{"id":70900,"date":"2020-11-06T11:52:19","date_gmt":"2020-11-06T16:52:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=70900"},"modified":"2025-10-17T18:28:48","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T22:28:48","slug":"architecture-directors-project","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/architecture-directors-project\/","title":{"rendered":"Carleton Architecture: Director’s Project Starts off Year of Tackling Social Justice Issues"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n
\n\n \n \n \n \n
\n\n
<\/div>\n \n
\n
\n\n

\n Carleton Architecture: Director's Project Starts off Year of Tackling Social Justice Issues\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

To engage with the burning social justice issues unfolding globally, the Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism<\/a> at Carleton is organizing, hosting and supporting several initiatives and events. The main event\u2014the Director\u2019s Project\u2014recently took place to celebrate the start of a new school year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Director\u2019s Project<\/a> is an annual seven-day drawing competition which takes place in the first week of the fall term. There are cash awards, including the traditional Murray & Murray Prize awarded to four students, along with critical discussions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year\u2019s Director\u2019s Project invited students to make a single drawing in response to the theme of, The Fierce Urgency of Now<\/em>, a phrase from Martin Luther King Jr.\u2019s speech in 1963.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\n

\u201cIn this paradoxical pandemic moment, we are physically isolated, yet feeling that urgency to join our voices together,\u201d wrote Azrieli School director, Jill Stoner<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The competition encouraged students to explore global themes such as systemic racism and inequality, climate change and public health through current events including the Black Lives Matter movement, displacement through war and conflict, and the unforeseen effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The drawing competition is mandatory for undergraduate and first-year master\u2019s students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than 400 students submitted their drawings in a variety of media. Subsequently, the school\u2019s studio instructors narrowed a shortlist which was then presented to an international jury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Members of the international jury represented South Africa, Lebanon, the United States and Canada, and included Tim Murray, a retired architect for whom the prize is named.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The jury met online to determine the winning illustrations and announced the results on a Zoom awards ceremony across 11 time zones.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Carleton<\/figure>\n\n\n

Defining 2020 in a Drawing<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOverall, creating the drawing was a very emotional experience,\u201d said Odessa Boehm, a fourth-year student and one of the Murray & Murray Prize winners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her drawing tells the story of 2020 through a \u201cbillowing smoke cloud,\u201d as Boehm described it.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\n

\u201cIt also expresses the ending of the old world with the hope for a new beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The black and white piece was an explosive yet balanced composition, as referred to by Murray. It had an intense and dense middle as elements \u201cescaped\u201d outwards onto the border.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Murray
Murray & Murray Prize winning submission by Odessa Boeham<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe drawing expresses the urgency for us as humans to not shut our eyes to the destruction and pain 2020 has brought,\u201d said Boehm. \u201cThoughts of the chaos, pain and destruction of the year were balanced with the hope for a new world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Odessa said this project taught her about the ability to draw to release emotions.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\n

\u201cI have never experienced this through a drawing before, and it helped me understand my thoughts and feelings about this past year a bit better,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Third-year student, Krisha Thakkar, also received the Murray & Murray Prize for her mixed media drawing focused on the racial segregation of churches and the idea behind the development of safer spaces for Black people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis topic of, The Fierce Urgency of Now<\/em>, has made me realize that oppression and social injustices are inscribed in every pillar of our society,\u201d Thakkar said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUnderstanding and recognizing these inequalities that are prevalent in every intersection of life is the first step in working towards ending these great disparities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Murray
Murray & Murray Prize winning submission by Krisha Thakkar<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The drawing uses layers and transparency to showcase the extended history of churches and race. The plan of the church is emphasized in a red axonometric drawing\u2014highlighting the idea that the church was seen as a fortress closed to Black people.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\n

\u201cI realized placing the figures outside the church was critical to highlighting the separation perpetuated by white-dominant spaces,\u201d Thakkar explained.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Thakkar said for her, The Fierce Urgency of Now<\/em> is about understanding the reasoning and history behind the creation of safer spaces for BIPOC people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To see this year\u2019s Director\u2019s Project drawing winners, visit the online gallery.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The competition included a poetry<\/a> portion where 50 students submitted poems in the fixed forms of Pantoum and Villanelle.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Carleton<\/figure>\n\n\n

Beyond Art<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year\u2019s critical intersection programming<\/a> at the Azrieli School goes beyond creating art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other initiatives to tackle the reckoning of social injustice issues of 2020 include efforts by student groups such as the October Diversity Working Group Workshops on well-being, mental health and public fora centred around diversity and inclusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Intersections\/Becoming: Urbanism and Conservation Colloquium is a daylong symposium that will address global inequalities and cover the overlaps between architecture and fields such as sociology, political theory, anthropology, gender and race studies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The full list of events can be viewed here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Carleton<\/figure>\n\n\n

Title image by Odessa Boeham
\nFirst wide image by Lara Sedele
\nSecond wide image by Aniko Nebozuk
\nThird wide image by Robert Oleksiak<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

—
\nMore Stories<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To engage with the burning social justice issues unfolding globally, the Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism at Carleton is organizing, hosting and supporting several initiatives and events. The main event\u2014the Director\u2019s Project\u2014recently took place to celebrate the start of a new school year. The Director\u2019s Project is an annual seven-day drawing competition which takes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":410,"featured_media":70904,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[13,1931],"cu_story_tag":[1918],"class_list":["post-70900","cu_story","type-cu_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cu_story_type-research-discovery","cu_story_type-social-innovation","cu_story_tag-faculty-of-engineering-and-design"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":"blueprint"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/70900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/410"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/70900\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98230,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/70900\/revisions\/98230"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=70900"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=70900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}