Architecture, And: Michael Ford on Hip Hop, Innovation, and Representation in Practice

A Welcome to Practice Disrupted, a podcast where we find ways to create new solutions to current challenges while elevating the value of architects. I'm your host, Evelyn Li, an architect who spans tech as an angel investor, startup advisor, and founder of Practice of Architecture. Whether you're a seasoned architect or just starting in the field, this podcast podcast is your gateway to think differently about the role architects play within our global community. Hello, disruptors. Welcome to this week's episode of Practice Disrupted. Today, we're diving into a conversation at the intersection of architecture, culture and entrepreneurship with the hip hop architect, Michael Ford. Michael has built his career around increasing diversity in architecture through culturally relevant education. As a founder of the hip hop architecture camp, he's introduced thousands of underrepresented youth to design through the lens of hip hop culture.

A His work has been featured by the Oprah Winfrey Network, The Today Show, Rolling Stone, and Architect Magazine. And his mission is clear, to create more pathways into the profession for Black and Brown creatives. Beyond education, Michael is an entrepreneur who has built brand new design studio into a platform for both cultural impact and business innovation. His work includes leading the design of the Universal Hip Hop Museum in The Bronx, set to open in 2026, an iconic space dedicated to celebrating hip hop's influence on music, culture, and design. But Michael's practice extends far beyond traditional architecture. He's forged key partnerships with brands like Herman Miller and Shaw Carpets, using design to tell powerful stories while creating new revenue streams that redefine what's possible for architects. As a past president of Wisconsin Noma, Michael has also been a strong advocate for expanding opportunities for minority architects. And from receiving the Spirit of Detroit Award to having his own Michael Forde, his impact continues to grow.

A Today, we're talking about breaking barriers, using hip hop as a tool for storytelling and activism, and why entrepreneurship along with diverse revenue streams supports his mission to have more Black and Brown voices shape the future of architecture. Let's get into it. Hi, Michael. Welcome to Practice Disrupted. This show, I feel, has been a long time in the making. So I'm so excited to have you join us today.

B I'm excited to be here. Yes. It's been a long time coming, but this is the perfect time for it to happen.

A I do wanna say I appreciate the energy that you have. When I see you, though, you always put a smile on my face, and I I'm known for telling people that I, like, have resting not so happy face. So thank you for bringing that smile to my face every time we we see each other.

B That is funny. It's enough stuff to frown about today, so you got you gotta be happy.

A Yeah. No. Absolutely. So I wanna kick it off with what you're best known for, which I think is the hip hop architecture camp. For those who have no idea what the hip hop architecture camp is, can you give us a little bit of background and and how it got started?

B Yeah. So I started the hip hop architecture camps in 2016. At that time, I was living in Madison, Wisconsin, and we started the camp with this idea that, we needed to get young people around the city of Madison to be more civically engaged. The city was updating the comprehensive plan, and they had community engagement going on across the city. But at those engagement sessions, those meetings, there were no young people there, and this was looking thirty years into the future of the city of Madison. So I said, simply, there's no young people here. Thirty years from now, you know, they're gonna inherit a plan that they're not part of. So I challenged the city.

B I said, hey. I can get some young people to come out and be a part of this comprehensive plan. They're gonna be the young people who inherit it. Got the city excited, but I didn't mention hip hop until the last moment. So I said that? I'll do it through music. I'll get them to come out. They were already sold. They wanted me to get young people out, and we ran a hip hop architecture camp that was all based on the initiatives that the city was was interested in doing over the next thirty years.

B So so looking at transportation, communication, and everything else that, the city of Madison was focused on. Camp went great. We made a rap video about the city's comprehensive plan. It's in the city's comp plan right now, with these young folks talking about

A That's amazing.

B Yeah. It it it was pretty fun. And, you know, that rap video with kids talking about the city, talking about architecture and all the things related to, again, what that complaint was about. It it got a lot of views and got picked up. You know, Autodesk seen it, and, you know, Autodesk was the first partner to come to me and say, you know, let's have young people around the country look at architecture the same way. So they funded me to take the camp to five different cities. The camp is a one week program, and we have young people explore rap lyrics, and we have them deconstruct lyrics that are talking about the city, talking about their block, the school they went to, the house they grew up in. We have young people listen to lyrics that critique architecture, and then we challenge them to solve those critiques, themselves by making new architecture, making new ideas for their cities, again, respond to the the issues they hear in music every day.

