Maya Bird-Murphy’s equity-based and community-engaged approach to design equips people with the skills to build better places to live. She believes the design field must expand to include more perspectives and spearheads projects that include skill-building workshops, community gatherings, and building networks.

In the following conversation, Maya speaks with Nadine Nakanishi, USA’s Designer-in-Residence, about her creative upbringing, how the design field is evolving, and a new upcoming project exploring alternative practices across the US.

Nadine Nakanishi: To start, who have been important teachers and influences in your life?

Maya Bird-Murphy: If I go all the way back, I think my parents were big influences. They’re both lawyers, which is a very different situation from architecture, but they both did work that had to do with public interest. Figuring out how to use our skills to help people or try to make positive change has always been part of growing up.

Frank Lloyd Wright, too, in a weird way. I’m not a huge fan of him as a man, but I grew up in Oak Park, Illinois, so it was impossible not to hear about him or see a building of his almost every day of my childhood. So subconsciously, I think that’s always there. 

I went to Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, and that was a huge culture shock, especially coming from Chicago. It was all white, all Christian. Even though it was a really big school with 20,000 people, it was just a very different setting. Architecture was very white. I really struggled to finish that program but I had two teachers of color who I kind of clung to and I traveled with. That’s where I got the education about social architecture, which I wasn’t getting anywhere else. 

Undergrad was when I started to look around and realize how privileged I was growing up in a place like Oak Park. I didn’t really realize that until I left, and I think that's where I started to connect the dots, where I first thought, I wanted to do something meaningful with architecture. I love architecture, but what we were learning in school was mostly Western architecture, learning about white male architects… and so I was trying to figure out how to stay in architecture. I knew that I loved it, but I also wanted to do something that was more meaningful and actually put people first. That was really hard to figure out because our field is not set up for that.

Nadine: The Western-centric canon in design education doesn’t often acknowledge other ways of building or making. When we’re looking at current architectural trends — like biophilic design, smart materials, or adaptive reuse, and all these buzzwords — do you think architecture is learning from that history or do you think it’s just a different framework we’re facing that forces the discourse to be different?

Maya: Well, I do think they’re buzzwords. I think there’s a lot of performative stuff going on in our field. With the murder of George Floyd, for example, a bunch of architects came out with DEI statements claiming they wanted to help people, they didn’t believe in racism, et cetera. But it’s not necessarily going that deep. I think that the field will use buzzwords and act like they’re going in the right direction toward change, but they’re doing just enough for it to look good to the outside world.

The world is changing pretty rapidly. I think climate change is going to become really inconvenient for people pretty soon and maybe that’s when the field is going to be forced to do something differently, but right now, it’s doing everything exactly the same as always. It is mostly benefiting people who have wealth and people who can afford to have design services.

Nadine: I witness that. I’m definitely following you on that, which brings me to acquiring design exposure in the built environment. How do you help people become aware of it and develop their understanding?

Maya: I acquired design because I had the privilege of architecture being all over the place when I was growing up; I had people who knew about architecture. I didn’t have to do any extra work to learn about what architecture was, and then I had the privilege of being able to see myself as a designer or an architect. After I went to Muncie, I realized that people who grow up there may not have acquired architecture in the way that I was speaking of. If they’re not seeing building happening, if they never see a crane in their neighborhood or are seeing stuff being torn down but not necessarily built up, those people are never going to think to themselves, I can be an architect. That’s such a jump if you don’t have access to the knowledge or you aren’t represented. 

With Mobile Makers, a lot of the programs that we do with young people are about going outside. We take different walks to use all of our senses to really understand our surroundings and understand everything that is designed. In our world, kids don’t necessarily go around looking at stuff; they have to be prompted to do that. We talk about all the things that are designed, especially if they’re designed in a negative or harmful way, like redlining and gentrification, or those benches that are made so that people can’t sleep on them. Talking about the negative sides of the design helps us to start to look toward the future and say we can redesign them because they’re all designed. The hope is that we’re giving youth the skills and agency to speak to the change that is needed and redesign it themselves.

