On March 14, 2024, Ignacio G. Galán, assistant professor of architecture, received a 2024 Architectural Education Award for Faculty Design for his project Aging Against the Machine.
As Galán and his colleagues explain, older people in the United States are often either isolated at home or subjected to institutionalized forms of care. Focusing on West Oakland, where older residents are often faced with precarious living conditions, insufficient public infrastructure and amenities, and limited caregiving options, Aging Against the Machine aims to improve the reality of aging. Expanding on past and ongoing grassroots work, the project advocates for alternative housing and community development for the aging to increase care options, improve physical access to the city, enhance resource sharing, and strengthen community ties. Aging Against the Machine has developed its goals in solidarity with local residents through a series of roundtables and conversations. The project has manifested in the city through a variety of proposals—from interior home renovations to collective land ownership models and intergenerational housing projects.
Presented by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA), the Faculty Design Award honors work that advances the reflective nature of practice and teaching by recognizing and encouraging creativity and investigation in architecture and related fields, and by promoting work that expands the boundaries of design. Through their work on Aging Against the Machine, Galán and his colleagues have made significant strides in contributing to an intersectional, community-based approach to aging.