A I wanna go a little bit deeper on that because I feel like when I first heard about the hip hop architecture camp, I was like, oh, this is just a cool way to relate something that kids are really excited about to architecture. But there's actually a deeper relationship, and you touched upon that kind of the lyrics within those songs about the cities and the communities with which they happen. So can you talk a little bit more about that relationship and why there is that deep connection between hip hop and architecture that most people probably just won't draw on their own?

B Yeah. That that's a good question. So I gave a TEDx before. The TEDx is called hip hop as the post occupancy evaluation of modernism. Now partly, I gave it that long title to seem interesting to the TEDx reviewers. I wanted them to be baffled by what that title was and to get curious. But what that title says is, like, you know, hip hop is this first person, unfiltered, unsolicited critique of space and place. You have artists who are, again, they're talking about not only the architecture and urban planning, they're talking about the policies that are housed within those structures.

B Right? They're talking about history that right now is being taken away from our our curricula across the country. Right? All of that is embedded within the music, and that post occupancy evaluation, I I talk about in that TEDx how Corbu, Robert Moses, and other architects, planners, you know, have used architecture as a a tool for destruction in some of these communities. When you think about, you know, The Bronx, for example, but not just The Bronx, right, almost every major city across the country where strategies like urban renewal, you know, the Highway Construction Act decimated communities of color. And a lot of times, you've seen the responses to the to those hostile hostile acts played out through art, and hip hop was probably the most popular art form that, responds to some of these injustices. So what we get people to do is say, let's slow down the music. Let's print out the lyrics. Let's really understand what's being discussed. Let's not be triggered by any words that may throw you off, any profanity, but let's really look at how they are describing the environments that they grew up in or that they are currently living in.

B And then let's create solutions. Often tell other architects, if you don't like hip hop, you don't like what they're talking about, we should start to build better communities, better neighborhoods, get more involved so that the music that they create, is different. Right? They're just responding to us as a profession.

A So now the hip hop architecture camp has been like, you're you're in your ninth year. So are there any moments in particular that stand out over those nine years or any other outcomes from those camps that are available to to share out? Just anything that stands out as an extra special moment that came out of the camps?

B Such a tough question, because nine years of bringing hip hop artists, bringing bringing architects, designers, and young people together. There's been a lot of, you know, memorable moments, but a few. I I'll I'll give a few that stand out. I I'll say the the most incredible experience is now that, you know, we're in our ninth year. Some of the young people that we've been working with, they're they're now going to college. So to be able to see the young people who discovered architecture through the hip hop architecture camp, and they're they're now, you know, students at colleges and universities, you know, that's a great feeling. So three years ago, we started a a scholarship program. So a $10,000 scholarship for past participants in the camps.

B So thanks to all of our, you know, people who helped out with that, like Miller Noe, you know, Ford, etcetera, Shaw contract. But we've you know, we're we're now seeing young people in in this specifically, this one young lady who just won a scholarship. She came to our hip hop architecture camp, and she only came to win a pair of Beats by Dre headphones. That's something we give away. We have a rap battle, and you're rapping about your architectural project. So you're not doing a your typical, here's the front door. Here's my front elevation or my north elevation. Right? They got one rap verse to present their project.

B And as a part of the the prize, you get a pair of Beats by Dre headphones. And that's all she came there for. She wanted a pair of Beats by Dre because she said her mother would not buy her any. And she's now her second year of architecture school. So after coming to Winnipeg Of Beats, she she's now in architecture, and she won our scholarship this year. And then I think another moment was when we did our first international camp. So we partnered with rapper Lupe Fiasco. Well, I can't say rapper Lupe Fiasco.

B I gotta say rapper and professor. He's now teaching at MIT, teaching at Yale. He's he's everywhere teaching about hip hop in some very interesting spaces. But we partnered to do a international, camp where we went to Kenya. So just outside of Nairobi, we partnered with the Samburu tribe where we went to an organization called the Samburu Girls Foundation. It's a organization that rescues young girls from, you know, harmful practices like female genital mutilation, early marriage, and they built their own campus out in, it's called Marilau, Kenya, but they didn't have any running water. They had no plumbing on the campus. So we ran a hip hop architecture camp there.

