Pratt School of Architecture faculty member Xenia Adjoubei is co-curating Risk: What Is It Worth in Architecture? at the Center for Architecture, an upcoming event organized through the AIA New York Future of Practice Committee. Taking place on November 15, the program brings together practitioners, architect-developers, design-builders, scholars, and policy voices to examine the role of risk in architectural practice today.
The event will address how risk is understood, managed, embraced, or refused across different models of practice. Architecture operates with inherent uncertainty: the risks of experimenting with new ideas, working within complex urban conditions, and shaping spaces that affect daily life. For some, taking risk opens space for agency, authorship, and progress. For others, mitigating risk is inseparable from safeguarding the public, ensuring feasibility, and maintaining long-term stewardship. Outside traditional practice structures, risk becomes a form of currency—tied to autonomy, responsibility, and the ability to set the terms of one’s work.
The discussion will examine these differing orientations toward risk, and how they shape the values, ethics, and futures of the profession. The event is recommended for those enrolled in the M.Arch and MS.Arch / MS.UD programs.