With kids, it all comes down to how these spaces make them feel. They’re thinking through all of their senses and then taking notes, sketching, doing what they need to do to really feel out the space. We take them to spaces that are nicely designed, and then we take them to places that are uncomfortable or not well-designed. They can be loud or dirty. Having them experience the difference between those two spaces starts to make it easier to understand how space affects them. The first step always comes down to the question, how does this space make me feel? 

The second step is, if this is a less successful space, how do I communicate how to make it better? That’s literally the workshop. And then we can have that conversation in empty lots or underutilized areas, but I think we need to have that understanding first of how the space is making you feel and then to make it feel more safe or inspired or whatever those words are that you want the space to be instead.

Nadine: Working with youth has been a big part of your practice and I am curious how it has informed your practice around architectural discourse.

Maya: Well, I can say it’s very inspiring. We work with a lot of teen groups at Mobile Makers and I think some people forget that teens know what’s going on around them. They know exactly what’s going on, what’s wrong, and what they would rather have. It’s amazing to give them the space to develop those ideas because they’re really serious and good and make an actual impact in our world, which is pretty cool.

I think it’s harder to answer the part about how it helps me in my practice because — I definitely wrote this in my USA Fellowship application — I have not had time to do or think about anything else. This award is really special because it gives me some of that space back. I’m excited to be working on another project that is about design practices that are doing things differently in the US. I’m excited to get back into music because I really enjoy it and it calms me. I don’t really have an answer right now. Give me a year.

Nadine: It is nice to hear that the award has opened this window for you. It’s very impactful for me to hear these things because you facilitate so many different spaces. Between being an educator and the CEO of an organization, have new frameworks emerged that you want to explore? I can imagine these activities surfacing discoveries.

Maya: Definitely. I do a lot of administrative work now and so, I think what’s been cool about Mobile Makers is that I was very intentional to leave it a little bit open. We weren’t just going to do programs, but we could also do community engagement. We could do design projects sometimes, installations, and our work with the Chicago Architecture Biennial, for example. There are constantly different problems to solve; it has really kept me on my toes, but then it also makes it easy to dream about cool projects that we could do in the future. 

I excel most at designing frameworks even though I went to school for designing buildings. I have found that I am good at thinking through and redesigning systems, and that’s something that I didn't really think about when I started. Having this practice for seven years has given me the confidence to do this other project, Alternative Practice, which is still very related, but trying to address a different system within the design field and built environment. We’re creating a catalog of all of the people who are in the US doing work in the built environment in a very non-traditional way: specifically, to solve real world issues.

Nadine: I find it so cool and important and an important gesture to put all these inquiries on par with each other because that’s where exchange happens. Bringing things together, letting things sit together, is often where innovation emerges. What’s been currently on your mind? How have collaborations here in Chicago impacted you?

Maya: Chicago is special. Yes, I’m biased, I've been here my whole life, but Chicago is so special. I’ve always known that but some places are a lot less friendly, where it’s a lot harder to do things. Chicago is so collaborative and scrappy; people are so hardworking. This environment has helped me flourish. I’m so glad that I started Mobile Makers in Chicago because I don’t know if we would have been as successful if we had started in another place. 

When I started out, I looked for other people who were already doing this work, and that helped.  For example: Latent Design was founded by Katherine Darnstadt; she’s one of the OG alternative practices and started to practice fourteen years ago. Emily Pilloton-Lam, who founded Girls Garage, went to the School of the Art Institute in Chicago and now is in California, but she was one of those people that I called during my thesis. She went out of her way to take the time to talk to me about my ideas. That was really supportive in my journey. 

Overall, we still aren’t networked enough and we aren’t able to support each other enough because we’re so busy doing our own projects. I don’t know if it’s just because I’m here and I just know people but it feels like there’s a huge amount of these alternative practices in Chicago. And so it’s about how we gain collective power through our network and then start to actually disrupt the status quo. That’s the main goal.

Nadine: With this new project, Alternative Practice, what are some things that have struck you in the process of starting it?

