empowering women, danish designer created bright and bold space for young girls to be experts in tech
today in many industries around the world, gender remains one of the most highlighted realities that the public cannot escape. this includes in tech industry, whereby a large margin, women tend to be underrepresented in the workforce.
the stubborn pattern shows a more extreme percentage when it comes to women of color; as mckinsey report, women of color represent only 4% of technical roles in tech companies, and the proportion gets extremely small when jumping into boardroom seats. the fact is the reality.
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having the world globally connected through the internet should have diminished every border on our society. not forget mentioning gender, race, or even color inequality. but more or less industry has paid attention to reduce the gap between their community.
while the fact that addressing the employment gap is more than just a matter of making more hires. the sad cycle is knowing the fact that girls have less access and exposure to the types of technical studies such as math, engineering, and science-based curricula since their earliest education. which later on giving the position for male counterparts in tech companies.
black girls code can be a pioneer of this gap issue we encountered in tech industry. the colorful space is intended to exclusively allowing girls to have more access and exposure to sciences to assist their education for future jobs in tech industries.
founded by kimberly bryant, who recalls her feeling of being "culturally isolated", she launched what she named black girls code, which housed emerging group of tech leaders-and architects who believes that gender equity is essential and hoping to see greater equality reflected across the industry. hence this first attempt they make is creating an environment where young girls can learn all about tech fundamentals, including coding, and making it a priority.
for the imperative interior design, black girls code turned to danish kurani - a young harvard trained architect who recently designed google's next code lab - a similar space as black girls code dedicated for high school students to take math, science, and tech lessons taught by google engineers.
kurani notes, “this is the first time many of these girls are doing robotics or coding, so the question was ‘how do you design a space where tech seems less daunting and more familiar?’” the opt definitely goes to a brightly colored environment. one that does a way from tech-workplace alike. a fun-and interactive color that makes these girls feel less intimidating but are more encouraged to interact with the space.
to support the goal, kurani then provides touchsreen technology along the walls, making it inviting, instructive, and comfortable to use.
“the idea was to get them to think, i’m not just a consumer of technology. i can see what goes into it. the interior is an attempt to break down technology, to make it familiar.” he continued.
imagining that one day, "yeah i'm a nine-year-old-girl-and i know how to code." will be the output they are showing.
some additional wall graphics that refer to seminal technologies were also added in some part of the room. with an interactive displays break open for common devices such as smartphones and game stations, and a wall feature where girls can play mix and match the insides of device with their outside casing.
“for lighting, we exposed the filaments so the girls can see what goes into lights, and for the conduits that run along the ceiling, we converted them to look like the circuitry of a motherboard.” explained kurani, in regards of the architectural element inside black girls code.
on top of all, black girls code is not a singularly focused on instruction and teaching space. other objective that bryan wished to emphasize is to make girls feel comfortably confident about being in technology field. as kurani believes that experise in technology supposedly have nothing to do with age, gender, or skin color. anyone can learn how to be tech experts anytime they want. the attempt is free to explore, no borders, and limitations.