American Architecture and Interior Design firm HOK has recently unveiled an Inclusive Equity Toolkit that marks a meaningful step toward creating spaces that serve everyone, regardless of their background or abilities.
The toolkit, available to all HOK design teams, offers a roadmap for creating inclusive, community-focused spaces. Standards and best practices found in the toolkit are grounded in five core design principles:
1. Partnering with the community: Integrating community history and connections and addressing community needs.
2. Planning for inclusion: Designing for diversity by identifying and addressing individual needs, requirements and desires.
3. Providing equity of experience: Creating accessible and welcoming spaces for everyone and designing for the diversity of the human condition.
4. Promoting health and well-being: Providing healthy spaces for all people to thrive. Offering access to nature, recreation and daylight for peopleโs well-being.
5. Championing environmental justice: Advocating for solutions that address environmental justice through generous, resilient and sustainable strategies.
Architects Katherine Antarikso (above left) and Caitlin Youngster (right) in HOKโs Philadelphia studio led the development of the toolkit. It began as a grassroots effort in 2020 when the pandemic and social justice movements underscored the need for equitable and inclusive spaces. The toolkit soon earned funding from HOKโs Research Program and support from HOKโs senior leadership.
โWith this toolkit, weโre not just talking about designing for equityโweโre taking actionable steps,โ said Antarikso. โOur project teams now have a way to actually do it, based on our own research and experience.โ
โThanks to support from HOKโs leaders, we have the opportunity to change the trajectory of a global design firm and set a new standard for the future of architecture and design,โ added Youngster.
As part of the HOK project process checklist, the toolkit provides a guide for each milestone, outlining goals, responsibilities and available resources. Over the past year, HOK design teams tested the Designing for Equity Toolkit in the planning and design for projects including AstraZenecaโs new research and development center under development in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and New York City Football Clubโs future stadium in Queens.
HOK co-CEO Susan Klumpp-Williams commended the work of those involved in creating the Designing for Equity Toolkit.
โThis is something all firms will need to do, and weโre proud to be leading the way,โ said Klumpp-Williams. โBy embracing the Designing for Equity Toolkit, we can establish a new standard for inclusive, equitable design for all people.โ
Source: hok.com