B And our goal before meeting Lupe was to simply ask young people what do they need most, and we were gonna reach out to hip hop artists to try to provide that need. I told Lupe Fiasco about it, and he said, well, I think we both know what they're gonna say. It's gonna be water. And just so happened that Lupe Fiasco was on the board of a a program called the Zero Mass Water. And making a longer story short, Lupe and the team at Zero Mass Water, they came out with us when we did the camp, and then we surprised all the young girls at the San Buu Girl's Foundation with installing these water panels. It it, like, takes it condenses water vapor from the air, condenses it, turns it into drinking water. Bowie installed enough panels on their campus to give, like, 230 girls access to water. So it went from being a camp that talks about problems to a camp that literally solves problems that, are found in music.

A That's amazing. I was also looking just through your website, and so we'll link, you know, hip hop architecture camp down in our show notes, but there's so many videos that have come out of the the camps too that are available on YouTube. So I I realized I've I've been missing out on some good YouTube videos that I should go check out.

B Yeah. The the kids have fun with those, and I think that the great thing about those music videos is it's always the last day of the camp. The kids are having fun, but also the volunteers, the architects, the designers who are there. But all of those videos, when you take a second to listen to what the young people are rapping about, you'll start to hear their presentation in their verse because, again, each person is talking about maybe the homeless shelter that they designed. They're talking about, you know, the the better classroom they designed. So you'll hear hints of those things within their lyrics. So we got nine years of music that, again, these young people talking about design ideas that will empower them and allow them to be their best selves in their neighborhood.

A When you said that they had to wrap kind of their project in a single verse, so two things came to mind really quickly. One is that would, like, terrify as an introvert, that would terrify me, and I don't know if I would ever be capable of doing that. But two, I was like, god, there are a lot of architects who could not put into to a single verse, like, any of their project descriptions. Nice. So there's a lot they could learn from that, I think.

B It it is a lot. It it's a lot. But what we and our young people, they're they're nervous. A lot of them are scared. We bring in rappers to help them understand, you know, what it means to put a verse together and giving them the confidence to speak. Like, one of the things we tell all of our young people is that your voice is a gift, And I like to believe that, you know, some of the young people that we work with, like, they understand hip hop. They're they're born into the culture. They live, breathe, and eat hip hop, and they have a unique voice, a unique communication skill that everyone around the globe is copying.

B Like, there's no country, no city you can go to that's not somehow immersed into hip hop. So they're copying the the young, you know, black and brown children here around The US. So let's not stifle that voice that makes you unique. Let's not stifle that thing that everyone is trying to copy. Let's instead have you bring it into a new profession, see if it can cross over and and be a tool that makes you unique from your peers. So we we talked to them about the power behind hip hop, the power behind rap and and finding your voice. And then for people who do get shy, we just hype them up. You get in a circle with so much energy around you, you're gonna do it.

A So the camps are still going on. Like, what cities, how do I participate if I know young people that would be interested in participating? And then on the flip side of that, how do how do we support the work that you're doing through these hip hop architecture camps?

B You know, to date, we've done the hip hop architecture camp in in 42 cities and in three countries. The camps are always free. You know, we don't take any payment from young folks. If you want to know where camps are happening, people can go to hiphoparchitecture.com. You can sign yourself or, you know, one of your young people up. There's a tab on there that allows you to say that you're interested in the camp, and if one comes to your city, we'll be sure to let you know, how to sign up for it. And then ways to support the camp, you know, for people who might want to volunteer, you can definitely go to our camp. Again, hiphoparchitecturecamp.com, and you can express your interest in volunteering for the camp.

B And then we're always looking for host. You know? So we've partnered with architecture firms, with interior design firms, cities. We've, at times, partnered with firms who are doing community engagement around a specific project. So we're always looking for host that we can partner with to bring the camp to a city. So there's another opportunity, again, on the website where you can fill out your interest in hosting a camp.

