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On March 27, architects, designers, and allied professionals gathered at Grace Farms in New Canaan, Connecticut, for the fourth Design for Freedom (DFF) Summit. Established in 2017, the initiative aims to eradicate modern slavery from the building materials supply chain by sharing resources and garnering commitment to their core principles from architects and the construction industry writ large. The 2025 summit gathered 550 construction and design leaders along with 75 students representing 25 universities.

Featured speakers Grace Forrest and Amar Lal in coversation at the 2025 summit. Photo by Melani Lust, courtesy Grace Farms

According to the latest data from 2022, nearly 28 million people worldwide are held in forced labor conditions—a sharp increase since the advent of the pandemic—with many abuses concentrated in the construction industry. In its International Guidance & Toolkit, published this January, DFF outlines the materials most at-risk for being produced with child or forced labor, including timber, stone, rubber, and textiles. “This exploitation exists by design, not default,” said Grace Forrest, founding director of the Australia-based human rights group Walk Free, at the event’s opening talk, where she was joined in conversation with lawyer and activist Amar Lar, himself a child slavery survivor.

At the first panel, “Innovation in Supply Accountability,” Suchi Reddy of New York-based architecture and design studio Reddymade spoke about her experience designing the Chicago showroom for office seating company Humanscale, a DFF pilot project that strictly conforms to the organization’s guiding principles and ethical sourcing guidelines. Reddy stressed the importance of communication with manufacturers and the role of data collection and analysis in the design process. “We need to keep in mind that architects and designers have 40 percent more purchasing power than the average consumer,” she noted.

Three new DFF pilot projects were also announced during the summit. They will join 11 completed and ongoing building projects across three continents. The Battery Park Field House in New York, designed by WXY Studio, will be located within 25 acres of historic public parkland at the southern tip of Manhattan and is expected to be completed in 2029. “Changing perceptions of public washrooms and public parks maintenance facilities is a perfect match for the Design for Freedom Toolkit and for inspiring the care of our public parks and gardens,” said WXY founding partner Claire Weisz. Burns & McDonnell is designing a new manufacturing headquarters for the furniture brand Hightower in High Point, North Carolina, with an expected completion date of 2026. This adaptive reuse project of an existing 175,000-square-foot facility aims to set a new standard for sustainable, socially responsible manufacturing. Finally, Slade Architecture is working on the Grace Farms Rest House Project, a series of shelters that offers safety, respite, and community spaces to tea and coffee farmers worldwide.

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Burns & McDonnell's Hightower Headquarters (1); WXY Studio's Battery Park Field House (2). Images courtesy Grace Farms

Other panels throughout the day included discussions about sustainable forestry, circularity, decarbonization, and how to leverage DFF principles on an international scale. Notable speakers included Architecture Research Office principal Kim Yao, MASS Design Group co-founder Alan Ricks, and Toshihiro Oki, architecture advisor at Grace Farms.

Sharon Prince moderates a panel on generational forest stewardship that included Leticia Hill, CEO of HaiCo; Jeff Mosher, chief forester at Taan Forest; Orrin Quinn, manager of Western Canada FSS, and Toshihiro Oki, architecture advisor at Grace Farms. Photo by Melani Lust, courtesy Grace Farms

The summit also served as a platform to launch the new Design for Freedom podcast, which will feature a variety of voices to discuss forced labor issues in building materials supply chains. The first episode, “Design for Freedom's International Scale,” features Grace Farms Foundation CEO and founder Sharon Prince and John Morrison, CEO of the Institute for Human Rights in Business.

DFF’s influence continues to expand globally. In early 2025, Grace Farms joined the United Nations Global Compact, a voluntary initiative that encourages CEOs to adopt and document sustainable and socially responsible policies, and has also been accepted as a partner with Alliance 8.7, joining forces with more than 400 organizations committed to eradicating child labor, modern slavery, and human trafficking.