Contract Magazine – Foresight 2019 - 25

Liz Ogbu
Founder and Principal, Studio O
Keynote: Do No Harm: The Role of Design in Complicated Times
DATE June 12
TIME 11:00 a.m.
LOCATION NeoCon Theater, 19th Floor
A designer, urbanist, and spatial justice advocate, Liz Ogbu is founder
and principal of Studio O, a multidisciplinary consultancy working to
innovate challenged urban environments globally. From designing shelters
for immigrant day laborers in the United States to a water and health social
enterprise for low-income Kenyans, Ogbu has a long history of working with
communities in need to leverage the power of design to catalyze sustained
social impact. Her work blends human-centered design research
methodologies, architecture and equitable development principles,
cross-disciplinary design thinking frameworks, and social agendas.

Contract: You have a history of working with the communities in need across the
globe, from San Francisco to Ghana. How can ordinary citizens work with designers
at the local level to change their communities for the better?
Liz Ogbu: Some of it has to do with designers and clients, the ones who pay for
a project, being willing to open up the profit. I put the responsibility of that on the
design professionals, because we are the ones with power in that situation. If people
had a greater understanding of how the design process works and where there are
opportunities to influence it, they could be taking the steps to leverage the tools
and open up the door.
Contract: Can you talk a bit about the concept of Spatial Justice, which is so
relevant today?
Liz Ogbu: If we look at many of the cities across the country, it is clear there
are certain neighborhoods that have access to certain resources. There are
neighborhoods that have more abandoned lots than parks. There are neighborhoods
that have more substandard housing than really vibrant housing. There are
neighborhoods that have transit access and those where you can't verify that
the bus line operates at decent times to take people to where they need to go.
The reality is that the vast majority of those conditions
did not occur by accident. Someone has planned the city and has chosen not
to put things in certain areas, which has to do with our legacy of city planning.
I am interested in how we acknowledge that this has been the case, how we
affirmatively and intentionally position our work, and how we are going to address
those past wrongs and make sure that we are not perpetuating or repeating
them in the future.
Contract: It's an ongoing process but I feel like we still have a long way to go.
Liz Ogbu: Even if you aren't an architect, talking about injustice, poverty, and
homelessness feels overwhelming and uncomfortable. I think a lot of times we end
up thinking there isn't anything we can do about it. I just want to go here and design
my building or do my thing. It is somebody else's responsibility to solve it. That's

how things gets perpetuated. We all have a role to play. Some of it does require
us to kind of be willing to sit with this discomfort. That's why I beat the drum.
We have to talk about it.
I have seen change happen when the clients start demanding, like LEED,
for example. I just don't want to let architects off the hook. You didn't have to wait
to get to the point when people demanded it. Then you are only operating in
the service industry at that point and just responding to market forces. I don't think
of what we are doing as a job or service. I think of designers as caretakers of the
built environment. There is a sense of responsibility that comes when you think
of yourself as a caretaker. I want us to get to that.
Contract: How do you overcome language or cultural barriers to gather the data
that's going to be useful to you and the client?
Liz Ogbu: We use a lot of different methodologies, and they are all based
around things that help me build relationships with the people who are impacted
by the project so that they can share their thoughts, needs, and desires with me.
Sometimes design lends itself to a very transactional outcome. Change is really
hard. Change is triggering, and any time you are designing something you are
changing something. If we don't have relationships of trust, it becomes harder
to go through a process of change.

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Contract Magazine – Foresight 2019

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