In May of 2010 I was one of the thousands of students across the nation who emerged from the brutal trials of the architectural academy into a profession unable to offer gainful employment. Among the many weeks of checking and rechecking online job boards and pestering personal contacts I received a particularly ominous email. It came from a principle from a major Houston architecture office and, while I won’t disclose the author, I will quote him directly, for his words sent a chill from my spine all the way to the bank that holds my student loan note:
“I appreciate your interest in our office, but the world is sorta dead for architects for the foreseeable future. We have managed some optimism for a couple of years now, but prospects are very few...Please keep us in mind when the sun comes up again.”
The most disturbing and dejected phrase in this note might be “the world is sorta dead for architects right now.” It is also the least accurate. In fact, the extreme opposite is true: there is an incredible global demand for design services and a client base that runs into the billions. I am referring to the massive untapped and underserved market at the bottom of the socioeconomic pyramid. For starters, there are, according to the United Nations, 1.6 billion people globally living in sub-standard housing.
The architecture community is not ignorant of this fact. Tracing the arc of socially ideological work through the 20th century produces a number of groups and individuals such as CIAM, Team X, the Structuralists, the Metabolists, Fuller, Price, Le Corbusier, and Wright who sought to radically improve the world by using architecture as an economic and political tool. After a period of being out of fashion, the last decade has seen an upsurge in socially engaged design. This activity is being driven primarily by numerous small and independent actors, most of whom are either students or recent graduates.
Archifarm is a Houston-based design practice that emerged recently to operate in this space and is introducing an innovative approach appropriate to today’s tough economic climate. Their mission---to provide innovative, affordable, and sustainable design services to local and global non-profits and the public sector---is the industry standard for socially-engaged practices. Their novelty comes from their Enhanced Intern Experience (EIE), which offers an alternative path for graduates transitioning to the professional practice of architecture. Essentially, interns don’t get paid. Instead, the organization is structured to ensure that time spent volunteering on an Archifarm project counts towards an intern’s “IDP.”
For those not familiar with this infamous abbreviation, IDP refers to the National Council of Architectural Registration Board’s (NCARB) Internship Development Program. Along with a professional degree and the Architect Registration Examination (ARE), it is one of the three elements necessary to becoming a licensed architect. IDP is recorded in hours and equates to roughly three years of fulltime work, which must be distributed over the various areas of professional practice. Most, but not all, of one’s IDP is to be spent under the direct supervision of a licensed architect.
The phrase “unpaid internship” has the tendency to raise eyebrows. Federal law and AIA policy are emphatically against this practice, but it nevertheless persists, especially among edgy, high design practices. This activity, roundly viewed---even by the interns themselves---as abusive, has cast a long shadow over this practice. Archifarm, armed with its humanitarian agenda, makes a strong argument for the unpaid intern by providing an experience analogous to the Peace Corps or Doctors Without Boarders.
The viability of this choice is cast in greater relief by the desperate state of the job market. While the massive cuts of the recent past seem to have abated and new positions are gradually opening up, the fact remains that there are many still frustrated by unemployment. Keeping these young designers engaged by connecting them to people unable to pay fees in the first place certainly seems reasonable, and providing compensation in the form of internship hours is a modest but relevant form of compensation.
Making the best out of a bad economy is just one aspect of Archifarm’s culture. A future goal is to supplement the “IDP only” intern architects with those actually drawing a salary. “We’d like to be something like an architectural version of Teach For America, offering recent architecture graduates an immersive experience," says Kevin Watters, a recent graduate of the Rensselaer School of Architecture and Archifarm’s founder.
"Our objective is to get young professionals on-the-ground in communities that need help, while providing them with mentorship and a competitive salary” adds Monica Albizu, Archifarm’s co-founder and also recent Rensselaer graduate.
Archifarm, while still a nascent organization, raises at least two important questions about contemporary architectural culture: what can we do to keep unemployed architects engaged and how can we begin addressing the “design gap” between those who can afford design services and those who can’t. Archifarm presents itself as an opportunity for design schools, NCARB, and professionals to take these issues head on. It remains to be seen it their efforts will encounter support or apathy.
