Places and Spaces and the Behavior They Create | Damaris Hollingsworth | TEDxMinneapolis

I am an architect who experienced a space that changed me forever that happens when a space is intentionally designed to impact people in a positive way I remember being seven years old meeting in the kitchen with my parents when in walked this young woman she was powerful she was strong she was beautiful she was so articulate she was boss lady and that's why I immediately wanted to be like her I asked my parents who is she an architect they said I had no idea what an architect was but that didn't matter because what I wanted

was to grow up to be as powerful strong and intelligent as she was I told my parents about my aspirations and my dad's response was that to be an architect I had to go to college and college was not for people like us if you know me even a little you know that what he said when into one year and out the other it didn't stick because he was trying to tell me that I couldn't have what I wanted I was 7 then I'm 41 now and I see you have a hard time not understanding

no on [Laughter] fifteen years later I was admitted into the School of Architecture and urban planning at University of Sao Paulo Brazil as with how it sa you FAU was and still is one of the best schools of architecture and urban planning in the world when my dad told me that colleges were not for people like us he meant they were too expensive for laborer class low income families like ours well FAU is free that meant we could afford it here's the catch the selection process to get into that school it's very difficult which benefits

the kids that go to the best private schools in the country not me I got in but after three trials it was in school that I realized that this world that I had just fought so hard to enter was not where I belonged I was four years older than all the other students I had to work full-time when everybody else went to school I had to learn how to read in languages other than my native Portuguese those were constant reminders that my background did not prepare me for the University or even for a conversation with

my peers and my professors their feeling of not belonging it nagged me almost every day so what did I try to do hide of course I wanted safe cocoon to remove myself from all the interactions so I didn't have to feel so stupid all the time but I encountered a problem while I was trying to hide this beautiful building designed by Brazilian architect Vilanova Artigas it has very few four walls it barely has any doors anyone can walk right in walkable spaces barrier-free it was intentionally designed to bring peace in to promote togetherness interaction and

the exchange of ideas I couldn't just go hide behind four walls in a closed door so there I was sitting in the library patio trying to pretend that I didn't care about all the people around me but I couldn't help but overhear their conversations and they were talking about the same textbook I was trying to read they had actually been there to the places I was learning about in Europe no wonder they had such a deeper understanding those privileged kids I thought and I resented them I did but it didn't take long until I realized

that I was actually enjoying to hear the conversations that I was forced to I was even paying attention to heat better and I would even smile at some thing someone said and before I knew it I was mingling I was interacting I was making friends friends that I feel hold dear to my heart a building design with intentionality will in fact do what's intended to do even when humans hint me try to hide and put up walls a building designed to deliver togetherness will believer to get honest I experienced that and that building did change

me forever I learned that if I can see past all the clutter of social economics it's an a city race intellectuality I see the human being I see our commonalities then the rest really is just clutter this building taught me that having an experience at the early Earth of my education in left a mark on me and to this day when I'm designing a building a campus or a Reuben setting I always have that goal of creating interaction creating engagement creating community one of my biggest accomplishments as a designer is the International pavilion for the

Northern Arizona University this is a great example of how culturally sensitive design will create community at the designer kickoff meeting the Provost challenged us to create a building that would acknowledge and speak to our students foreign and domestic this building was to promote engagement and exchange just like my square with you it was supposed to deliver incense I've been longing but we were also told that we could not use any flags because they were too predictable so I'm thinking how can I fake a building talk how can I make a building interact and engage architects

and designers window well how to create a series of spaces that will promote engagement and interactions we call that a program but the building was supposed to do that to interact to engage half an hour later I knew exactly how so I proposed how about words my team looked at me confused of course so I explained that every language has words that cannot be translated word-for-word they need to be explained through conversation the foreign people in the room got immediately really excited it was a really fun moment I wanted the untranslatable words to be placed

