You probably notice architecture most when something annoys you. An entrance you can’t find. A room that feels cramped. A building that makes getting from one place to another unnecessarily complicated.
When it works well, you might not think about it at all.
But whether a building makes your day easier or harder can tell you something about whose needs were considered. And taken together, the places built in a city reveal what the city values.
A city's schools, homes, offices and gathering places can reveal where money goes, whose needs get attention – and who gets left out, said Benjamin Flowers, a professor of architecture at Ohio State University’s Knowlton School.
“If you don’t pay attention to architecture, you may be unaware of what is happening
in the world around you,” Flowers said.
World Architecture Day, observed Oct. 5 this year, offers a reason to take a closer look. Beyond recognizing the people who design buildings, it raises a question about the spaces we use every day: How could they serve us better?
For Christian Joosse, a project architect at Columbus-founded Moody Nolan, that question is taking shape at the upcoming Poindexter Village African American Museum. As its project architect, she said the design starts with the people who will use it.
"Our clients are the ones that are our source of inspiration and their missions are the ones that truly drive the results of our design," she said.
What is World Architecture Day?
World Architecture Day takes place on the first Monday of October, alongside the United Nations’ World Habitat Day. This year’s theme is “Housing is a Human Right. Build It.,” according to the International Union of Architects.
Flowers, who is a member of the union, sees the observance as an opportunity to celebrate successful design while considering where improvements are needed.
That includes making good architecture available beyond the wealthiest clients.
“Everyone should have the opportunity to interact with thoughtful and well-designed spaces,” Flowers said.
What does architecture have to do with affordable housing?
Architects can explore new ways to design, build and provide housing, Flowers said. But turning those ideas into homes requires political and financial support.
In Columbus, he pointed to office-to-residential conversions Downtown as a promising approach, finding new uses for existing office buildings as demand for office space changes.
Flowers also described a challenge facing the city: the gap between where people work and where they can afford to live.
“Architects can do a lot on that front, but obviously they cannot make up for what we need political actors and financial actors to do in order to make that a reality,” Flowers said.
Joosse, who has worked at Moody Nolan for 10 years and focuses on its national housing practice, said residents need opportunities to influence designs for their communities. That also requires transparency about how their feedback is used as a project develops.
“What we can do is make sure that the community has a voice, that they have that opportunity for input,” Joosse said.
How a Columbus architect is shaping local spaces
The Poindexter Village African American Museum, which the Ohio History Connection expects to open in early 2028, offers an example of how Joosse translates a community’s history into design.
The museum's design draws inspiration from the community bonds it represents, Joosse said. That idea informs parts of the building’s exterior and the way people move through its interior.
Community input has also helped shape spaces beyond the museum’s walls, she said. Plans include a landscaped gathering area around an existing tree for future drum circles and a courtyard connecting with the neighboring church.
A curved entrance is intended to feel welcoming, while the design respects the scale of the surrounding neighborhood.
For Joosse, those decisions reflect the importance of understanding the community whose story the museum will tell.
That attention to representation also inspired her debut book, “Letters to Ms. 1000: Words of Wisdom from African American Women Architects, Vol. 1.”
While mentoring students in Gahanna Lincoln High School’s architecture and construction management program, Joosse worked with young Black women preparing to study architecture. She wanted a resource they could carry into college and their careers.
The book collects letters from Black women architects offering advice and encouragement to future designers.
Flowers said people’s experiences influence the possibilities they imagine, making a broader range of perspectives valuable to design.
“Architecture is always better when it has a larger and more diverse and broader set of actors behind it,” he said.
Where can you appreciate architecture in Columbus?
Joosse, who is also vice president of the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA) in Columbus, encouraged residents to explore organizations supporting architecture education and community advocacy. She highlighted Project Pipeline, a program introducing young people to architecture, with a focus on reaching underrepresented students.
From mixed-use developments such as Bridge Park to civic projects such as the upcoming Poindexter Village African American Museum, the types of spaces Joosse works on show how architecture shapes places where people live and gather.
Appreciating architecture can also begin before you even step inside. Flowers said architecture can affect people who never enter a building, simply through their experience walking past it.
“You have that chance to actually make someone’s day and their life a little bit better,” he said. “That’s a tremendous opportunity that very few professions can claim to have at the scale that successfully executed architecture can do.”
Trending reporter Amani Bayo can be reached at abayo@dispatch.com.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: It’s World Architecture Day. Here’s why Columbus architects care
