Architecture of Energy: blink!LAB's June Grant on Spatial Change, Trust, and Walking in Your Values
By Amy Stone
June A. Grant, RA, NOMA, is a visionary architect, Founder and Design Principal at blinkLAB architecture; a boutique research-based architecture and urban design studio that re-thinks conventional approaches. Launched in 2015, blinkLAB was created based on Ms. Grant’s 20 years experience in architecture, design and urban regeneration of cities and communities. Her design approach rests on an avid belief in cultural empathy, data research and new technologies as integral to design futures and design solutions.
blinkLAB has three mandates - A commitment to Design Exploration, Advocacy for Holistic Solutions and the Integration of Technology as catalytic components necessary for a regenerative society. Ms. Grant has been featured on the PBS NewsHour – Brief But Spectacular, is also the immediate Past-President of the San Francisco Chapter of the National Organization of Minority Architects (SFNOMA); Board member of ACADIA, a YBCA100 honoree, 2020 CEDAW Human Rights honoree, and the 2020, 10th Annual J. Max Bond Jr. Lecturer.
AS: How did your interest in architecture first develop?
JG: Ever since I was five years old, I wanted to be an architect. Do not ask me how I came up with that so young. I am not from a family with a history in architecture. But, somehow that word landed in my head, was part of my vocabulary, and I knew it was what I wanted to be.
As a kid, every Sunday, my mom and I would drive to visit my grandfather, and I would tell her which route to go. She didn’t know it, but I would always have her drive by construction sites because that’s what I enjoyed watching. You drive by something every day and it’s a field of nothing. Then all of the sudden, there is something! There is this energy and activity. Over time you see the transformation from dirt to trenches, walls and finally a building. That was how I became entranced by spatial change and I remain attracted to construction sites still today.
Having decided on architecture so early, did you feel like it was the right fit as you learned more about it?
While in high school, I remember watching girls from other high schools with T-squares. However, the arts was certainly not a huge focus at my high school in Jamaica; instead, it was engineering, sciences, and math. At the school I attended, we were being prepared to be lawyers, doctors, accountants. But my interest in drawing was a skill I discovered I had naturally; again, no idea where that came from. However, I recall a drawing assignment — to draw a building on our high school campus — I was the only student who produced a successful drawing. That was my one singular incident which gave some indication of creative visual abilities.
At college in Jamaica, I actually studied business. Tauntingly, across from the Business School was the Engineering School. So, I was not on the direct path to architecture, but I was watching; there were signs and guides, it seemed.
“I would always have her drive by construction sites...You drive by something every day and it’s a field of nothing. Then all of the sudden, there is something! There is this energy and activity. Over time you see the transformation from dirt to trenches, walls and finally a building. That was how I became entranced by spatial change and I remain attracted to construction sites still today.”
I knew that we were going to immigrate to the US and I knew that whatever I wanted was possible. Once I got here, I was determined. I just knew I was going to study architecture and so I prepared my portfolio by registering for classes at the Art Students League in Manhattan.
What was interesting for me was that the architecture I responded to was very avant garde. I like buildings that have more energy to them, that are more performative spaces in a theatrical sense. When I got to architecture school, I was stunned that architecture was not avant garde, typically. That was a big disappointment [laughs]. When I arrived at Yale School of Architecture, I knew the names of only three architects: Lebbeus Woods, Peter Cook, and Frank Lloyd Wright. So it is not that I embarked upon studying architecture with a deep, continuous awareness of the cannon, but my understanding of it came through my sensitivity to space…which has been ongoing.
I think a lot of people can relate with that feeling: knowing you want to study architecture – maybe not knowing why, but realizing an intuitive awareness of spatial surroundings. While you were at architecture school, what did you learn about yourself?
Oh my god - that I absolutely love technology! And that I was impatient with the way architects practice.
Prior to architecture school, I worked as a stock analyst and economic researcher. For fun! I created very complex formulas and analyses about stock prices. Then to realize that architects did not utilize data or numbers to support design ideas, that was just bizarre to me.
