The National Building Museum educates, entertains, and engages people about the built environment and challenges them to advocate for a sustainable and equitable future.

Since it was created in 1980 through an act of Congress, the National Building Museum has transformed the public’s understanding of the impact of architecture, engineering, landscape architecture, construction, planning, and design. Through exhibitions, educational programs, and special events, we welcome visitors of all ages to experience stories about the built world and its power to shape our lives, our communities, and our future.

Founded by Christine Abbate in 1996, Novità is an integrated marketing and communications agency with global reach. Beginning with Ceramics of Italy and the Italian Trade Commission, Novità, meaning “the news” in Italian, has grown in service offerings and built a robust client list. Our specialties are also our passions. We partner with brands, creatives, innovators and thought-leaders locally and globally, bringing our expertise in architecture, design and real estate, the creative and culinary arts, technology, health and wellness, and sustainability.

Although human rights advocates have begun to raise awareness of the pervasiveness of forced labor in construction projects around the world, the use of raw and composite materials produced by forced labor in the built environment largely continues with impunity.

Join experts and industry leaders across the ecosystem of the built environment, for an illuminating panel on modern slavery in the architecture and global construction industry, one of the largest industrial sectors in the world. The discussion will address the importance of human rights as a fundamental criterion in building material procurement, and share innovative, new frameworks that are being proposed to expose and dismantle exploitation in building supply chains.