DESIGNING SPACES OF RACIAL,

SOCIAL, AND CULTURAL JUSTICE

OUR MISSION

Colloqate Design is a multidisciplinary nonprofit Design Justice practice focused on expanding community access to, and building power through, the design of social, civic, and cultural spaces. Our mission is to intentionally organize, advocate, and design spaces of racial, social, and cultural justice throughout the built environment. Through programming, planning and design projects, Colloqate seeks to dismantle the privilege and power structures that use the design professions to maintain systems of injustice.

OUR VISION

Colloqate envisions a world where our work demystifies architecture & design processes, and communities we design with thrive in transformative spaces that embody joy and cultural belonging.

We will achieve this by breaking down structural inequities through community organizing, strategic partnerships, advocacy, and creating a network of built projects that honor the agency of communities to shape their own futures.

ORGANIZE

We organize to build knowledge, power, and access in the communities we serve through ongoing community gatherings + workshops to share and build collective knowledge around the process of city-building.

ADVOCATE

We advocate for equitable policies, procedures and practice that acknowledge + seek to address injustice. We practice as design advocates, a community advocacy link, and a space for public discourse on injustices in the built environment.

DESIGN

We are a full service architecture and multidisciplinary design practice, with projects ranging from large public buildings to small renovations and sculptural installations. We work on graphic design (print, digital, and environmental), landscape design, public and time-based art, and more.

COLLOQUIAL + LOCATE + COLLOCATE

WHAT DOES OUR NAME MEAN?

col·lo·qate : A design conversation rooted in place, where people and the environment connect meaningfully beyond chance.

col·lo·qui·al : adjective

(of language) used in ordinary, informal or a familiar conversation; not formal or literary. Conversational. Informal.

lo·cate : verb

  1. Discover the exact place or position of.

  2. Situate in and of a particular place.

  3. Place within a particular context

col·lo·cate : verb

  1. (of a word) Be habitually juxtaposed with another at a frequency greater than chance.

  2. Place side by side or in a particular relation.

WHAT WE DO

  • Design for civic, communal, and cultural spaces consistent with design justice theory and aligned with community voice.

  • Planning at the scale of institutions and neighborhoods dedicated to processes that engage communities and advocate for eliminating barriers to justice in the built environment.

  • Collaborative design projects designed to address social issues in public space. Designed with the intention of driving civic dialogue around our most pressing social issues.

  • We organize and implement outreach strategies driven by community knowledge and aligned with design justice practice.

  • Professional and community workshops developed as racial and design justice training. The workshops serve as a organizing platform for the future of design justice as a practice.

  • Advocating for justice in and through the built environment. Consulting with cities, neighborhoods, and organizations to develop policies and procedures to forward justice in practice.

OUR COLLECTIVE VALUES ARE VALIDATED THROUGH THE SPACES WE DESIGN.

JOIN OUR NETWORK

Interested in working together? Fill out some info and we will be in touch shortly. We can’t wait to hear from you!