A Amazing. So I kinda wanna leave this discussion, but you are a multifaceted individual. So I also feel like, at some point, we're going to have to move on. But you did, at one point, mention that, you know, Miller Knoll was a sponsor of the camp. And they the camp has attracted a lot of interest, I think, beyond the architecture community, which I which in and of itself has been a very powerful thing too to talk about the value and the lens with which architects can shape communities. And I feel like in the best way possible, you've leveraged that into other entrepreneurial endeavors to continue to grow your mission and vision. Can you talk about how kind of you reinterpret the the iconic Eames lounge chair with a collaboration between Herman Miller a little while back?

B Yeah. So, yeah, partnered with with Herman Miller, and we remixed, you know, the iconic, like, Eames, Lounge, Cher, and Ottoman. I always loved this chair. It's been a part of my lectures since I've been doing hip hop architecture lectures, and I always talked about remixing this chair. But, I did a mural in in Madison, Wisconsin. This was during the height of the uprisings, you know, after the murder of George Floyd, you know, as a a favor to a good friend on the arts commission. She had someone bail on her, and she needed an artist to do a a mural. So I put a mural together that evening.

B Me and a few friends went out and painted it, but I basically painted, like, one strike or one tick mark for every second that, former officer Chauvin had his knee on George Floyd's neck. And there was a more of a performative piece. It was filmed as a time lapse. Somebody didn't agree with it. They went and crossed out every tick mark that we painted. They added some racist language to the mural. And I did a a news interview about it, about bringing the community back together to try to fix the mural, and a rep for Helen Miller see me on the news talking about the piece and asked, how can she help? So, like, how can I help? You know? So Evelyn, I said, there's my shot. I said, you know what? I would love to do a mural on a, Eames lounge chair.

B It's too expensive for me to buy. And if I did buy it, I don't think I would do art on it. So she sent me a chair. I didn't I say in a couple days, I got a chair, and I've totally remixed this piece. I went to my Detroit roots. I have the chair hooked up with a team that paints cars. So I have them totally repaint the cars, like, this black, you know, auto paint, very highly reflective. And then I wrote I handwrote names of victims of racial violence from America's history on the chair.

B And the reason this chair, it it was to break canvas for it is because the the Eames a couple, Charles and Ray Eames, when they first designed the chair in the nineteen fifties, they described the chair with these words. They said it's a special refuge from the strains of modern living. So they were designed for good. I mean, not just this chair, but a lot of things they did. They they kept people in mind. They were not just designing products. So I wanted to ask the question of what is that special refuge today for young black men, young black women? Where's our refuge? And I wanted to put that message on that chair and have designers join the conversation. So, again, I ascribed the names of, you know, victims of racial violence throughout America's history.

B And, with Herman Miller, we shipped a chair around the country to have, you know, one on one conversations on their social media accounts where I would interview different activists, hip hop artists. We would talk about some of the names on the chairs, talk about what they're doing in their neighborhoods and communities, and in the end, we we raise money for organizations that do create refuge for young black and brown children. And last note about the chair yeah. The last note about it, it was a personal piece too because, you know, on that chair is the name of my brother-in-law who was murdered in the city of Detroit, you know, by, a Detroit Police Officer. So, it was a personal project, and it really gave an opportunity for us to talk about what is a refuge and for designers to see how we can design for good, have conversations, but more importantly, you know, take action.

A Now my apology for inferring that it actually grew out of the hip hop architecture camps, and thank you for telling me about the the origin story. I think it had such a more powerful intention as a piece than than I could have ever have imagined. So thank you for sharing that.

B Yeah. Thanks. Thanks for giving me a chance to share that project. It was a a heavy project, but one one that was very timely and, you know, hopefully, people can still learn something from some of the names that are on the on the chair.

A Does the chair still exist in exhibit anywhere or or even in any of your spaces anywhere?

B Yeah. So the chair right now is in Madison, Wisconsin, and it is awaiting the Wisconsin Historical Society is acquiring the chair. So that's our, you know, state museum. So they're building a new museum, and it's gonna be one of the exhibits within the Wisconsin Historical Society.

A Great. So it sounds like it's on its way to finding a permanent resident somewhere then.

