Places and Spaces and the Behavior They Create | Damaris Hollingsworth | TEDxMinneapolis

I am an architect who experienced a space that changed me forever, that happens when a space is intentionally designed to impact people in a positive way. I remember being seven years old and meeting my parents in the kitchen when this young woman walked in, she was powerful. She was strong, she was beautiful, she was very eloquent, she was the boss and that's why I immediately wanted to be like her. I asked my parents who was an architect and

they

said I had no idea what an architect was, but that didn't matter because what? What she wanted was to grow up to be as powerful, strong and intelligent as her.

I told my parents about my aspirations and my dad's response was that to be an architect I had to go to university and university was not for people like us, you know? Even if it's a little, you know that what he said in one year and the next didn't work because he was trying to tell me that I couldn't have what I wanted. I was 7 years old, then I'm 41 now and Look, it's hard for you not to understand, no, fifteen years later I was admitted to the School of Architecture and Urban Planning of the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, and how do

they

say, the FAU was and continues to be one of the best schools of architecture and urban planning. planning in the world When my dad told me that universities were not for people like us, he meant that they were too expensive for low-income, working-class families like ours.

Well, FAU is free, that meant we could afford it. Here is the trick, the selection process to enter. That school is very difficult, which benefits the children who go to the best private schools in the country. I didn't get in, but after three tests, it was at school that I realized that this world I had just fought so hard to get into was not where I belonged. I was four years older than all the other students. I had to work at work. full time when everyone else was going to school I had to learn to read in languages ​​other than my native Portuguese those were constant reminders that my background did not prepare me for university or even for a conversation with my classmates and my teachers, their feeling Not belonging bothered me almost every day, so what did I try to do?

Hide, of course, I wanted a safe cocoon to get away from all interactions, so I did that. I don't have to feel so stupid all the time, but I ran into a problem while trying to hide this beautiful building designed by Brazilian architect Vilanova Artigas. It has very few four walls. It barely has doors. Anyone can walk in walkable

spaces

without barriers. It was intentionally designed to bring peace and promote bonding interaction and exchange of ideas. I couldn't just hide behind four walls in a closed door, so there I was sitting in the library courtyard trying to pretend like I didn't care. all the people around me, but I couldn't help but listen to their conversations and they were talking about the same textbook I was trying to read, they had actually been there, in the

places

I was learning in Europe, no wonder They had such a deep understanding.

I thought about those privileged kids and it bothered me, but it wasn't long until I realized that I was actually enjoying listening to the conversations they forced me into. He was even paying more attention to the heat and even smiled at some. something someone said and before I knew it I was socializing I was interacting I was making friends friends I feel very dear to my heart a building design with intentionality will actually do what it is intended to do even when humans hint at me they try to hide and put up from the walls a building designed to provide togetherness, believer, to be honest, I experienced that and that building changed me forever.

I learned that if I can see beyond all the mess of the social economy, it is a racial intelligentsia of the city. I see the human being. I see our commonalities then the rest really is just disorder this building taught me that having an experience on early Earth from my upbringing left a mark on me and to this day when I am designing a building, a campus or an environment From Reuben, I always have that goal to

create

interaction

create

engagement create community one of my greatest achievements as a designer is the international pavilion at Northern Arizona University this is a great example of how culturally responsive design will create community at the initial meeting of designers that the rector challenged us to create a building that recognized and spoke to our domestic and foreign students this building was to promote engagement and exchange just like my square with you was supposed to deliver incense that I have been longing for but we were also told that we couldn't use any flags because they were too predictable so I'm thinking how can I fake a talk about a building how can I make a building interact and involve architects and designers window well how to create a series of

spaces

that promote engagement and interactions We call that a program but the building was supposed to do that to interact and participate half an hour later I knew exactly how so I proposed how about the words, my team looked at me confused of course so I explained that every language has words that cannot be translated word for word. need to be explained through conversation, the foreign people in the room immediately became very excited, it was a very fun moment.