all over the building from inside and out the under of the double words were supposed to engage the student create the sense of identity and promote the exchange the American word that we chose was serendipity which means there are currents in development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way which is exactly what the words were supposed to do in the building and they do in the grand opening you could hear and see the students joy walking through the building finding their words and once they found it they had to announce it and

tell the new friends what they meant the alternative words caused a set of walls to do exactly what they're supposed to do they promote integration exchange they created a community so why aren't our places and spaces designed to bring about the best in human beings who will occupy them why aren't places in space is designed to make people feel comfortable with one another and themselves more developers designers and builders fall short is that short term profit tend to trump the impact to the people pun intended the current model the current model sees things like cultural

sensitivity happiness connection to a space and Kunis as soft characteristics that cannot be easily quantified and that perception is wrong as much as we'd like to think that we have greatly evolved the truth is that we all crave that feeling of belonging that feeling makes us happy when we find it we find home we stop searching we protect that and we create roots in a community for employers and investors that means return on your investment focusing on the people actually pays back pretty well let's look at this graphic the people is where you spend most

of your dollars developing and maintaining them is by far your greatest ROI at least ten times more than any building you give you this is like every astronaut who ever came back from the moon has said if every person would gain this perspective it would change us all when my own search from home for home was wearing me out it was two years ago in about 18 years after my FAU experience and I was a CEO in that search for a place where I felt like I belonged and I was vaccinating between opening my own

practice or joining for companies where I work now I was invited to the office for a panel interview and I sat in the conference room for a couple minutes before a large group walked in I was surprised when they were introduced to me as the executive team our surprise because our executive team looks like this and I was used to executive teams looking more like this it took me a few seconds to collect myself and I realized that as each one of them introducing themselves and told me about their work I realize how good I

felt in that place I thought whoa so this is how why people feel all the time comfortable surrounded by people who look like you people that you can relate to in more than one way this is how it feels and I'm not gonna lie I liked it I really did I didn't care what title position I was going to be offered I wanted to be part of that group because I completely related to them and that made me feel like I belonged there but as much as the people gave me that great sense of belonging

it is also about the building a few months later I started to realize that the excitement and that good feeling who were being eroded by too many sick days because of poor air quality my creativity was shrinking because of the dullness of the space and productivity was compromised too many work space and work flow issues so that's why we have to combine both we need our places in spaces to be designed and built in a way that will trigger people to be and feel their best selves we need places in spaces that will inspire heal

create a community what if our places and spaces could positively impact a 47 year old man 11 year old boy and a 41 year old woman imagine this 47 year old man his only idea of hope in North Minneapolis was the McDonald's at the corner of Penn in Plymouth when it closed he washed the corner seat empty for decades overlooked he's regarded just like the community around it and now because of a community folks developer he sits proud as a CFO of the company who owns the beautiful building at that same corner imagined his 11

year old boy he's a black boy and he's helping his dad with the family moving company and while moving some chairs and boxes he notices that the conference rooms were named after inflation of African Americans that's rude of him to look further and he notices a nicely dressed black woman behind a desk a suited black man in a private office so he asked who work here who owned this place when he realized that black people on that placing work there he was filled with excitement and now his mind was awake to his own possibilities all

because of a designer who understands the value in the power of acknowledging the culture of the people who occupy and visit this space now imagine this 41 year old woman now reconnecting to that sense of belonging they made me choose this company in the first place but now reinvigorated by the vibrant colors they're not so lighting the workspace is open and flexible the cultural relevance of the environment now combined with the intentionality of this design has enabled me now to fulfill my full boss-lady potential when our built environment impacts the individual the individuals will become

the key collaborators to the creation of community healthy imbalanced communities are the key to cure the wounds of cities of our cities my CEO describes community as when people intentionally behave like they belong together a lot of our spaces did not suppress did not segregate but instead triggered people to feel and behave like a community every built environment tells and creates stories they make an impact every space does something we need to make sure it's the right thing thank you