Lindsay Harkema: Affirmative Practices — Spatial Transformation Through Divergence and Multiplicity
Thomas J. Baird Visiting Critic Lecture
Abstract
Complementary to the option studio Affirmative Architectures she is currently teaching this semester, Thomas Baird Visiting Critic Lindsay Harkema will share her independent and collaborative work in a lecture titled "Affirmative Practices." The "curb cut effect" describes how design for specific needs and identities creates spatial conditions that benefit and enhance experiences for everyone. Rather than a one-size-fits-all approach, affirmative practices aim to foster multiplicity and choice in the built environment and seek transformation through divergence from conventional norms. Reflecting on these aims, Harkema offers examples from her own spatial research and design practice, including built works by WIP Collaborative, a shared feminist practice of independent professionals of which Harkema is a cofounding member.
Biography
Lindsay Harkema is a licensed architect, educator, founder of WIP: Work In Progress | Women In Practice, and founding member of the WIP Collaborative, a shared feminist practice of independent design professionals based in New York City. Her design, research, and teaching projects center equity in the public realm and engage spaces that deviate from their surroundings, creating opportunities for positive change. She is the Thomas Baird Visiting Critic in Architecture at Cornell University for fall 2023 and also teaches at The City College of New York and Barnard College.