I don’t believe design sets the pace of social progression or manifest the in-justices within society. I believe its main focus is to respond to them. Design is a response to what already exists – a mirror reflected back onto society. Racism, gender-inequality, and other forms of discrimination such as able-ism have had to exist way before they ever became a part of the built-environment. However, even with that said I believe the built-environment has helped to grow and contribute to the already existing problems. While I’m no expert on all the ways the built-environment has contributed to discrimination and segregation I can think of a few examples that come to mind such as; the separation of white people from people of color in schools, libraries, workplaces, washrooms, city-buses, etc. most notably around the 50’s and 60’s. The divide in city-planning with black-communities and white people-only neighborhoods.
As society evolves so should design. Un-like technology, products, and even fashion that is “in” and “out” with the times the built-environment is more permanent and longer-lasting. It’s an actual built structure that would be unsustainable if we had to continuously change It to appropriately suite every current event – which does bring up some other questions on sustainability and whether we should be designing buildings to last for a long-time or whether they should be more flexible and adaptable to the current-time-period. But regardless, when society wants to address social in-justices such as the #blacklivesmatter movement I believe it will take longer to see that reflected in the built-environment as opposed to other outlets as mentioned prior. Overall, it’s a very complex issue that requires a lot of thought, and to create design solutions that address current social-issues as well as solving problems that have yet to arise I think is a real challenge, but also very important. Our environment helps shape who we are as people. Our political environment, regional, cultural, and also our built environment all have an impact in who we are as people as well as who we are as a society.