Courtney
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Name and credentials:
Courtney Healey, M.Arch
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City and country of birth:
Belleville, New Jersey, USA
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Education:
B.A. Visual Art and History, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey 2001
M.Arch, University of British Columbia 2009
Achievements:
AIA Henry Adams Medal 2009
RAIC Honour Roll 2009
Vaughn Berg Memorial Scholarship 2009
Hotson Bakker Urban Design Award 2007
Architecture Student Society President 2006 - 2007
Architecture Institute of British Columbia Design Award 2006
NY State Artist Workspace Consortium Travel Grant 2003
Trust for Mutual Understanding Visiting Artist Grant 2002
Rutgers Undergraduate Research Fellowship 2001
Rutgers College Merit Scholarship 2000
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A few of my favourite things:
Incandescent light bulbs, east coast fall, vision, eggs, colour, forgiveness, felt-tipped pens, blackouts, google street view, whiskers on kittens, snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes, brown paper packages tied up with string…
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Tell us about your practice as an architect (intern, public artist, landscape architect, engineer, teacher).
I recently received my M.Arch from UBC School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture and am currently preparing my application materials for the AIBC’s Intern Architect Program and working for a public artist.
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What architectural work are you most proud of?
It’s a tie between a built and un-built project. The un-built project is my M.Arch Thesis Performance that proposed a new cultural infrastructure for Manhattan’s East Village. The built project is from my first architecture job, the interior design and furniture for Haarlem’s new city hall in the Netherlands.
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What was it that brought you to architecture?
I was interested in architecture’s inherent engagement with everyday life, as compared to my previous career in the fine arts industry. I was a printmaker and one day I realized that life was happening in the third and fourth dimensions so decided I should try to work there instead. Architecture seemed to encompass a much wider field that would be capable of sustaining my eclectic interests over a long period of time.
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How many children (grandchildren) do you have? Ages?
I don’t have children (yet?). My life partner graduated with me from UBC and recently registered as an Intern Architect with the AIBC.
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How do (did) you manage to practice architecture while raising children and running a household? (participation in office culture, hours worked, children’s sick days, ability to network, drop offs and pick ups from day care and schools, childcare costs, housework, cooking, single parenting, etc.)
I just turned 30. I want to complete my registration and I want to have children. The two will likely coincide, time-wise, and I don’t think they should have to be mutually exclusive. I am operating on that assumption and moving forward with the internship program; I will take things as they come. I do struggle a bit with the notion that it might be more difficult for me to become registered than my partner if we were to have a child and, rather, I expect the same professional opportunities, challenges and support toward registration as he might receive.
We have both negotiated four-day workweeks, I work four 8-hour days and he works four 10-hour days. We wanted to have time to work on our own projects, to teach, to write, to research, to be well-rounded people and, in the end, happier and more productive employees and/or architects.
This decision came out of our collective experience interning at seven architecture offices over the past four years, including two in Rotterdam and two in Berlin where we were exposed to different and more flexible models of practice that managed to remain successful, in terms of both design and profit. We became familiar with internationally-recognized firms in which everyone in the office worked four days per week to no discernable disadvantage compared with those that worked more.
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Can you recall an instance where the dual responsibilities of being a parent and an architect came to a head? Please share.
I tend to think the architecture profession does not adequately allow or make room for other responsibilities in general. I also believe that there are more barriers to women becoming registered architects than simply giving birth to children. I’d like to see any study that attempts to explain the current percentage drop-off between women graduating from M.Arch programs and women who become registered, to take additional issues into account, such as those cited in a recent RIBA study on why women leave architecture. Some of these issues include unequal pay, inflexible and/or long work hours, glass ceiling, sidelining, macho office culture, protective paternalism preventing development of experience, sexism.
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Do you think that being a parent has actually influenced your approach to architecture?
Architecture is currently influencing my approach to parenthood, meaning that I struggle with when and if to become a parent, seemingly more than friends of the same age and level of education that work in other industries or professions. This stems, perhaps, from our respective expectation levels for professional support, typical employee benefits, workplace stigmas, etc.
My own trepidation has also been somewhat reinforced by my interactions with other women in the profession, those with children offering me well-intentioned warnings of impending difficulty and those without offering less-well-intentioned ones.
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“There is no more sombre enemy of good art than the pram in the hall.”
- Cyril Connolly, Enemies of Promise, 1938What do you think about this quote?
I think there are no more somber enemies to good art than excuses.
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What is the best piece of advice you would give to a would-be parent/architect?
Be a good employee and expect good employment practices. If your expectations are not being met, know your rights and speak up.
If you could change public policy that impacts on child-rearing, what would that be?
I think there are already many employment standards, anti-discrimination laws and policies on equal opportunity in place. But knowing the law is one thing, not breaking it is another, and neither is really enough; we (architects/AIBC/etc.) should be actively educating and fostering attitudes of inclusion, equality and respect of differences within the profession. This should extend to promoting and embracing the value of a balance between work and family.
We could also try imagining some of the larger cultural implications implicit in hindering an individual’s ability to parent or in allowing an employment atmosphere that is either hostile to or in total disregard of women or parents of either gender. Policies that benefit women also benefit families and anyone who needs or desires a reasonable live-work balance.
My limited experience in foreign offices included witnessing a standard of flexible work scheduling where nearly every parent worked either fewer hours per day or fewer days per week without negative repercussions, formal or otherwise, not so much as a raised eyebrow. They were regarded as equal members of the team and their contributions were valued equally to those who chose to work more.