B Yeah. Yep. I I wish it could be in my living room, but it it it's gonna be in a place where a lot more eyes will see it and, you know, hear the stories of, you know, some of the the victims on that chair and, again, just you know, we called it a chair that makes you take a stand, but we wanted people to understand that, you know, they can contribute in various ways, and this was, you know, one unique way that we use design for good and create as an outlet for people to to get involved. Not everyone is gonna go out and protest. Not everyone is going to, you know, use social media to make posts about things they don't agree with, but this was a a simple way to get involved with some conversations and, again, help raise some money for organizations making safe places for for young kids.

A So that seems to be one of several partnerships and collaborations that you've built with other brands. You also started a rug collection inspired by hip hop with Shaw Contract. Can you talk to us a little bit about how that came about?

B Yeah. So, this is one of the projects I'm I'm most proud of, you know, the collaboration with Shaw contract. So the entire country, especially people who are fans of music, fans of hip hop, was gearing up for hip hop's fiftieth anniversary. And I teamed with Shaw contract to create a rug line. So it was this rug line features one rug for each of the five elements of hip hop. So we have a rug that's dedicated to DJing, graffiti, break dancing, emceeing, and then the fifth element is knowledge. And the rug line was, you know, paying homage to the fiftieth anniversary of hip hop, And what I liked about collaborating with Shaw is that it it wasn't about creating another product for them. Shaw was looking to support the hip hop architecture camp, but in a a unique way, in a way that no one else has done.

B So as people are now, which I love to see, they're specking the project. They're I mean, specking the the rugs on their various projects. Part of the proceeds from the purchase of the rug goes to support the hip hop architecture camp. So instead of doing a a onetime, you know, here's a grant or here's some funding for the hip hop architecture camp. This is something that'll last for years. It gives people a way to support the camp too if you, again, you can't make a donation yourself, but you're an interior designer, you're an architect, you have a project, and this rug line might fit your project. Boom. Here you go.

B Alright? You can support hip hop in in two different ways there. So they were, again, looking to use design for good, and it was my first time designing a product such as that. And to my surprise, you know, at NeoCon, we won, you know, the best flooring product, and then we also won the the most innovative product, at NeoCon that year. We got the HIPAA award from Interior Design magazine. I was like, oh, it's the HIPAA award. That's, like, perfect. I should win that. Right? This is the HIPAA award.

B Yeah.

A Yeah. You know? It was

B no. It was

A I was like, who else would win the hip hip award? I now I'm wondering, like, who are the other winners of the previous winner of the hip award?

B Yeah. So it's an annual award they give away, but it was, like, very fitting with the name. So I always joke, like, yeah. I I have to win the hip award. But, we we had no idea that we would win awards. Like, it was really and the thing I love about everybody at Shaw was they were committed to finding ways that this program could I mean, this collaboration could support young people. We launched a lot and won the awards, but then just to show even much more how much how much they were committed, we renovated a a library in Las Vegas of one of the camps I was doing. And, they came and renovated, one of the team spaces with the rug line that I put together.

B So the rugs, you know, covered the floor, and, you know, it was a special nod that they gave for again, now it's not only a camp riff on you, but now we're we're changing the space with this collaboration. So now when all the young people walk into the room, it's like, hey. I know who designed this floor. I met him. And more importantly, I can do it too.

A No. That's amazing. So one of the things that we talked about when we talked about coming and bringing you on Practice Disrupted is also kind of a more entrepreneurial mindset. Well, for instance, I don't think a lot of people would go to through the process of starting a nonprofit and launching something like the hip hop architecture camp. When Shaw Contracts came to you about this, from a contractual perspective and and being more entrepreneurial, like, how are you thinking about navigating that negotiation conversations with them? And how how would you imagine or how would you recommend other architects approach those conversations as well?

B It it was a unique space to be in. Right? You know, as architects, usually, we are we provide a service, and we're paid one time for that service.

A Right.

B This was different. It was a royalty involved. There was, you know, the the support for the hip hop architecture camp involved. It was a design fee. That was that onetime design fee involved. And I hadn't done anything like that before in the past, so I actually went to folks in the fashion industry. I have a number of friends who are, you know, in the fashion world, so shout out to the people like Tommy Walker at Detroit Versus Everybody. I talk with him.

