A new generation of young African American female architects are on the horizon. These architects have enthusiastic ties to their communities, and they understand the need to reassess architectural practices and the existing built environment that affect people, neighborhoods, domestic housing and public spaces in order to create integrated functional design.
June Grant is founder and principal architect of BLINK-lab, an urban research lab located in Oakland CA,. One goal of the lab is to understand the urban landscape through the practice of architecture by directly focusing on the average individual. The idea of architectural space being a catalyst for positive change lead Blink-Lab to participate in the VACANT LOT project. Grant and Blink-labs are devoted to the idea that architects can make the world a better place to dwell. “Communication occurs between people and place.”
About the VACANT LOT project, in 2004, Blink-lab was commissioned to undertake a study in Richmond, CA, a city geographically close to Oakland, CA. The purpose of the study was to propose strategies for the City of Richmond’s over 500 vacant lots. The clients were an African American developer who had partnered with the largest church congregations in Richmond. The church was becoming more politically active and realized that in order to solve the problems of its high-crime districts, it had to be more creative. What this team of developer and church lacked was an ability to grasp the idea that by simply filling vacant lots with typically styled single-family houses would not change the economical cultural context of these neighborhoods. While the end-goal was to create a better neighborhood, the client believed the best answer was to fill the space.
Change required a researched approach to discover the forces at play in the home, street, and city. Studies revealed that the majority of lots were adjacent to each other. The fact that the lots neighbored each other was a key component to the design of group housing. Multi-lot family zoning would allow ready-made care-giving to occur by removing the need for distance travel, thereby increasing savings for families. Multi-unit family zoning would introduce a neighborhood matriarch/elder. This is a very crucial concept, as it directly addresses the continued existence of the matriarch family structures in the African American community. That voice typically extends the sense of ownership and authority beyond the walls of the house to include street-life. However, this fact did not negate the need for individual privacy.
Grant’s design work encapsulates several categories: high-performance building design, interactive-learning and work environments, as well as corporate and retail design and architecture. Her portfolio includes recent high profile projects such as the Net-Zero Energy, Sustainability Base at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif.; as well as the GE Software Center of Excellence, San Ramon, Calif.
Grant has a master’s degree from Yale University’s School of Architecture and a bachelor’s degree in international finance & economics from Baruch College, CUNY, where she graduated magna cum laude.