I recognized that I have a strong left brain and right brain. I’m in love with the numbers and what numbers can do. There is a hidden science and a hidden poetry in the numbers. I also love what the free hand can do. I can articulate the speed up a curve with how I swing my arm. I can analyze that arc, not just draw it! To draw that curve and then run the math that defines the curve. I truly enjoy that balance and I continue to appreciate data merged with the human being and the human body.
There was no absolutely no pause to the answer. Technology! I want to know the trajectory of your career, the highs and the lows. How did you get your start in the field? What were your next steps?
Well before I left grad school, I had the great fortune of being introduced to the work of Volker Giencke, a professor in Austria. I fell in love with the work his students were producing. I attended one of his lectures while he was visiting Professor at Yale School of Architecture. As a result of that lecture, I packed my backpack, put on my construction boots and headed to Austria. I had to see this amazing work that was being done in Graz. I passed an entire summer visiting offices, talking to architects who were producing socially relevant avant garde work. That first trip, alone, cemented for me that one could do this! One could actually pursue forms, shapes and social values (together) and it could be built.
I worked for professor Giencke the next summer. That remains one of the high points for me and the high bar that I’m always trying to get to. You walk in your values to get to shape and form. It applies to the social context of the times and the values we envision for society.
Black Cultural Zone by blinkLab
Perfectly said.
As soon as I graduated, I headed west to San Francisco. The move opened my eyes to another conversation of ‘just try it.’ In the Bay Area, there is an incredible mental space for technological exploration and ideation that I have not experienced anywhere else within the US. The environment in the Bay Area encourages you to explore the edges.
I had always planned to have my own design studio, but during blinkLAB version 1.0, I did not enjoy being stuck with small projects. The prior three years I had worked on much larger projects. I closed the office in 2008 and decided to put myself back out there and I targeted three large firms. In one interview, my prospective employer mentioned that the most important client was NASA. That’s all he had to say. We talked for a much longer time, but I was sold at the mention of NASA. I mean, duh! [laughs]. That was the next revelation. There are clients who want to explore and explore space with architects.
While I was at Yale, I met a female space architect, Constance Adams. Constance truly inspired me because she focused outside the confines of Earth. Her presence revealed to me that an architect is not limited by our immediate context or the land we are standing on. It’s your imagination that is going to take you anywhere you want to go.
What also really sold me on working on NASA projects was that our client, the NASA Ames Executive Director explained that NASA, as an organization, was actually focused on sustainable design. He explained that as engineers they have to know exactly what is being taken into outer space because you have to bring it back. You have to be extremely sustainable in your approach and your mindset. That just blew my mind. I realized sustainability didn’t have to be defined by a technical earthbound question, as it is typically framed. You could think much broader in the understanding.
That’s a mind-broadening perspective.
It became the basis of blinkLAB 2.0. The big idea is to think beyond the immediate context. Don’t limit yourself to known technologies. Ask. Try to find new technology. It’s possible to build using these new technologies; but you have to go to the right people in order to align the project.
“...an architect is not limited by our immediate context or the land we are standing on. It’s your imagination that is going to take you anywhere you want to go.”
I want to hear about BlinkLAB and about form, technology, and exploration. What are you up to?
Every day is different. BlinkLAB 2.0 is the decision to leave corporate culture but take it with me. I left AECOM and my 65,000 co-workers but with a mindset that I could tap into that resource at any point in time. I disembarked that spaceship to launch my own, but I considered them to be my future consultants. Two of my former colleagues have become my go-to collaborators whenever there is a wild and crazy project. I’m confident they can travel with me in a visionary approach to the problem to find some way of making it real.
I’m a huge collaborator. I’m not afraid to reach out to individuals who I think it would be great fun to work with and who are willing to explore. Typically they are initially a little gun shy. I talk them around. “Come on, we can do this.”