B I talk with, some of my friends who worked at Gucci. Like, hey, Gucci. You all collaborate with designers all the time. Like, how does that look for you? And for me, that's how I started to approach the project. It was talking to people outside of the architecture world, and fashion was an industry that I I went to to try to understand how these contracts have been made in the past. And I think as an entrepreneur, I mean, it was also an enlightening moment for me to see that, you know, as architects you know, you always hear this about an architect. Like, your your education is so broad. We we learn all these different design tools, graphic tools, and I honestly believe that there's not too many problems that architects can't approach with that creative.

B When working with Shaw and spent some other collaborations that haven't come out yet, but it allowed me to see as a as an architect, you know, there are some other ways for firm owners or entrepreneurs in this world of architecture to to actually live, right, to create alternative revenue streams. And, you know, creating products is something that few architects do, and I I think more should definitely try it out because it's a unique revenue stream for for architects.

A I wanna say that I I have said this, and I've I've read an article where you've said this that, like, like, I firmly believe my ability to affect the architecture community is greater operating outside of any one single firm. And I have said that I will because of that, I will never go I will never, like, one, kinda start my own firm or find myself back in a firm. And I feel like you said that, but then you also ended up launching brand new design studio. So tell me about your thought process there and why you ultimately launched your own design studio.

B Yeah. You know, so I've spent a lot of time working at, you know, other firms, and, you know, there's always projects that you wanna do. Sometimes those projects don't bring the fee that might make them feasible for the firm that you may be at, or sometimes the mission just doesn't align with the firm's mission. But there's also times when a firm's portfolio don't necessarily align with your personal mission. So I started brand new design as a way to work on the projects that are relevant to me. You know, our firm model is we only work on projects that, you know, improve the quality of life or that tell black stories. And it's a model that I borrowed from, a firm I worked at, Flat Architects in Madison, Wisconsin. But our projects are projects that, again, that mean something to us.

B So we've worked on projects like the hip hop museum in The Bronx. And now instead of going to work at another firm and have to absorb their portfolio or have to work on other projects, right, that you might get assigned to. I'm now collaborating with firms and collaborating with firms who, again, share similar missions. So being able to work on a hip hop museum with Gensler. Gensler is the architect of record on that project, and we're the design lead. Being able to work on projects like Tyree Nichols Memorial Skatepark. It's a project we are partnering with the Tony Hawk Foundation, building a park for a young man who was murdered by Memphis PD. Been able to work on the Brownsville Center for the Arts.

B Brownsville is a neighborhood in Milwaukee, you know, decimated by the construction of an expressway. But now leaders have come together to build an African American art museum in that neighborhood. So being able to work on projects that, again, align to our mission, that that's why I launched the firm and been able to to give back as well. Like, we do a lot of pro bono work, and we use a lot of alternative revenue streams. You know, I go out, I lecture, I keynote. You know, those funds come back into our firm and allow us to, you know, investigate or complete projects that are of interest to us and I think are interest to the culture and also really help us tell black stories.

A What does business development then look like for brand new design? I imagine that yours as an individual are established enough, but then to then say that you have a firm that you can partner with. Are are you finding that people are coming to you, or are you actively going out and seeking these projects out as well?

B It's a little bit of both. So BD looks like Mike taking off the architect hat, and then I put on the business development hat, and I go out. And sometimes it is not linear. Right? You know, it's it was a keynote I'd given somewhere three, four, eight years ago. Right? And someone in that audience now is leading a project, and they said, hey. That was a thought provoking discussion. We want you to come and, you know, lead this project, be a part of this project, or put a proposal in for this project. So sometimes the business development was not thought of when I was out lecturing.

B It was really me just sharing my love of architecture and love of hip hop, and those have chartered the project for me. And then other times, this and development is a challenge because people know about the hip hop architecture camp before they meet me. They're like, oh, you're you're the guy who'd started the camp. Like, oh, and they'll think, you know, I'm an educator, or they've seen scholarships that we've given away. Like, oh, you do philanthropy. You you give away

A You're you're kind of bucketed into

B You right. And then they find out, oh, you're a licensed architect. Oh, you have a firm as well. Right? So most a lot of the media around the hip hop architecture kind of which is great, but it's usually in a room far before I'm there. That's what happens when you get lucky and be on, like, Oprah Winfrey, Super Soul Sunday or Rolling Stone magazine, The Today Show. Like, those things get shared very broadly. So one of the challenges is being able to, you know, let people know we have a practice. And but luckily, you know, it's been some great firms and, you know, again, shout out to firms like Gensler who will partner, you know, to get projects done.

