Town Halls
The firm gathers each week to share work, ideas and inspiration,
and take a deeper look at subjects core to KPF’s philosophy.
The weekly format varies, with some meetings featuring “A Walk Through the Studio” with team members sharing aspects of ongoing projects. Other sessions take a less formal approach, such as a video compilation by staff showcasing home workspaces and personal projects during the COVID-19 quarantine. Each meeting offers a chance to voice observations, share suggestions, and create connections among employees at all levels, in all global offices.
GRoW
The Green Design, Resilience, and Wellness group integrates
its mission into the workflow and ethos of the global practice.
The group’s activities include maintaining the firm’s database of sustainable and resilience strategies, bringing guest lecturers and experts in the field to the office, conducting studies to inform future work, and providing ideas and technical support to the design teams. The group meets on a monthly basis to discuss action items and advance its agenda, continually seeking opportunities to push the boundaries of creative, responsible thinking.
KPF Lab
The KPF Lab is a forum for highlighting innovative tools and
workflows with a focus on inspiring attendees to work
more smartly and creatively.
As a firm, KPF takes on some of the most complex design challenges in the world. These projects require efficiency, precision, flexibility, and design excellence. Emerging technologies for simulation and fabrication, to advanced modelling and visualization, to coordination and documentation, offer new ways for architects to create and execute more effectively. KPF Lab hosts frequent events to foster the sharing and discussion of innovative technologies and exploratory methods in architecture.
Young Designers' Forum
The Young Designers Forum (YDF) serves as a platform
for open discussion of design amongst the junior staff
and interns.
With monthly themed meetings, YDF promotes exploratory discourse and offers an outlet for young designers to connect with peers. Led by a steering committee, each event presents a different discursive format—sometimes with presenters or a set agenda—but always with the intention of creating an open forum for all to participate. Occasionally, the group hosts office-wide competitions or mixers for gathering ideas and topics.
Show & Tell
Show & Tell celebrates the broad spectrum of current
KPF projects through the lens of common topics in
architectural thought.
The committee organizes a series of events, each with its own theme that investigates an issue of architectural design. The exhibition format offers a venue to reflect critically on how our various projects relate to one another and how our work fits into broader questions of the practice.
Events are scheduled regularly throughout the year with project teams encouraged to create posters of their current work in response to the theme of a given event. Posters are collected, printed, hung, and introduced during a happy hour gathering. Each show leads to lively discussions about the work, which enriches the office’s educational and social atmosphere.
KPF Public
KPF Public is a platform for all within the firm to address
issues of racial and social inequality and combat the inequities
that exist within the profession and the built environment.
The group’s mission comprises three areas of focus: education, outreach and design. The first integrates topics of injustice into the firm’s education program to broaden the purpose and perspective underlying its design and culture. The second is both to increase racial diversity within the firm through hiring and development and to leverage KPF’s position within the industry to create academic and employment opportunities for BIPOC professionals. The third is to pursue collaborations and commissions in both the public and private sectors that enable design to create more equitable cities.
KPF+
KPF+ is dedicated to enabling women to achieve
their full potential at work, and to advancing
gender equity in leadership.
The group invites guest lecturers to speak about innovation, leadership, and women's issues, hosting follow-up discussions to create a critical dialogue within the office.
At the group's inaugural event on June 4, 2019, R. May Lee, a Partner at The Seelig Group, presented Finding Your Voice: Gaining and Wielding Power, a talk that has been received with much acclaim both nationally and around the world.
