Exclusion and racial bias are built into our cities. In its debut publication Now You Know, Sound Advice – the platform exploring spatial inequality in architecture – has gathered the thoughts and reflections of more than 50 architects and urbanists of colour in an extraordinary compendium of essays, poems, interviews and, yes, advice on how to address the discrimination baked into our built environment.

Crowdfunded to the tune of £19,500 by 418 supporters, the 180-page paperback is designed by Joel Antoine-Wilkinson and edited by Sound Advice's co-hosts, the urbanists Pooja Agrawal and Joseph Henry. Its contributors range from MBEs to architecture students, artists to urban policymakers – each one accompanying their piece with a concise tip of the kind that has made the Sound Advice Instagram feed such a compelling resource, paired with a music recommendation.

Determined to incite meaningful action, Pooja Agrawal and Joseph Henry reached out to their network, their friends, family and colleagues of colour and asked them what should change, and how. Over the next few months, they received a stream of considered personal and practical responses – which today form Now You Know, an insightful exploration of how architecture, design, urbanism and technology could give us the tools to develop a more just built environment.

Contributed a short piece for Sound Advice’s first publication, Now You Know. In this piece, I reflected on the need to step away from institutions in order to enact meaningful change.  

“Through Now You Know we wanted to explore a compelling alternative and more plural vision of the future in our voice and within our own space. The contributors have created an incredible manifesto so we really hope that people engage with the content in the book and don’t just leave it collecting dust on a coffee table or to decorate a Zoom background.”

Joseph Henry, Sound Advice