At Lemay, we believe everyone has a right to dignity, respect, and equality. Realizing this takes change, and change depends on the actions we take.

Creating meaningful space to grow means designing space where everyone can flourish.

This takes recognition and respect for diversity, equal opportunities, and being a restorative and reparative resource to oppose histories of injustice, violence, colonization, and trauma with action.

All built environments begin with people: The design industry must recognize and create space for the essential contributions of women, Indigenous peoples, visible minorities, ethnic minorities, LGBTQIA2S+ communities, people with disabilities, and the members of our industry that exist at the intersections of these identities.

Design works best when all voices are involved, which is why Lemay is committed to making equity, diversity, inclusion and justice (EDIJ) part of the work we do.

Taking Actions

Creating a more equitable, diverse, inclusive, and just place together.

At Lemay, workgroups regularly meet to tackle initiatives that improve our EDIJ policies. Using a firm-wide survey that invited all employees to share their opinions, we focus on four areas of ongoing improvement:  

  • Career development support without bias 
  • Fair management 
  • An inclusive work culture 
  • Creating an environment free from any form of harassment

As this feedback continues, we prioritize anonymity so employees may safely share perspectives and propose alternatives to a malleable policy.

This is a journey, not a destination. More initiatives will be added; this is an ongoing commitment to be better, overcome past biases, and address systemic injustices that permeate the design industry.

Engaging with Communities and Citizen Participation

Space becomes place when we find meaning in it, but place only has meaning when it puts its people first.

When communities directly influence the designs that affect them, space can be empowering. That’s why engaging communities and building relationships is so vital.

With proactive, equitable, and justice-oriented engagement informed by those historically excluded from designs, we can co-author them and remove barriers between designers and users.

Learn more about our work in citizen participation and people-first designs here and read Lemay’s Public Participation Charter here.

 

Collaborating with Indigenous Peoples for Justice, Truth and Reconciliation

Take the first step, acknowledge truths, and reconcile the past with care, respect, and humility.

As designers, we must meaningfully engage and collaborate with First Nations, Inuit and Métis to understand what truth, reconciliation, indigenization and decolonization are to work towards a reparative future.

To support truth and reconciliation from a design perspective, space inside and outside of Lemay promotes cultural awareness and belonging, education through visibility, and diverse community-building.

We can begin with 16 ways to support Indigenous Communities and take tangible steps towards healing by promoting Indigenous architectural identities in our built environments.

Designing for Diversity

Designing for EDIJ is designing with all disciplines working together for everyone.

All transdisciplinary research and design at Lemay begin with interwoven and divergent community needs, a spectrum of lived experiences to identify biases and privileges and root out exclusion and alienation.

Design can be a form of advocacy for positive change, and we have a responsibility as designers to investigate and create space informed by hard and often uncomfortable lessons from the past and present. This work is critical to ensure a brighter future for all.

Our work together is essential and ongoing, from designing for Black space and community to gender inclusivity in learning environments and the commemorative practices of public spaces.