AIA Japan - Equity, Diversity and Inclusion with Geeta Mehta of Asia Initiatives
When: Friday 27 August 2021 @ 21:00 (Eastern US Time)/ Saturday 28 August @ 10:00 (Japan time)
CES: 2.0 LU/ HSW for AIA Members
Description
Since architecture and urban design are social acts, she believes that they must have a social purpose. However, the current model of hyper-capitalism is forcing developers and architects to create buildings only with the financial bottom line in mind. This is depleting the social and ecological capital of communities and cities. Geeta will discuss how cities and neighborhoods can be designed to strengthen the social capital of communities. Good design should promote equity, diversity and inclusion. Housing, infrastructure and public spaces can be designed to empower every one, irrespective of income, age and gender, to achieve their potential. Geeta is a strong advocate for triple-bottom-line accounting for all large architectural, urban design, and infrastructure projects. Besides the environment impact statement required before projects are approved, she also proposes a requirement for social impact statements. She will discuss how the focus on Social Capital leads to increase in financial and ecological capital also, and happiness.
Speaker Bio
Geeta Mehta is an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. She has worked on design projects in over 12 countries in Asia, Europe, South America and Africa. She received her B.Arch from the School of Planning and Architecture in New Delhi, MSAUD from Columbia GSAPP, and her Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo.
Geeta is the president of Asia Initiatives, a non-profit organization she founded in 1999 that has supported over 200 micro credit banks, 40 village knowledge centers, and education and technology initiatives in partnership with MSSRF and other local partners in India and other developing countries. Geeta has also developed the concept of Social Capital Credits (SoCCs) inspired by carbon credits. This breakthrough virtual currency for social good is currently in use in India, Ghana, Kenya and in Washington, DC. SoCCs incentivize people to undertake projects in water and waste management, tree planting, neighborhood improvements in their communities and earn SoCCs. These are then redeemed for telephone talk time, healthcare, education and skill empowerment. Prof. Pedro Sanchez, Director of Columbia’s Tropical Agriculture and the Rural Environment Program, World Food Prize recipient and a MacArthur Fellow, has praised SoCCs as “the most transformative and simple idea since Mohammad Yunus launched the micro credit movement”.
Geeta is also the co-founder of URBZ: User Generated Cities, located in Mumbai, with Rahul Srivastava and Matias Echanove. URBZ undertakes activist research and also works with underserved communities to help them transform their neighborhoods through advocacy and by improving public spaces and homes. Magazine dell’ Architettura ranked URBZ among the 100 most influential design organizations in 2011.
