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Who we are

The Committee on Design (COD) was founded to promote design excellence among members of the AIA, the broader design community, and the public at large, both nationally and internationally.

2024 COD Conferences

Arkansas

April 3-7 | 21c Hotel | Bentonville and Eureka Springs - Registration is sold out.

Brazil

Thu, Oct 17 - Sat, Oct 26, 2024
Sao Paulo > Brasilia > Rio de Janerio.  Registration will open in late April.

2024 Sponsorships

Download the prospectus for Arkansas and Brazil opportunities.


2023 COD Conferences

Last year, COD held two domestic design conferences investigating The Authenticity of Place.  The first conference was held in New Orleans, LA.  View the short video of the venue tours and download the conference program book. The second conference was held in Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN, September 21-24, 2023. Download the Minneapolis guidebook and view the conference video

  • 1.  Nobody Can Remain Silent

    Posted 07-11-2016 08:34 AM

    Nobody can remain silent

    With the events of the last three days in Atlanta, St Paul and Dallas no other city topic seems possible.
    You don't fight racism with racism, the best way to fight racism is with solidarity.
    Bobby Seale
     
    White people in the US who stayed silent when black people got killed by police in stairways in New York, while hawking CDs in Atlanta or standing in the street in Ferguson, or after running away from police in Baltimore (to name only a few instances) because they couldn't relate and imagine it could ever happen to them, were probably right, it wouldn't. 

    But as far as relating to a driver being pulled over by a cop for whatever infraction? This has happened to almost anybody. But getting shot in the process without any threat being voiced, without belligerence, without as much as a tussle with a four year old child in the backseat? Getting gunned down not by one shot but multiple shots aiming to kill, recovery impossible? This, too, is very unlikely to happen to a white man. Yet, the situation is so familiar that even those who managed to not pay attention to police violence and the obvious uneven treatments based on race in spite of everything everybody could  have known for years, would have to wake up from their stupor.Young black males in recent years were at a far greater risk of being shot dead by police than their white counterparts – 21 times greater i, according to a ProPublica analysis of federally collected data on fatal police shootings. (Pro Publica)
    There is no remaining silent possible because what needs to be seen is not only each individual case, as terrible as they are, but one must see the pattern. This pattern cannot be tolerated in a society that calls itself free, enlightened and democratic. Or stated differently, a society that tolerates such patterns is no longer enlightened, free or democratic.
     
    The pattern of uneven and blatantly unjust treatment of the different races, therefore...
     
     
     
     
     

    Community Architect: Nobody can remain silent

    Archplanbaltimore remove preview
    Community Architect: Nobody can remain silent
     
    View this on Archplanbaltimore >
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    Nikolaus Philipsen FAIA
    Archplan Inc. Philipsen Architects
    Baltimore MD
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    2024 HRC Taliesin West


  • 2.  RE: Nobody Can Remain Silent

    Posted 07-20-2016 05:52 PM

    I think we all can make this discussion very relevant to CoD if we stop the discussion of the political merits and start discussing how we, as architects and planners, can advocate and promote mixed income communities and highlight the failed planning polices which has created urban ghettos that are the main root of the issue. 

    Surly, we can all agree that this is a design discussion which is very relevant to our profession. 

    Please continue to discuss... 

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    Alen Moghaddam, AIA
    Principal
    Urban Architectural Initiatives, PC
    New York NY

    2024 HRC Taliesin West