82. AITC: Resiliency, Adaptibility, and Architecture in a Recessive Economy with Rachel Minnery and Patrick MacLeamy

Original Drawing by Tori Haynes

“As architects, we have to step back and say, ‘well how do we get ourselves out of the disaster business and into more of the safety business?’ We need buildings in safe places that are built to withstand disaster.”

Rachel Minnery

This week we continue our ongoing miniseries Architecture in the Time of Coronavirus with two distinct discussions. The first conversation, with Rachel Minnery, AIA, asks what does it mean to plan in the face of unknowable risk? The second, with Patrick MacLeamy, former CEO of HOK, discusses the history and culture of HOK, the future of design firms in a changing world, and firm strategies during a recessive economy.

Timestamp Outline 

3:00    Rachel Minnery, Director of Environment Policy at the AIA and the Senior Director of Resilience, Adaptation, and Disaster Assistance at the AIA

5:45    How do you design communities so that they can withstand the shocks from natural disasters? How might we define resilient architecture?

6:20    Adaptation in architecture

12:00    There is a Hazard Mitigation Plan for every state and some big cities that look at the types of risks regions face, along with the probability of facing them and organizations conduct studies on what the impact of these hazards might be and the frequency that we might expect to see them occur

15:40    How do you plan for the unknown?    VP

23:18    What could we have done in architecture, urban planning, real estate, etc... in response to or in relation to the pandemic? What can architects do?    VP

24:50    What does it mean to live in a future where we are expecting more volatility in crises, epidemics

28:30    “Our buildings are almost accomplices in the transmission of the disease, to a certain extent...If we are able to get a better understanding of how the virus lives and spreads, this information will certainly influence all sorts of design decisions from materials to spacing.”    RM

30:00    regenerative design

36:20    Patrick MacLeamy, former CEO of HOK

37:19    What is the economic future of design firms?

49:00    HOK’s culture and history

52:00    How to make your firm recession-proof

58:00    Japanese Internment in the U.S. during WWII

1:00:00    Positive peer pressure and running towards trouble