Architects with Pride is a non-profit organization bringing together members of the LGBTIQ+ community in the built environment industry to celebrate the 2023 World Pride and Mardi Gras festival.
This February, the organization has curated a comprehensive program of events, from panel discussions to social dances, to promote inclusion and diversity in the built environment profession ahead of Sydney World Pride.
In 2023, World Pride will be held in February/March to coincide with the Sydney Mardi Gras festival. This is the first time World Pride has been moved out of its regular June/July schedule, which aligns with the summer season in the northern hemisphere.
Adam Haddow, incoming president of the Australian Institute of Architects’ NSW chapter and SJB director, and Ben Peake, design director at Carter Williamson, are two founding members of Architects with Pride.
“The intent in establishing Architects with Pride was to collect all the things that happen in the LGBTIQ+ community in the built environment under one banner, so it’s easier to know what’s going on,” said Haddow, a long-term member of the Champions of Change Architecture Group and an advocate for greater representation within the industry. “We have a diverse industry – it’s just about owning it. We’re not an industry that necessarily wears its diversity on its sleeve.”
Architects with Pride debuted in the Mardi Gras parade in 2022 and, as far as the organizers are aware, theirs was the first architectural group ever to take part. Today, the group has 16 contributing organizations, including 13 practices, the NSW Gender Equity Taskforce, the Australian Institute of Architects, and the young architects’ network EmAGN.
“We’ve been taken a bit by surprise. It’s been taken up with a lot more vigour than we thought it was going to be,” said Haddow.
Peake forecasts that World Pride may be one of the biggest things to happen to Sydney since the 2000 Summer Olympics. “We’re expecting a number of global visitors, and people from interstate as well,” he said. “In the parade, numbers are limited. But the shoulder events are a way that we can reach out and have as many people involved in World Pride as possible.”
2023 Sydney Mardi Gras will run from Friday 17 February to Sunday 5 March, and Architects with Pride will be marching in the parade on Saturday 25 February.
Architects with Pride is sponsored by DKO, Design Inc, Carter Williamson, NSW Gender Equity Taskforce, Grimshaw, Bates Smart, SJB, Heim, Peddle Thorp, BVN, Cox, EmAGN, Turner, Hassell, Geyer, and the Australian Institute of Architects.
See Architects with Pride’s full February calendar below.
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Courtesy of Architects with Pride
The Architects Ball
On Thursday 16 February, the Architects Ball, presented by the Architects with Pride collective, brings together Australia’s queer design community for a night of celebration at Pleasures Playhouse in Sydney. Tickets are $25 each and free for First Nations and trans-women of colour. Book here.
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Courtesy of Architects with Pride
Queer Careers
On Tuesday 21 February, Architects with Pride will host “Queer Career – conversations on the design profession”: a discussion with a panel of built environment professionals on the subject of diversity in their professions and their strategies for challenging space-making for greater inclusivity. Panellists include Brahman Perera, Lucian Hicks and Stephen Todd, and the talk will be moderated by Anna Brown, chief executive of Equality Australia. Tickets are $15 each and free for First Nations and trans-women of colour. Book here.
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Courtesy of Architects with Pride
Love Letters to Queer Space
On Wednesday 22 February, “Love Letters to Queer Space,” 16 of Australia’s most diverse design practitioners will present in a fast-paced, Pecha Kucha-style format. The panel will look at the architecture of desire, from gay beats to churches, and ask: What does queer space look like today? Tickets are $15 each and free for First Nations and trans-women of colour. Book here.
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Courtesy of Architects with Pride
Queer Space: In Conversation
On Thursday 23 February, Architects with Pride will host a discussion between the Australian Institute of Architects’ newly announced chief executive Cameron Bruhn with RMIT professor, architectural academic and author Naomi Stead, on the subject of Stead’s forthcoming book, Queering Architecture: Methods, Practices, Spaces, Pedagogies. “Queer Space: In Conversation” will take place in the home of architecture in New South Wales: Tusculum House in Potts Point. Book here.
For more information visit the Architects with Pride and the Sydney World Pride websites.
Source: Architecture - architectureau