Maya: We’re just starting to do interviews, but there’s so much to be learned. The amount of nuance in each of these practices is ridiculous. Everyone’s doing things in different ways while trying to solve similar problems. And so how are people addressing issues in their own community and how can we learn from each other? Because you know their cities have a lot of the same issues and we can really learn from each other if someone figures something out.

Some Chicago friends of mine, Duo Development, are figuring out how to crowdfund to open a community building. Residents within a ten-block radius of the building were able to invest in it and will get a yearly payout. They asked themselves, how do we completely reinvent a way to own a building? And that’s just one firm that’s doing this! It’s the first of its kind in Chicago, and maybe in the country, but they don't have a marketing team, you know? Nobody is hearing about them unless they're going to very specific places to understand what they’re doing. That’s what we’re trying to uncover and make super accessible. 

Alternative Practice is going to be a website. We’re probably writing a book. By “we” I mean me and a friend, Verda Alexander. It will be a place where you can read about these very specific stories and understand how people are successfully running their businesses.

Nadine: These kinds of projects are so impactful and important, especially because they’re led by artists and designers. It came from a real need and was made by the community that needed it. Your practice is also moving into a space of publishing. How’s that been?

Maya: Well, that remains to be seen. I’m gonna call you and the team. I have no clue about any of that. Verda has published before so she has some knowledge, but this is all new to me.

Nadine: I cannot wait to check it out. It makes me think about all the programming you are part of. When it comes to your practice, what are the overlaps between the conversations you are having in those circles and the design or even art sector?

Maya: When thinking of folks who are interested in “capital A” architecture, it’s easy for them to look at what I’m doing and say, oh, that’s just a youth summer camp. It’s easy to look down on it, so in the beginning, I was very intentional about having my foot in both worlds to make sure they were connected as much as possible. The Chicago Architecture Biennial is a perfect example of that, where you have contributors from all over the world in the exhibition alongside a group of teens who created an installation for it, too. I’m interested in how we continue to have all of the same conversations across the board. Because they're just as relevant.

Nadine: I am going to veer a little bit into freestyle. We’re in Chicago; we are such an interdisciplinary city. We’re also a city of improvisation, and it’s a gift to have that in the middle of the country. I’m curious when you're starting out on these kinds of discoveries or inquiries, getting collaborators together, is your process pretty solidified or is it open-ended? 

Maya: That’s a good question. Mobile Makers was my first real big project where I actually got to sit down and think through what I thought the gaps were. Because it was my thesis, I had so much space and guidance through that time to put down all of my thoughts and feelings and then formulate ideas from them. I also had a thesis professor who really pushed me. He’s the one who said, this could be a real thing. It didn’t need to just be a little book that I put together to graduate. 

Now that we have this privilege where a number of eyes have been on the project—that means that people reach out with cool ideas for collaboration, it kind of depends on what the partnership is. Sometimes we’re making these ideas ourselves, like the Design Summit for Friends of Friends. That was an idea where we saw a gap in this type of discussion or dialogue and wanted to do something about it, so we went for grant funding to initiate that. Other times, we’re having partners come to us and say, we have this idea and want to partner with you. Both are super exciting.

I’ve been fully surprised by the success of Mobile Makers. I thought it was going to be a side project. But it’s amazing that we have the privilege of doing these collaborations and having access to grants and sponsorship money. The outside world now knows that they can trust us to get the job done in a cool and creative way. It’s all an experiment. There’s not necessarily a business plan that we have to stick to; I think we’re continuing to evolve. We’ll continue to change depending on what's happening in the world. That's how we stay agile and innovative: by responding to what’s happening and not just being stagnant.

We just went through a construction and build-out process at our space in the Kimball Arts Center. Once this is open, we can do year-round programming and hope to reach at least a thousand youth per year. We’re just very excited about the design of the space, which includes a beautiful functional office and workshop space.

Nadine: Congratulations! That’s huge.

This is an edited transcript of an interview conducted via Zoom in May 2024.