The issue of G+L on “Women in Planning”, which among other things highlights discrimination against women in planning, prompted Kamel Louafi to comment on the latest case of discrimination in the planning industry.
The February issue of Garten + Landschaft on “Women in Planning”, which, among other things, highlights discrimination against women in planning, caught the attention of Kamel Louafi and prompted the landscape architect to comment on the latest discrimination case from our industry.
You have probably noticed, but here is a summary of the latest case of discrimination in our industry: A young Egyptian applies for an internship at a Berlin office in January 2020: GKK Architekten in Berlin. Swantje Kühn, owner of GKK, who also works as a professor, writes to her secretary in response to his application: “No Arabs, please.” The email is accidentally sent to the student, who posts it on Twitter. His tweet spreads rapidly on social networks. Swantje Kühn said it was an oversight and she wanted to invite “the Arab” for an interview. The office wrote in a statement that the application had inadvertently been assigned to an ongoing job advertisement for projects in China. They were looking for an employee for China and the intern did not speak Chinese.
For me, the statement is a clear excuse. Nevertheless, I had hoped that after the racist slip-up, a debate about discrimination in general, i.e. all minorities, women, people with disabilities, foreigners or even newcomers to the industry, would be triggered. Unfortunately, this hope was very, very short-lived. Nothing happened. Swantje Kühn was not called to account by universities, architects’ associations, the Chamber or in her second function as a member of the Supervisory Board of the Berlin Zoological Garden. And this despite the fact that the General Equal Treatment Act – also known colloquially as the Anti-Discrimination Act – prohibits non-compliance with equal treatment.
“Anonymous competition was and is the best way to survive in the profession”
What kind of signal does this send to all those people who come here to gain knowledge? As for me – I will always report on exclusion and each of us should address such issues in our industry at every opportunity, such as at lectures and discussions, in forums, at trade fairs and conferences. And not simply shelve them, as is usually the case in our industry.
I am happy to have realized 90 percent of my projects through anonymous competitions. A juror like Swantje Kühn wouldn’t have been able to guess which person – in my case an Arab – was behind the work. This form of competition was and is the best way for all people, and especially for those who might be discriminated against, to succeed in their profession.
“When it comes to discrimination, no public solidarity can be expected from colleagues”
I do not believe that politics can in any way successfully combat the discrimination and disadvantaging of minorities or the non-observance of equal treatment, not even with quota regulations. Nor can we expect any solidarity from colleagues in our industry when it comes to discrimination or equal treatment – just as little as from the associations. I would rather hope for a generation of globalization whose hearts do not carry the stigma of exclusion. But raising awareness in society, especially in our industry, is important and necessary at the moment.
“Fortunately, civil society exists”
In its current issue, G+L writes: “At the moment, it is downright hip to stand up for women’s rights and an absolute no-go not to take part in the relevant debates” – and yes, gender equality is an issue that no one can avoid these days. It is right and necessary to take it up and debate it, just as it would be right to address other issues of discrimination. I can only speak of luck that there is a civil society that does not stop denouncing discrimination and is also very creative in doing so: think, for example, of the recent Google location of the GKK office: marked as a public toilet with the Germania building in the background.
Kamel Louafi is a Berliner, German-Algerian, cartographer, landscape architect, artist and author. He studied cartography in Algeria and landscape architecture at the TU Berlin. Despite his departure from the operative business, he will continue to intervene in the social discourse – as in this opinion piece.