That’s how the studio works. I look for projects that I think should be addressed and I begin the independent research process. Along the way, I will contact someone to help eliminate aspects of the research question. Then I’ll write a piece about the project or model ideas about. Someone will call and enquire about what I’m working on and I will discuss projects on-the-board. Sometimes they are able to connect me with someone who might be interested in supporting the project with funds. Of course, that’s the rosy version [laughs].
What have been some of the big ideas of BlinkLab?
My pet project is the wastewater treatment plant. I’ve tried to convert three or four of them to be more sustainable urban experiences. Wastewater treatment plants are usually concrete, smelly and ugly areas. However, if a treatment system is one that relies on plants instead of chemicals, we can begin to create a utility infrastructure which is more recreational and educational than an unwelcoming place alongside poorer communities. Osaka, Japan, has a treatment plant which is more of a garden park. I‘m looking at wastewater treatment plants also as a recreational agro-eco-economic engine, where we sell gas to the electric grid and manure to farmers and cycle. It is also possible to treat wastewater to be drinkable water. We have a climate crisis. We have to start looking at existing and new technologies.
Where are you in your career today?
Oh my god, Amy, so crazy busy right now. We are seeing the benefit of the last six years of community-focused initiatives. Everything is percolating. We are heading into phase two, which is building some of these ideas. It’s pretty exciting.
What have been your biggest challenges?
I am infinitely really curious. It’s hard for others to come along as fast. I have to learn how to bring folks along but also have them be okay with “just trust me”, “we are covered”, and “I’ve got it”.
Because I’m fearless, that can be a really terrifying thing for other folks. I think that is the hardest part for me: to have others understand that I see the pathway forward and that it is not going to be as difficult as others think.
I can catch your energy and your vision. Whatever you're doing I want to be a part of, so bring me! What about your biggest highlights? What have been your high points?
I really thought the NASA project was great. Presenting at Obama's 2010 GreenGov Conference was the ultimate. Being selected as a YBCA 100 honoree was an absolute highpoint. YBCA100 is a Bay Area award given to national and international recipients, but the fact that others were paying attention to what I was doing while I thought I was hunkered down and hidden - that was, and remains, truly inspiring.
Another highlight is our latest project which is a collaboration with a community group who have never done development before. We provided renderings for what they envisioned as new housing for their community. The project was recently approved by City Council. That has been an amazingly rewarding experience. Again, the community group has never done development but to be a part of a momentous vote of confidence in a local grassroots effort. This is huge!
“I would love to inspire everyone to follow up on whatever it is they want to do. Just do it!”
It’s kind of like your childhood insight: seeing nothing and then suddenly having this energy materialize and shaping up new things. Very exciting, June! Who are you admiring right now?
I have a quote from Zaha Hadid painted on our office walls. My admiration is less about her work and more about her conviction to focus on an idea and to stick with it. There are so many distractions and being able to focus on the question at hand…takes commitment.
What is the impact you want to have on the world?
I would love to inspire everyone to follow up on whatever it is they want to do. Just do it! Do not consult anyone for permission. Just do it. You aren’t going to die from it. It’s not fatal! That’s what I keep telling myself.
What do you wish you knew when you were starting out that you know now?
I wish I knew how important it was to have a plan! [laughs]. I hate planning, but after doing things intuitively for a long time, I’ve come to realize that at some point I need to plan. If I don’t plan, I won’t have the steps in place that will take me where I want to go.
You and I would make a good pair. You provide the vision and I’ll help with the execution and planning. I’ll be your Atlanta consultant if you ever need some help! And with that, my last question for you is what advice do you have for those who are just starting out in their career?
Don’t think that you are making a terrible mistake or that the first decision you make is the only decision. There are so many pathways in architecture.
It is amazing to me how many pathways are available to architects because of how we are taught and what we are taught. Our world is about asking questions and coming up with solutions. There is a method to do that. What you learn in architecture is that you can apply a process to many questions.