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INSIGHTS Heights and Hills © Frederick Tang Architecture
four days a week, and following a “slight delay” from Omicron, they are back on track, says Khanani.
Conscious values Khanani’s approach to running a design studio is directly informed by her experience and awareness of gender and racial inequalities. “Being a woman and a person of colour has influenced how I run the firm, as both are underrepresented in the industry and often not given the same credence as others, namely white men.” She adds: “This has driven me to try to create an environment where everyone can feel supported and gain confidence in their own practice.”
Asked how the practice supports inclusivity both within its walls and in the wider profession, she points to the fact the firm, despite being small, is a “majority non-white, non-male team.” She adds that being founded by a woman of colour marks the practice out as a rarity.
“I believe for most people and especially those of us who are underrepresented, you are drawn to others with whom you share race, culture, language, etc. In the early years of my career, it was rare to see another woman of colour in a firm and so one never really quite knows where you stand in an environment like that.” She says in light of this, it’s rewarding to be leading a diverse, but also nurturing practice: “Running a firm is not easy, but one thing that keeps me going is the potential of providing someone with a place where they can thrive and feel comfortable because they aren’t the anomaly.”
Activism With the fevered political and racial atmosphere in the US over recent years, the practice has taken a stance, such as within the post-Black Lives Matter context. Khanani sees a practice leader’s role as usefully going beyond building design to being an activist, and this in turn can inform individual schemes, producing more supportive environments. Also, how is its involvement with Design as Protest helping to address racial imbalances within the industry? She says that the agendas of the Design As Protest and Design Advocates collectives both “resonate with our studio’s ethos,” adding, “our work with Design As Protest aligns with our own desire for the industry to be more inclusive of BIPOC [Black, Indigenous and People of Colour], and to push for changes in practice and policy to create more just built environments.” She explains further: “We believe that design can be a tool in pushing for these shifts in power, increasing diversity and creating inclusive spaces and places that are free of oppression.” Staff
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members have taken part in various Design as Protest projects such as “researching case studies of BIPOC neighbourhood displacement in US history, developing policy briefs that are based upon our Design Justice Demands, and taking part in Tactical Protest activism in NYC.” She adds: “We’re also gearing up for some new projects based in NYC, so stay tuned.” Within the non-profit Design Advocates organisation, the practice “strives to use design as a tool to serve the public good through pro bono services as well as through research and advocacy.” During the height of the pandemic, they provided pro bono design services to small businesses, non-profits and other community-based organisations that were “struggling to continue providing services due to space constraints.” Fauzia says that due to the agile nature of the body, they were able to “mobilise quickly to provide assistance at various scales throughout the city.” They were also heavily involved in NYC’s Open Restaurants and Open Streets programme, supporting businesses through Covid: “We were able to take part in conversations with city agencies about how these programmes are working and should evolve in the future,” she says. This is continuing, meaning the firm “has a say in how our city can evolve to be more inclusive and equitable.”
Collaboration & clients
A small studio should bring the benefit of natural collaboration both within the practice, with hybrid working, and with clients externally. Fauzia agrees with this assumption, adding that it helps to produce more innovative results. “The beauty of a small firm is that inevitably everyone on the team has to take part in all aspects of a project. This involvement ultimately fosters a high level of communication and collaboration internally and externally.” She adds: “We want our clients, consultants and contractors to be collaborators with us throughout the process of a project. And we fundamentally believe that everyone on a project team has something to offer and contribute to the process from the beginning all the way to opening day.” She also believes that this approach helps to produce design ideas and innovations that may not have originally been apparent.
“Having open lines of communication with the entire project
team, especially with the client, allows us to bring an outside perspective to their vision. It may also provide the space for us to help a client develop a vision in a way that they may not have anticipated or recognised at first.”
The future challenge Khanani says the firm has a “strong desire to work on more community-based and public projects,” and to bring their experience from such schemes gained at other practices. However, she admits moving into this field is challenging, as “most of these projects have an RFP [Request for Proposal] process, and on paper, it’s quite difficult for a small firm like ours to compete with larger firms when it comes to qualifications, completed projects and fees.” She adds that there’s something of a vicious circle: “It often feels like an unattainable goal; how do we even attain the experience required to even make us qualified? It’s a frustrating cycle.” Despite the challenge of gaining more public projects for the
studio, Khanani is undaunted and says her “long view goal” for the firm is to grow the size of the practice, by winning commissions for large schemes in the city it is based in. She wants her business to be delivering the “large-scale public projects in New York City that are directly impacting the lives of our community members, and actively creating positive and just change through design.” g
ADF MARCH 2022
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