B We're a small office, and, you know, Gangster has been a great partner, not just with some professional projects, but also over the years with the the hip hop architecture camp. And other firms, HGA, I'm partnering with them on the project in Milwaukee. But I think that's the most difficult thing about business development is overcoming the goodness of the hip hop architecture camp to let people know I have mouths to feed, and I'm not just talking about my own kid. I'm talking about, you know, staff members with young people too.

A I wanna preface this next question by saying, like, I respect that you called it the brand new design studio versus Michael Ford's design. I guess, for everyone every new firm owner that's out there that's thinking about putting their name on the the letterhead, why did you choose not to?

B Well, at at the time when I started the firm, you know, I was saying that, you know, we needed a brand new way of thinking about things. We needed a brand new approach to architecture and the list of brand new things can go on. But the whole idea was about being brand new. And one of the challenges is that it did not say Michael Ford. So when people would see brand new design, I mean, they would need to read our the about us or, you you know, the proposal that we sent out. They would need to really read that to associate it with me. But that was one of the other challenges too that I've had to overcome. But with, you know, notable projects like, you know, the hip hop museum in The Bronx, you know, we're now working on a hip hop museum in Memphis, Tennessee, The the brand has started to become synonymous with me.

B So I will say, as some business development one zero one, if I started over, I would definitely say this is Michael Ford Design Studio or something like that. But, again, I started off with brand new just because, again, I wanted to have a a a brand new approach, you know, to design, and that's why I didn't just call it Michael Ford. I wanted to be something even more relevant than just putting my name on it. Like, I want it to represent being new.

A I completely respect that. I I feel just from a a practicality standpoint, while it probably may have impact like, in fact, better for you to put Michael Ford, like, in letterhead at the beginning, I feel like we always have to question, like, what does that mean for the legacy of the firm as you look at passing that on to the next generation too, right, and their ability to continue to shape the firm after a leader has stepped away. So from that point, I think I appreciate that you did call it the brand new design studio and the evolution of what it can mean being brand new now, but also brand new in the future.

B Yes. Yes. I mean, I had those thoughts too about those names. You know? Yeah. We me and my wife had a long discussion about what the firm name would be, and some of those things crossed our mind.

A How do you balance it's a lot because you you talk about alternative sources of revenue, but then how do you balance how much of the firm profitability you're able to give away to to kind of the the research, which people usually equate to overhead. And maybe you found a way to make money off of research, which I think we would all love to hear. But, also, like, balancing the aspect of social change and the type of projects you wanna pursue with having enough money coming in and then deciding how you wanna grow grow the practice all at once?

B Yeah. I would say that, enough is a funny word. I don't know if enough money comes in or not. But I I will say this. Luckily, we've been able to make research a part of our projects. Right? We are we're big on music. And not just music, but graffiti. You know, one of my, designers is also a DJ.

B Like, you know, music is infused into our team, but then also on the projects that we're working on. So we can use some of that research that I've been doing before starting the firm, and it feeds right into the projects that we're doing. But then also the new research, especially when working on hip hop museums, you know, so we're our research is is not severed from our practice. It's what makes our practice work. It's what makes us unique, and they're they're hand in hand. So it's not a a separate line item for us as much when it comes to research. Like, it's it's usually part of our deliverable on some projects. And then as far as, you know, managing time and and managing those resources, I think that's something that, you know, we always we're trying to perfect.

B It changes depending on what we're working on, but I think the most important thing for us, as a young firm is making sure that our our staff is happy. And, you know, we do unique things. Like, our team, every day before we start a Zoom, we do music video of the day. This sets our mood for the day, but it also, we use it for messaging. Like, we I'm challenging our team to to find words and to find messages within music that relates to the projects that we're working on. Then sometimes those, again, boil over right to our project. For instance, when we deliver packages for the hip hop museum in The Bronx, at times, we will have our designer. He's a DJ.

