Architect Shane Laptiste returns to McGill to deliver the 2025 Black History Month keynote address

The ways in which various communities create, use and reappropriate spaces can expand our understanding of built environments. McGill-trained architect Shane Laptiste brings an acutely informed perspective to his collaborations with those who have historically been marginalized, one he’ll be able to share through his 2025 McGill Black History Month keynote address.

The principal and co-founder of the award-winning Studio of Contemporary Architecture (SOCA) and frequent instructor at McGill’s School of Architecture has much to say about the role of design in equity, diversity and inclusion.

“Buildings display our history. Many are reflective of the privilege, power and wealth of individuals. Furthermore, their designs were imposed on communities, a model that we’re working to flip.”

The messages of buildings and neighbourhoods

Those who attend Laptiste’s keynote will have a chance to see some of McGill’s spaces in a new light.

“Given the historical dynamics behind campus spaces like the Roddick Gates, the various buildings built from Redpath family’s sugar wealth, and the overall university being established by someone who held slaves, the physical spaces of McGill have been shaped by, and have shaped Black communities.”

Laptiste also wants people to consider the role of neighbourhood spaces and buildings, and what they say about the communities and individuals that occupy them.

READ FULL REPORTER ARTICLE HERE


McGill University is on land which has long served as a site of meeting and exchange amongst Indigenous peoples, including the Haudenosaunee and Anishinabeg nations. We acknowledge and thank the diverse Indigenous peoples whose presence marks this territory on which peoples of the world now gather.

For more information about traditional territory and tips on how to make a land acknowledgement, visit our Land Acknowledgement webpage.


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