Announcing Who Cares – A Maintainers Movement Fellow Event with Circular City, led by Leila Behjat and Sam Bennett
Does a tear in your shirt mean the end of its use? Can a rusty bike be reborn again? How can you care for the worn floor in your home? Or the land your house is built on? And how does it all connect?
Join designers Sequoyah Hunter-Cuyjet and Catherine Murphy, and architects Betty Rexrode, and Damon Strub as they share personal stories of care from small objects to multi-building units.
The Construction industry’s annual embodied carbon is responsible for 11% of global GHG emissions from new building materials. It is imperative that renovation and maintenance is prioritized over the new: new products, new construction. Together, we will explore the role and perceived value of repair and trace a path towards a more sustainable stewardship.
This is a no-cost event, however if you wish to purchase a pay-what-you-wish ticket, you can do so by choosing that Attendee Ticket tier when you register for the event. Proceeds will be used for Movement Fellow speaker honoraria and event operating costs. Thank you!
Register for the event here!
This event will take place online between 9-10AM PDT | 11AM-12PM CDT | 12-1 PM EDT
Speakers:
Sequoyah Hunter-Cuyjet
Interior Designer, Educator, and Vice President, Determined By Design
Sequoyah Hunter-Cuyjet is a culture cultivator with a unique ability to breathe narrative into any design, giving voice to community, people and places. With her diverse art and culturally-rich background as well as her multidisciplinary design experience, she is a multifaceted design professional who can help partners address any project challenge.
Sequoyah has a Bachelors of Art in Liberal Arts from Sarah Lawrence College—where she studied art, literature and anthropology—as well as a Master of Fine Arts in Interior Design from Moore College of Art + Design. She is the first Native American to graduate from Moore’s MFA program and one of the only Native American’s in the country to hold a MFA in Interior Design. Boutique Magazine recognized her as a 2020 Boutique 18—a rising star in hospitality design.
As a designer, she has range—a range that comes from an appreciation of various cultures and histories. She can design a classical interior with the same ease as an austere modern one because she values the experience of designing from a reference rooted in something bigger. For Sequoyah, every style and aesthetic have meaning and purpose—not one greater than the other.
Catherine Murphy
Interior Designer, Educator, and Senior Researcher, Healthy Materials Lab
Catherine Murphy is an Adjunct Assistant Professor in Architecture at Columbia GSAPP, where she teaches Healthier Building Materials. Trained as an artist and designer, Catherine is dedicated to making physical spaces healthier for everyone. Passionate about renovation and re-use, Catherine’s designs respond to the history of the place and the client, rather than adhering to a signature style. Her practice is rooted in craft, making, and the inherent potential of materials in their purest and healthiest states. Her current research explores re-use and repair and stories of place through the lens of textiles.
Catherine shares her expertise in healthier building materials at a number of leading design schools. She is a Senior Researcher at Parsons Healthy Materials Lab where she has led educational programming for five years. She also teaches at The New School, from where she holds a Master of Fine Art in Interior Design, and she holds an undergraduate degree specializing in Embroidery from the University of Ulster, Belfast. She is from Sligo in the west of Ireland.
Betty Rexrode
Architect, Rexrode Chirigos Architects
Betty Rexrode is an award-winning architect known for her design of commercial galleries, art related spaces, and environmental projects, establishing Rexrode Chirigos Architects in 2006.
She is a relentless environmentalist raising Phelon oysters and sustainable garden to support a net-zero lifestyle; NYC sailor and cyclist; an active member of Cornell SPAT & Billion Oyster Projects; board member of the Great South Bay Island Association; involved with Transportation Alternatives and Bridging 4 People Initiatives NYC; active member in the AIA NY Women in Architecture and Committee for the Environment.
Betty received her Bachelor of Architecture from Carnegie Mellon University, post bac studies at the University of Texas at Austin, has taught at Princeton, and is a frequent guest critic at Pratt and Carnegie Mellon. Betty is a licensed architect, registered in New York and New Jersey, LEED and NCARB certified, and mother of two.
Damon Strub
Bike Restorer and Founder, Nomad Cycle
Damon grew up with a wrench in his hand. Since his youth, he has spent countless hours repairing and adaptively reusing worn out or discarded furnishings and machinery; just about everything from camper trailers to motorcycles to antique fans. He also managed to have a 30 year career as an architect restoring and adaptively reusing existing buildings. For the past several decades, his wrenching zeal has been focused on bicycles. In 2014, he retired from architecture and started Nomad Cycle, a Queens, New York based bicycle shop that specializes in the restoration and adaptive reuse of vintage bicycles. So far, he has managed to restore over 300 bicycles and to repair and keep on the road countless others.
Moderators:
Leila Behjat, Sam Bennett, and Rheanna Chen, pictured left to right, are part of the cohort for The Maintainers Movement Fellowship in 2022.
The Maintainers is a global research network interested in the concepts of maintenance, infrastructure, repair, and the myriad forms of labor and expertise that sustain our human-built world. Our members come from a variety of backgrounds, including engineers, business leaders, academic historians, social scientists, government, non-profit agencies, artists, activists, coders, and more.
To stay up to date with The Maintainers, you can learn more about the Maintainers Movement Fellowship and follow along for other upcoming events on Twitter.
