Knowlton Society members work on projects during one of their town hall events. Credit: Courtesy of Kaleb Duarte
At first glance, architecture and advocacy may appear to exist in separate spheres. Yet one student organization challenges that assumption, using the tools of their discipline not just to design structures, but to question existing political and societal infrastructure.
Knowlton Society’s History
Knowlton Society was founded in Spring of 2024, when Kaleb Duarte, a third-year in architecture and co-founder of the organization, felt that it was time for Knowlton School of Architecture students to engage in community advocacy.?
“It was formed as a coalition of Knowlton students who wanted to engage a collective-wide action against unjust policies and actions from Ohio State and Knowlton as a student body,” Duarte said.?
The organization’s inception was largely due to the university’s Autumn 2023 decision to remove all preexisting writing and artwork from Knowlton’s walls after a pro-Palestine message was added, per prior Lantern reporting.?
“[Writing on the walls] really was a testament to the character of Knowlton and the students within it, but then after October 2023, students were writing messaging like ‘From the River to the Sea,’ ‘Free Palestine,’ or just illustrations of watermelons to which Ohio State and the College of Engineering decided to respond by censoring that messaging by painting bright orange paint over it,” Duarte said. “This seemed like a very intentional and deliberate action because, while it’s against university policy to graffiti, they also decided to censor just things that represented Palestine.”?
Before this action, Knowlton’s concrete walls had been plastered with student artwork dating back to the construction of the school in 2004, Duarte said. The university painted over the graffiti, installed signs prohibiting future writing on the walls and installed security cameras in the stairwells where a majority of the artwork had been focused.?
“This felt like an attack to surveil students, to police them, to dictate what they can and can’t say,” Duarte said. “This generated a lot of anger, not just among students but among faculty.”?
In response, a group of students started Knowlton Society. The coalition spans all three sections of the school: architecture, landscape architecture and city and regional planning.
“We sat down in KSA Cafe and came up with this group that was focused on representation and, ultimately, action,” Duarte said.?
The organization aims to fill a void that students may face in their classrooms by creating a clear link between their fields of study and aspirations.?
“A lot of the critiques that students have on Knowlton is that our disciplines are not positioning our studies as operable things for our future, and that’s ultimately what Knowlton Society aims to address,” Duarte said.?
Creating Community in Knowlton
Knowlton Society aims to break down the divides between three disciplines to encourage collaboration between students: advocacy, community and empowerment of the student body.
“A lot of the events we throw are for all three disciplines because the curriculum doesn’t really facilitate that. Unless you’re minoring in one of the other subjects, you don’t really interact with those students.” said Hawwa Zaman, a second-year in architecture and co-director of advocacy.
Due to the pandemic and various efforts to limit student expression in the school, Sarah Voss, co-founder of the society and a fourth-year in landscape architecture, said students felt a lack of community. This organization aims to restore interconnectedness within Knowlton.
“Knowlton is a very unique place on campus. I feel like Knowlton Society takes the unique collaborative nature of Knowlton Hall and the way that all of our majors interact and how we interact with our professors and builds on that collaborative nature,” Voss said. “Especially post-COVID, that communal feeling that Knowlton used to have has been lost a little bit, and with the graffiti being taken down and a few other actions. We are really just trying to rebuild that community feel and reconnect Knowlton with the rest of the OSU ecosystem.”?
Architecture and Advocacy?
Knowlton’s disciplines are inherently connected with advocacy due how involved architecture, landscape and city and regional planning are in society, Voss said.
“I think that the built environment is something that has such a strong impact on people and how they grow up, who they interact with, how many resources they have access to, what they are able to do with their lives, and how they grow as a person,” Voss said. “These fields are very essential when it comes to advocating for greater social resources and general improvements in our communities.”
Built environment, the human-made surroundings that construct the environment where people live and work, greatly impacts people’s emotion and how they associate certain topics, said Lindsay Tayfel, a first-year in architecture and advocacy ambassador for Knowlton Society.
“I think making sure that everybody gets a chance to have their voice heard and has a say in these environments that they’re going to be interacting with for sometimes the rest of their lives or just a short period, it really helps bring people together and it helps ensure that the future stays moving forward,” Tayfel said.?
Control and input over the built environment is essential to a community, Duarte said.?
“One thing that we know is true is that design is power. It’s powerful. People in our community, when they have access to design, not just access but autonomy over their built environment, they feel pride and ownership over it. This is something incredibly powerful,” Duarte said. “That’s something that Knowlton centers as its educational priority. We hope that [Knowlton Society] tries to connect people to that realization of how powerful design really is.”?
The Student Voice
The Knowlton School of Architecture does not currently have a permanent director and has been navigating through the selection process for two years, Duarte said.?