B And when I say DJ, he's not like the DJ who shows up with the MacBook and plays music from a playlist. Like, he has vinyl huge vinyl wall behind him, but our deliverables would include, you know, performances, you know, by him as a DJ, right, and the music he would perform is or the music that he would play, again, is related to our projects. So when we're making a playlist for our office, this is not just a feel good making playlist. It's also related to work, and it's part of the deliverable. And, again, I think we're always finding ways to to loop that research in and be a part of deliverable so that we don't have a huge overhead of, let's just research this topic, but, you know, not have, again, something to to build it to.

A I appreciate kinda that little cultural moment that you shared of your your office. I feel like that's probably truly unique to being a part of brand new studio. And I feel like now we we started this podcast with the hip hop architecture camp, and it's kind of a full circle moment about how it plays out in the day to day, every day before each Zoom. So as we're looking to close out the podcast, what advice do you find yourself often giving to young designers who are are just, you know and even even back to the story that you shared out of Hip Hop Architects, that young girl who is now in architecture school, what advice do you find yourself giving to people that are just coming out of architecture school and looking at the types of careers that they can can build now within the industry, but also beyond?

B Yeah. I think the advice I probably give out the most to young people coming into the profession, one is, you know, find your lane. You know, I I think the best way to make an impact is to to specialize in something that you're passionate about and, you know, try to to stay in that lane as much as you can, and that's one way to make yourself unique and, stand out amongst your peers. And then, you know, if I had to give two more, I would say definitely diversify your income streams. You know, use as much of your talent as you can to to make new revenue streams. Get out there and lecture. You know, perfect your perfect your lane by sharing it, having it critiqued by others. Get out to conferences, do seminars.

B But those seminars that you're usually doing for free will eventually, you know, turn into to keynotes or, you know, paid opportunities as you, again, continue to to develop your lane. And then the last piece I would say is build a strong network. I don't think I would have been able to start a practice without having a a strong, network. And that network doesn't mean only or or focusing only on meeting other architects. But that network is where your projects are gonna come from. It's where you're gonna find your consultants. It's how you're gonna partner to do other projects in in cities or states where you need partnerships. But more importantly, again, it's where your projects are gonna come from.

B So developing strong relationships with your peers as as college students. They'll eventually be running offices and hiring architects one day. But a strong network goes a very long way, and there's no, in my opinion, perfect way of building a strong network. So I I advise everyone to be as diverse as possible when building up that network. I think for me in this discussion around, you know, encouraging people to be entrepreneurs, to take risks, to find yourself in architecture, me talking in architecture circles about hip hop architecture was not always a palatable discussion. Early on, it was, you know, what's the relationship between the two? They have no relationship. They shouldn't be in the same space. This is pandering to, you know, different communities to get them to come into architecture.

B Some people even go as far to say, you know, you're disrespecting yourself by calling yourself the hip hop architect. You should just be an architect. So early on, this was not a palatable discussion. But I also knew who my audience was. My audience was not architects. I was not trying to convince them that hip hop architecture, was relevant. It was to those communities that, I wanted to come into architecture. I wanted them to not check their culture at the door.

B I wanted them to bring that flare that every other profession has been able to galvanize around and and basically create uniqueness within those professions, whether it's automotive industry, the fashion industry, graphic design, and the list goes on. People that have accepted that there's a new generation that is heavily influenced by hip hop, and they are now professionals, and they could bring that that flare into their profession. I think architecture is one of those last professions that hasn't acknowledged or been able to see, how hip hop can influence our profession. So I was committed to making sure that our profession saw that. So when I would get critiques, it only made me stronger to go out. But it helped me, again, define my lane. It helped me diversify my income, and that's the way that I built my network. And now to be working on projects that are all about hip hop, you know, it's a blessing, and I like to say a reward for, some of the heartache early on when talking about this topic.

A Hi, disruptors. Thank you for joining us today on an episode of Practice Disrupted. If you like the content for today's show, you can find all of our past episodes over on practiceofarchitecture.com/podcast. Be a part of the conversation by joining me, our speakers, and other disruptors in our community at practiceofarchitecture.com/community. Our social media handle is practice of arch. That's practice of a r c h. We'd love to hear from you, so feel free to drop us a DM and say hello. Tune in next week for a new conversation on change in the profession.