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Tiffany Brown, who uses #DetroitMadeMe on a bio page, is a self-described "proud 'free lunch' kid" who went on to earn three degrees at Lawrence Technological University in Southfield.
While moving into a career as an architect, she's making an impact through two programs aimed at attracting more women and African Americans into the field. During Detroit's second annual City of Design Summit in September, she was on a panel that discussed "Decolonizing Design and Diversifying the Design Profession."
A student watches Tiffany Brown's video from a Hip-Hop Architecture Camp in Los Angeles.
One of Brown's initiatives, 400 Forward, last week was announced as a winner of the 2017 Detroit Knight Arts Challenge. The name refers to the fact that only 400 African American women have become licensed architects.
Through that $50,000 challenge grant (which requires matching funds) and as a co-founder of the Urban Arts Collective here, Brown and partners expose students across the country to careers in construction, architecture and design.
The collective's main focus is a Hip-Hop Architecture Camp for middle school and high school students in Detroit, Atlanta, Austin, Houston, New York and three California cities -- Los Angeles, Oakland and Richmond. The programs, which run two to four days, "use hip-hop culture as a catalyst to introduce underrepresented youth to architecture, urban planning and design," the website says. (See video below.)
Brown recently discussed the camps in an interview with Trilby Beresford of Los Angeles for Smart Girls, a site set up by entertainer Amy Poehler and producer Meredith Walker. Excerpts:
♦ Diversity: "The lack of effort in ensuring diversity in architecture is deeply rooted. Architecture has always been a white male-dominated field. Women represent about 17% of licensed architects in this country. African Americans represent 2%. Black women represent .3%, having recently reached 400 licensed architects this past August. The percentages are even less for Hispanics and Native Americans. I believe it has been overlooked simply because diversity was not a top priority to those communities."
Tiffany Brown: "Diversity was not a top priority."
♦ Obstacles: "Our inner cities lack mentors and access to higher education. The entire process is littered with obstacles. That’s why programs like Mike Ford’s Hip Hop Architecture Camps are necessary and important."
♦ Clients' influence: "As today’s clients demand more diverse teams, the profession has started seeking out ways to solve the problem of diversity, equity and inclusion. Most of these efforts begin with our youth."
♦ Hip-hop camps: "They learn about urban planning as they collectively explore and create the needs of a safe, inclusive community. They are exposed to 3D printing and STEM skills like 3D design through Autodesk Tinkercad, a free web-based tool for creating 3D designs using primitive shapes.
"They also learn about creative writing with the '16 Bars' exercise, where campers create their own rap verse that talks about the hip-hop city they created and the vision for their community."
Brown and Southern California students are in this four-minute video taped last summer at a Hip-Hop Architecture Camp at Los Angeles Trade Technical College:
