Defining Contemporary Professionalism

For Architects in Practice and Education

Alan Jones, Rob Hyde, Alan Jones, Rob Hyde

• Publisher: RIBA Publishing
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781859468470
• eBook ISBN: 9781000706802
• Topic: Architecture
• Subtopic: Architecture General

This book is a series of curated essays by high-profile architecture and design leaders and educators on the topic of professionalism. The book first sets out the current agenda - defining professionalism for the architecture sector - before moving on to focus on delivering the increased professional skills curriculum content within architecture schools as set by the RIBA. With an introduction and conclusion by the Editors, this book explores what contemporary professionalism within architecture is, and its future, encouraging the current and future profession to address professionalism across the industry.

1
Visible and invisible diversities

Why our profession needs to be holistically inclusive

Yemi Aladerun

BA (Hons) DipArch MArch (Thinking Building) RIBA

Yemi is an architect and project manager at Islington and Shoreditch Housing Association. She is an ambassador for the Architects Benevolent Society and is an elected National Council Member of the RIBA 2017–2020. Yemi sits on the RIBA’s Education Committee, mentors for numerous organisations and is a trustee at Olmec, a social enterprise that champions race equality through economic and social justice.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/YemiAladerunArchitect

@yemmsie

Where institutions rely on too narrow a range of people from too narrow a range of backgrounds with too narrow a range of experiences they risk behaving in ways and focusing on issues that are of salience only to a minority but not the majority in society.

Alan Milburn¹

As an early-career, female, Nigerian-born, UK-raised architect, I represent a number of visible and invisible diversities. Each of us has a distinct backstory and characteristics that intersect to create our individual identity; that identity plays a significant role in what and how we contribute in our professional work environment.

For me, the fundamental purpose of being an architect is to have the greatest positive impact on society by aiding the creation of places and spaces that enable everyone to live better, to work better and to thrive and prosper. For architects to remain relevant and of value in our fast-paced modern society, we need to embrace holistic inclusion to fuel creativity and creative thinking. Importantly, we need to find a way for as many voices as possible from across the spectrum of humanity to participate in the consideration and realisation of our built environment.

Architects will be able to contribute to the transformation of society and respond to and solve challenges such as housing shortages, rapid urbanisation, climate change and so on, only if we grasp the opportunity to design for the widest range of people. Increased representation and inclusion of diverse individuals is essential to the survival of our profession. We must all be dedicated to the equality, diversity and inclusion agenda, not only because of our individual lived experiences but because it also makes business sense.

What are the actions needed to foster fully inclusive diversity in architecture?

It is clear that talent (capability and skill) can be found in people from all backgrounds. Unfortunately, the opportunity to succeed and thrive is not currently distributed equally in our society. Furthermore, being talented is not enough to guarantee you success. There are structural barriers that need to be considered, dissolved and worked around in order to increase access to the profession and progression within the profession. A Social Mobility Action Plan developed in 2018 with guidance from the Sutton Trust and the Social Mobility Foundation has been agreed by the board of the RIBA and has been endorsed by the RIBA Council. The plan aims to address the barriers that occur at key life stages to ensure opportunity for all. At school age, the actions needed include promoting the value of creative subjects and providing accurate advice on career prospects. Further into professional education, the actions needed include providing alternative routes to study architecture (such as apprenticeships and earn-and-learn routes). At the point of recruitment and career progression, the actions needed include providing guidance for graduates applying for jobs (such as CV writing and interview techniques), and developing recruitment and career progression guidance.

So… what are we going to do about it?

I believe we can only achieve equality through the process of equity. For equality to be more than a sound bite, we need action to bring about practical change. And yes, I believe that includes applying positive action (awards, partnership programmes, mentoring schemes and employment programmes focused on supporting and encouraging under-represented groups) until the time when such measures are no longer required.

Below are a few examples of ‘positively disruptive’ programmes and initiatives that I am involved in. They seek to redress the balance of participation in architecture, and bring change to the status quo.

I passionately believe in mentoring as a tool for attracting and retaining talent, providing access to professional networks and providing role models. Mentoring serves as a fantastic means to level the playing field of access to architecture, and provides support during and after education. I am committed to boosting training and employment opportunities for young and under-represented people through mentoring for: the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust, under its Building Futures Programme; the Social Mobility Foundation, under its Aspiring Professionals Programme; and Built By Us, under its Fluid Diversity Mentoring Scheme.

As a trustee and council member of the RIBA, I believe I help in promoting the delivery of better buildings and places, stronger communities and a sustainable environment. The RIBA’s Education Committee validates architectural education providers, and encourages diversity and fair access to the profession. I sit on the committee because it allows me to encourage the RIBA and other educational institutions to help create environments where the talent of those of differing social backgrounds will be nurtured.

Some significant initiatives by the RIBA are the National Schools Programme, the Architecture Apprenticeships scheme and the Social Mobility Action Plan. The initiatives aim to attract those who might never seriously have considered a career in architecture, and attract and retain those who might struggle to study architecture because of the length and cost of the course. There is always more the RIBA could do to make the profession more inclusive, but the institution is on the right path. There is also more that we could do as individuals, practitioners, educators, employers and employees: mentoring, addressing the expense of architectural education, addressing the gender pay gap, and making space for families in a practical way, such as allowing flexible working hours, working from home and assisting with access to affordable childcare.

The business case for implementing diverse workplaces and being inclusive is well known: improved understanding of our clients and the communities we serve, greater innovation and creativity, increased skill set, reaching larger talent pools, etc. However, from an architectural and built environment perspective, diversity is important not because those currently under-represented design any better than those currently privileged. Rather, through our identities and lived experiences we all have something to contribute. When we put all our differing experience and considerations together we end up with a profession, buildings and spaces that are meaningful and relevant to the majority of society.

