Dispersed Practice

From office, to airport, to artist colony, architecture faculty member Joyce Hwang reflects on her navigation of multi-locational practice

Benches: A Design-build Competition.

by Joyce Hwang

Associate professor of architecture

Release Date November 25, 2017 This content is archived.

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The following is excerpted from Joyce Hwang's recent blog contribution to ArchiteXX, an organization for women dedicated to transforming architecture by bridging the academy and practice. Read the full article

Where and how does creative work take place? Where does one situate oneself to practice architecture? This may seem like a simple question with an obvious answer, as we are conditioned to assume that an architect must work in her office, where she “hangs up her shingle.”

Yet, for many of us, the issue of workplace is far more complex, one that is that is highly contingent on multiple, often conflicting factors – from project types, funding streams, and personal lifestyle choices.

In response to the guest editors’ prompts to consider the “necessary fantasy of the ideal office/space of practice,” I will discuss issues of workplaces in terms of my own practice and how I am navigating the pluralities of a dispersed, multi-locational practice.