“Knowlton is at the precipice of reckoning with the built environment in a different way,” Duarte said.
For the past two years, school leadership has been interviewing candidates and relying on student input to find the next position holder, placing heavy responsibility on Knowlton Society as the de facto student body representation.?
“How can we ensure that student voices are prioritized when new leadership comes in?” Duarte said. “How can we guarantee a seat at the table to make sure that students are learning what they want to learn and that it aligns with the values of the younger generation?”?
In addition to administration, faculty also turns to Knowlton Society for key decisionmaking and input.?
“Faculty reach out to us when they want something done or they want the word to get out there about a larger social issue. They reach out to us first. The school views us as the flagship student organization,” Duarte said. “There’s a lot of trust that goes along with that, but we’ve positioned ourselves well within the school’s culture.”?
Advocacy Initiatives?
Knowlton Society hosts a wide range of events and actions to promote advocacy and provide a platform for the student body.?
A regular event that the organization hosts for Knowlton students is Town Hall, where they collect data to inform future programming. Student reactions at these forums often inspire new initiatives from Knowlton Society to best meet the needs of its members.?
Boost, a student-run mentorship program through Knowlton Society, connects mentors and mentees from within the college and was born from a shared concern of lack of guidance from students at a town hall forum.?
“It’s for that feeling of being lost when you’re in this new school, starting from high school to college, and you don’t know what you’re doing and you’re in over your head and feel confused,” Zaman said.?
Knowlton Society also collaborates with external organizations to create bonds with the larger Ohio State community. Currently, they are working with the Muslim Students Association and several cultural groups to host a Community Iftar, or breaking of the fast during Ramadan. They also competed against Taubman College, the architecture school at the University of Michigan, to see who could raise the most food donations during Rivalry Week.?
They often work with advocacy-centered groups for bigger community actions. Duarte said last year, it hosted schoolwide walkouts in protest of Senate Bill 1, a bill that bans diversity, equity and inclusion programming. More recently, Duarte said it hosted a walkout against the U.S. Immigration Customs Enforcements, or ICE, focus in Minneapolis.
“We are regularly engaging students in political protest,” Duarte said.
The organization also spearheads internal initiatives, like “Keep Knowlton Weird,” which encourages students to continue drawing on walls despite the university prohibition. Recently, Knowlton Society revived Knowlton on the Rocks, a student-designed monthly zine to distribute throughout the school. The Desk Crit is a video series documenting the stories of students at Knowlton with “stories worth telling that we feel give a face to the student body,” Duarte said.?
Knowlton students are given a printing quota for projects and assignments, so Knowlton Society is working with the Undergraduate Student Government to pass legislation to provide more resources for students.?
Recently, Knowlton Society started an initiative in response to increased ICE presence in Columbus. The organization creates anti-ICE whistles, which are 3-D printed whistles for demonstrations and deterring potential agents.?
“The special thing about both of these projects [printing quota project and anti-ICE whistles] is that they’re kind of connecting Knowlton Society to the rest of the school and college in general,” Tayfel said. “It’s making sure that our impact expands past the limitations of the organization.”?
Although the organization is juggling various projects, the members are committed to creating social impact because of their deep dedication to their community, Duarte said.?
“It is a lot of actions that are only facilitated by students who care and Knowlton students just so happen to be the ones who care deeply about their school and community. [Knowlton Society] is really just an organized extension of that,” Duarte said.?
Who can Join Knowlton Society?
The constituency is made up of the entire Knowlton student body, regardless of whether they attend meetings or actively involve themselves in events, Duarte said. All students, even if they aren’t in Knowlton, are welcome to attend Knowlton Society events.
“We don’t hold general body meetings, and that’s something that is very intentional. All of our initiatives are public facing,” Duarte said. “All of our events are meant to gather a large number of people in passive engagement. It’s hard to officially count our numbers, which has been a problem for us, but it’s kind of a good problem.”
The leadership team is also open to anyone who is interested in getting involved.?
“We have an internal policy that anyone can join the leadership team, no matter their experience or anything, even their discipline,” Duarte said. “Anyone can join our team as a leader or officer, all you have to do is hold a conversation with us and just give us something that you’re passionate about.”?
What started as a conversation between a group of students in KSA Cafe quickly evolved into a representative body, advocacy hub and source of hope for the students at Knowlton.??
“When you organize, things happen,” Duarte said.“Knowlton Society has kind of, for a lot of the faculty and definitely the students, has reminded us and kind of given us hope for something, even at a local scale like Knowlton Hall.”
Students can learn more about Knowlton Society and get involved by visiting its Instagram page.?
