NAACP HEADQUARTERS

The goal of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) “is to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate race-based discrimination.” Their vision “is to ensure a society in which all individuals have equal rights without discrimination based on race.” To support this mission, the design of the new NAACP National Headquarters is conceptually structured around the beauty and celebration of African American Quilting and the role it played in creating community and providing vision & support for people of color from slavery to the present day.

Quilting as a design approach: The project is envisioned as the opportunity for creating a quilted living sustainable landscape, by bringing together both the NAACP Staff and the Public into supportive, working and learning based environment. The intention is the formation of a new intellectual and culturally diverse ‘fabric of exchange’, comprised of all peoples through weaving of the site and the building (including both the NAACP Offices Program as well as an extended Community Engagement Program) into a three dimensional landscape. Together the building and the various internal and external public and private activities commingle, to create a community for working, learning and teaching, building a sustainable environment that supports, defends and presents the equality of all persons.

An ENVIRONMENTAL QUILT for the equality of all persons.