Welcome to the SSSAD Survey!

We are collecting survey responses about Asian diaspora communities in the US engaged in spatial design research and practice. Our stories are often left untold in the public realm and in our field. We invite our design colleagues of Asian diasporas to share how your identities and your immigrant, refugee, and migrant experiences shape your values, design approach, and creative work. What do you want people to know about you and your communities? How do you bring your identities and experiences to your work?

There is so little research and scholarship that addresses the specific contemporary issues that Asian diasporas and spatial designers working with and within our own communities face. As such, the survey is conducted primarily to help ourselves through building relationships, finding strength in interdependence, and offering us the knowledge and resources we need to honor and uplift our stories and our communities. The responses are anonymous and will be collected and shared publicly, with your consent. We hope to use the results to:

• Find inspiration and support for ongoing individual and collective practices
• Inform education, research, reflection, practice, and beyond
• Shape public resources for Asian diaspora communities and designers
• Ask new questions of ourselves, our colleagues, and the lands in which we find ourselves.

Thank you for being in community with us.︎

This survey is a collaboration between Bz Zhang and Tonia Sing Chi as a follow-up to their co-authored article “Is There Such a Thing as Asian Diasporic Architecture?” published in the October 2023 issue of Architect Magazine.

︎ TAKE THE SSSAD SURVEY  

︎ READ “IS THERE SUCH A THING AS ASIAN DIASPORIC ARCHITECTURE?

Preview of All of the Questions

1. How would you describe your racial and/or ethnic and/or cultural identity?
2. What year were you born?
3. What is your gender identity?
4. What is your sexual orientation?
5. Where are your ancestors from?
6. Where did you grow up?
7. Where are you currently based?
8. When and why did you or your family migrate to the place you grew up or are currently based?
9. What spaces do you see yourself and your experiences reflected in the built environment?

1. What design or creative fields or areas do you work in?
2. What led you to pursue architecture or design? If you are no longer in the field, why did you decide to pursue other interests?
3. Growing up, did you know Asian architects and designers, personally or in the world at-large? If so, who?
4. What challenges have you faced as a designer with your racial/ethnic/cultural identities?
5. What benefits or privileges have you experienced as a designer with your racial/ethnic/cultural identities?
6. Who are Asian or Asian diasporic designers you look up to?
7. What does Asian or Asian diasporic space mean to you?
8. What understandings of architecture, the physical environment, and/or spatial practice did you learn or inherit from your families/cultures/etc?

1. What racial justice or solidarity related groups, projects, or movements are you affiliated with?
2. What racial justice or solidarity related groups, projects, or movements do you admire and learn from?
3. Have you experienced resistance to your role or presence in racial justice or solidarity work?
4. What do you see as your role in racial solidarity spaces?

1. What dreams and aspirations do you have for Asian and Asian diasporic spaces and the people who are shaping them through design?
2. What resources do Asian diasporic designers and creatives need to shape those futures?
3. What resources do our Asian diasporic communities need to shape those futures?

︎ TAKE THE SSSAD SURVEY

︎ READ “IS THERE SUCH A THING AS ASIAN DIASPORIC ARCHITECTURE?