Last summer, Copenhagen hosted the UIA World Congress of Architects, where designers and researchers from around the world spent four days discussing how better design of the built environment can help us tackle climate change, contribute to growing biodiversity and, above all, create an environment for social inclusion. This year’s central theme was ‘Sustainable futures – leave no one behind’. The congress concluded with the launch of ten principles for rapid and radical change in the built environment – based on the SDG, the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals – to give concrete form to this theme. The first principle immediately set the tone: ‘Dignity and agency for all people is fundamental in architecture, there is no beauty in exclusion.’

Indeed, there is nothing beautiful about exclusion, and yet the world of architecture seems to be riddled with it. The architecture and construction sector remains stubbornly male and white. Although great strides have been made in recent decades, it is still difficult to find architecture firms led solely by women or people of colour. The recently established Platform for Architecture & Feminism (PAF) is dedicating a series of activities to further highlight this issue, and Apolline Vranken has also been working for years to increase the visibility of women in architecture (history) with the platform “L’architecture qui dégenre”.