“Never underestimate a woman on a mission.” On Tuesday, April 5, I got the chance to interview Pascale Sablan. Sablan is a Senior Associate Architect at Adjaye Associates in New York, allowing her to work alongside Sir David Adjaye on various projects. Since Sablan joined the team, she has been on some incredible projects that have inspired her to start up her own company called Beyond the Built.
Beyond the Built aims to highlight BIPOC architects, designers, and creatives alike who can come together to showcase their underrepresented work. Since 2017, Beyond the Built has showcased “SAY IT LOUD” around the United States in select cities. The concept of the entire exhibit is to “see our faces, hear our voices, and feel the impact within the colorful tapestry of our heritage.” Sablan and her team find people within that city that fit the narrative and showcase them in the city’s local exhibition.
In the panel, Sablan shares a bitter story from school, where her professor had her and a peer stand in class and announce, “Now you see these two people right here, they will never be architects because they are black and they are women.” Sablan is now an activist architect on a mission to change the stigma around architecture and change the faces you see representing it. She quotes, “I’m also trying to push through the media and having media publications also be accountable for the percentage of women and BIPOC designers featured in their content and the language in which they used to describe the people. For example, she’s a great mom architect. No, she is a great architect who also happens to be a mother. So when you google ‘great architect,’ the name will still pop up without the word mother in the middle of it.”
I am not an architecture major, but I think Sablan is doing an amazing job changing and establishing the stigma for women in architecture. As women and BIPOC, it’s typical not to be celebrated because you have to carry yourself in a certain way to be respected. You can’t be too emotional, but “if you don’t think you’re worthy of such and such honor and you don’t put yourself out there, then you’re not going to ever be elevated and celebrated to that capacity.” Recognize your accomplishments. Let them see your faces, hear your voice, and feel the history and impact you are making in the world.
A special thank you to Pascale Sablan for sitting down for an interview!
Words by Annie Cater.
Graphics by Fai McCurdy.