour. With the research project coming to an end it is also time to ask “what next?” What new roles might Parlour take up, and how will we fund this? Of course our research is but one part of a very long project for change – a project that has many players and was underway decades before we took on our particular bit, and that will continue far into the future. But we don’t think Parlour has run its full course yet.
We ended 2013 with the exciting news that the Australian Institute of Architects had developed and approved its first Gender Equity Policy. We hope that 2014 will be full of more signs that the profession is embracing the need for change and is actively pursuing it.