I wanted the untranslatable words to be placed throughout the building from inside and outside. The bottom of the double words was supposed to involve the The student creates the sense of identity and promotes sharing. The American word we chose was serendipity, meaning that there are currents in the development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way, which is exactly what the words were supposed to do in the building and At the grand opening, they he could hear and see the students happily walking around the building finding their words and once they found them they had to announce it and tell the new friends what they wanted to say.

Alternative words caused a set of walls to do exactly what they are supposed to promote integration exchange created a community so why aren't our

places

and spaces designed to bring out the best in human beings? who will occupy them? Why are there no places in space? is designed to make people feel comfortable with each other and themselves more developers, designers and builders fall short is that the short-term gains tend to outweigh the impact on people pun intended the current model the current model sees things like cultural sensitivity, happiness, connection to a space and Kunis as soft characteristics that cannot be easily quantified and that perception is wrong as much as we would like to think that we have evolved a lot the truth is that we all crave that feeling of belonging that feeling makes us happy when we find it we find a home we stop looking we protect that and we create roots in a community for employers and investors, which means return on their investment, focusing on people really pays for itself quite well, let's look at this graph, people is where you spend most of your money, developing and maintaining them is by far your biggest return on investment (ROI) at least ten times more than any building they give you.

This is how every astronaut who ever returned from the moon has said it. If every person gained this perspective, it would change all of us when my own house-to-house search was tiring me out. It was two years ago, about 18 years after my experience at FAU and I was a CEO in that search for a place where I felt like I belonged and I was torn between opening my own practice or joining the companies where I work now. I was invited into the office for a panel interview and sat in the conference room for a couple of minutes before a large group came in.

I was surprised when I was introduced as the executive team. Our surprise because our executive team looks like this and I was. Accustomed to executive teams looking more like this, it took me a few seconds to compose myself and I realized that as each of them introduced themselves and told me about their work, I realized how good I felt in that place. , I thought, wow, this is how why people feel comfortable all the time around people who look like you, people who you can identify with in more ways than one, this is how it feels and I'm not going to lie, I liked it, I really liked it, I didn't care about the title since they were going to offer me, I wanted to be part of that group because I completely identified with them and that made me feel like I belonged there, but no matter how much people gave me that great sense of belonging is also about building a A few months later I began to realize that the excitement and that good feeling that was being eroded by too many sick days due to poor air quality, my creativity was being reduced due to the monotony of space and productivity was compromised.

Too much workspace and workflow. That's why we have to combine both. We need our places to be spaces designed and built in a way that encourages people to be and feel their best selves. We need places in spaces that inspire healing. Create a community. What if our places? and the spaces could positively impact a 47-year-old man, an 11-year-old boy, and a 41-year-old woman. Imagine this 47-year-old man. His only idea of ​​hope in north Minneapolis was the McDonald's on the corner of Penn in Plymouth when it closed washed the The empty corner seat for decades was overlooked.

He is considered equal to the community around him and now, thanks to a community developer, he sits proudly as CFO of the company that owns the beautiful building on that same corner. He imagined his 11-year-old son was a black boy. and he's helping his father with the family moving company and as he moves some chairs and boxes, he realizes that the conference rooms are named after African American inflation, it's rude of him to look past them and He notices a well-dressed black woman behind a desk and a suit. black man in a private office, so he asked who worked here, who owned this place when he realized that black people in that place worked there, he was filled with enthusiasm and now his mind was awake to his own possibilities, all thanks to a designer who understands the Value in the power of recognizing the culture of the people who occupy and visit this space.

Now imagine this 41-year-old woman reconnecting with that sense of belonging that made me choose this company in the first place, but now revitalized by the vibrant colors they have. There is not as much lighting, the workspace is open and flexible, the cultural relevance of the environment now combined with the intentionality of this design has allowed me to reach my full potential as a boss when our built environment impacts the individual, individuals will become collaborators clue. For community building, healthy and imbalanced communities are the key to healing the wounds of our cities. My CEO describes community as when people intentionally behave as if they belong together, many of our spaces did not suppress them, did not segregate them, but caused people to feel and behave as a community.

Every built environment tells and creates stories. They have an impact. Each space does something that we need to make sure it's right. Thank you.