“Not Neutral: Architectural Elements in Spaces of Power”

Jenny Meakins – Schidlowski Emerging Faculty Fellow at Kent State University

Architecture is not neutral. While the built environment is often considered an invisible backdrop to our everyday lives, in reality it has a profound impact on our cultural, economic, political, and social conditions. From the single-family house to sprawling institutional campuses, each is a product of the architectural discipline, and by extension, architects. 

 The research presented here utilizes seven common building elements to evaluate Architecture’s role in the physical and psychological forces of human behavior, through the lens of power, privilege, and oppression. The deliberate use of the language of architecture, the drawing, communicates an immediate imperative to address Architecture’s biases, blind spots, and harm through the role of elements in our everyday lives.

Jennifer Meakins received her Master of Architecture from the University of Illinois (UIC), Chicago, where she won the AIA Henry Adams Medal Award, and a Bachelor of Arts in Geography and Environmental Studies from Colgate University. Her professional experience ranges from exhibit and environments designer of Words as Weapons at Cannon Design, LA for the Museum of Tolerance, to exhibition and furniture design at Associates Associates, Chicago, and assistant to the curatorial team at the Art Institute of Chicago for Building: Inside Studio Gang. She is principle and Designer of QLT Studio focused on surface and textile design, object design and construction. Her work, including full-scale textile and weaving installations were shown at the Octagon Gallery at UIC, Sullivan Galleries (with Ania Jaworska) at the Art Institute of Chicago, and at the Graham Foundation. She has lectured and led symposia on Weaving, Textiles, and Craft at Woodbury University, the Free School of Architecture, and at the UIC School of Architecture and is Co-Editor and Designer of aX, Architecture Chicago, funded by the Graham Foundation. Jennifer Meakins taught Architecture and Interior Design studios at Cal Poly Pomona, UCLA, Woodbury University, and at the UIC in Chicago. She joins the College of Architecture and Environmental Design at Kent State as the 4th Schidlowski Emerging Faculty Fellow.