The undulating concrete Aqua Tower has become a familiar sight in Chicago’s downtown. What few know, though, is that one of Aqua’s closest counterparts – designed at the same time – dwells not on the skyline but on a modest corner on the city’s South Side. Here, the Lavezzorio Community Center playfully greets local families with a wavy “strata wall” cast from donated concrete. Providing gathering spaces and social services, it continues the path of my earliest projects, which serve communities in historically disinvested neighbourhoods. Designing these buildings early on helped shape my view that architecture with a capital A is for everyone, not just the privileged few. It also supplied motivating evidence that good design can lead to a range of positive outcomes in communities.

As larger and more visible projects like Aqua entered the office, my team and I developed them side by side with the community-centred work. This has allowed us to pursue our interests and values across many different contexts. It has also opened us up to important friendships that we otherwise might have missed because designing for the most successful community outcomes requires making personal connections with the people who know a place best. For us, listening to the local community along with first-person investigation and research are the key first steps of this work, allowing us to identify existing assets, challenges and opportunities, from the urban scale down to the individual block.

Today the pandemic is driving both public and private clients to seek out ambitious solutions addressing climate, health and justice, opening the built environment up to a major round of change. A range of progressive policies – from municipal reforms to international efforts like the Green Deal – also provide clear plans of action for which designers worldwide can mobilise.

These are unprecedented opportunities for our field. Yet I still hear it repeated that architecture is losing its autonomy – a fear that motivates architects to protect their artistic freedom by elevating formal language above all else. Perhaps a certain cadre will always view every other influence as a distraction from design. I disagree. As we face down complex problems like climate change and social inequality, a methodology grounded in listening and collaboration has never felt more urgent. To me, involving more perspectives does not water down architecture – on the contrary, it makes it more relevant. We need to evolve our practices and educational system to be responsive to society and make compelling architecture, simultaneously. Pure autonomy was a privilege of the past that architects today should no longer entertain.

In my own office, the two tracks of projects we have long maintained are now merging into one as we push ourselves to do more at every scale to address urgent needs. What kind of architecture – and cities, and planet – will become possible when all projects are expected to deeply connect with and care for their communities? It is up to all of us, together, to find out.