Recommended further reading

Anderson-Gough, F., C. Edgley and N. Sharma, ‘Diversity and Professionalism in the Big Four Firms: Expectation, Celebration and Weapon in the Battle for Talent’, Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Vol. 35, Elsevier Ltd, 2016, pp. 13–34.

Stevens, G., The Favoured Circle: The Social Foundations of Architectural Distinction, Cambridge MA, MIT Press, 1998.

https://www.builtbyus.org.uk (accessed 9 May 2019).

https://www.stephenlawrence.org.uk (accessed 9 May 2019).

https://www.suttontrust.com (accessed 9 May 2019).

www.socialmobility.org.uk (accessed 9 May 2019).

2
Live project/designbuild education

Creating new connections between universities, communities and contemporary professionalism

Professor Jane Anderson

RIBA ARB NTFS PFHEA

Jane Anderson is an architect and academic who leads the Undergraduate Programme at Oxford Brookes University. She runs OB1 LIVE, a programme of live projects that are designed and made by students in the School of Architecture in conjunction with the local community. She co-founded the Live Projects Network, an online resource to connect academics, students, practitioners and communities who are involved in live project activity across the globe, sharing best practice and disseminating information.

https://liveprojectsnetwork.org

https://oxfordbrookes.academia.edu/JaneAnderson

Since the early 2000s, increasing numbers of students at UK schools of architecture have been participating in live projects within the community (often referred to as designbuild projects in the USA).

A live project comprises the negotiation of a brief, timescale, budget and product between an educational organisation and an external collaborator for their mutual benefit. The project must be structured to ensure that students gain learning that is relevant to their educational development.²

Many educators who introduce live projects into the curriculum do so to address issues they perceive to be neglected, urgent or emergent in contemporary architectural education, in contemporary practice, in society or all of the above.

To promote best practice and to support live project participants, the Live Projects Network (LPN) was launched in 2012. Some 27 of the 51 RIBA validated schools of architecture in the UK are represented among LPN’s 238 case studies from 85 different educational organisations in 35 different countries across the world (Figure 2.1). An analysis of 154 of these case studies undertaken in 2016 tells us more about the nature and consequences of students’ involvement in live projects. The findings that are most relevant to issues of contemporary professionalism are discussed below.

Although a common initial perception is that students in a live project are engaged in some form of proxy-professional practice outside the university, the reality is more complex. Live projects are in fact a hybrid entity, straddling practice, community, education and research. They are not a mirror of commercial professional practice. They are collaborative and not-for-profit in nature, drawing upon the expertise and aspirations of all actors involved – including local people. Students, academics and the local community all learn from each other and from the authentic situation in which the project occurs.

In a live project, working practices tend towards the participatory, with academic research, individual expertise and local knowledge informing each other. This connects universities more closely to the communities with which they work, both locally and abroad. Live projects are often interdisciplinary, drawing upon specialist knowledge that is available within a university. These include international development, vernacular, heritage and other forms of cultural expertise; sociological, economic, political, legal and ethical research; cutting-edge developments in technology and alternative approaches to practice.

These areas of expertise can be seen in the different aspirations that influence possible live project outcomes. They are:

• professional – where participants wish to explore the potential of new approaches to practice
• educational – where participants benefit from learning that cannot be experienced within the university
• social – where participants address or gain understanding of social forces that shape architectural issues
• design strategy – where participants bring their creativity and design thinking skills into the real world to address issues found there
• design realisation – where participants employ their making skills and technological expertise to tackle real-world challenges.

Analysis of the LPN case studies shows ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• Foreword
• 1 Visible and invisible diversities
• 2 Live project/designbuild education
• 3 Next generation architects – professionalism +
• 4 Holding onto ethics
• 5 Employee ownership a model for practice
• 6 Augmentation or elimination
• 7 Architects and responsibility
• 8 Shaping the city on a mega scale
• 9 Making money, professionally
• 10 On the journey of promoting professionalism
• 11 Small is powerful
• 12 Leading, managing and mentoring
• 13 Professional liability claims
• 14 Embedding the PhD
• 15 The impacts of procurement on outcome
• 16 The pursuit of quality
• 17 The new architectural ‘profession’
• 18 Redefining the profession
• 19 What are architects for?
• 20 Practising on the wild west coast
• 21 Joy then disaster
• 22 Metamorphosis
• 23 Professional behaviours
• 24 Over-professionalisation
• 25 Architects as public-health professionals
• 26 Breaking good
• 27 Professional diversity and specialism
• 28 The apprentice professional
• 29 Once an architect, always an architect…
• 30 Time for diversity
• 31 The business of architecture
• 32 Professional identities
• 33 The value of sustainable design to the profession
• 34 Embedding professionalism in architectural education
• 35 Mentoring the future profession
• 36 Accelerated change
• 37 Borderless
• 38 Architecture is in breach of the social contract
• 39 Marketing and architects
• 40 Architecturing our future
• 41 Professionalism and automation
• 42 Civic architecture
• 43 Developing a professional business
• 44 Prudent practice
• 45 Why engaging with procurement is fundamental
• 46 From idea to realisation
• 47 Can we afford not to collaborate?
• 48 Theory and profession
• 49 Encouraging the profession
• 50 Clients want professionalism
• 51 Becoming professional
• 52 Why ‘professional’ ethics?
• 53 Artificial intelligence and professionalism
• 54 Three pillars of professionalism
• 55 Preparation for practice
• 56 A manifesto for academia with practice
• 57 Architecture’s ethical function
• 58 Building performance evaluation
• 59 Professionalism across boundaries
• 60 Architecture live projects
• 61 Linger longer
• 62 Professional practice revisited
• 63 Status and statutes
• Endnotes
• Image Credits