The Ultimately Necessary

I delivered this talk at the event to celebrate the "graduation" of participants of the Building Futures Programme, part of the work delivered by the charity Blueprint for All, on Thursday 1st September, 2022.

Blueprint for All was originally the Stephen Lawrence Trust, working to encourage young Black people into architecture. It has grown, and Doreen Lawrence has stepped away from it; the work continues, supporting young people from racialised groups by providing equal opportunities, including breaking into the built environment in addition to other sectors.

This is my talk at their event held at JTP's workspace in E1, London.

Amanda Gorman has a poem, from her Anthology ‘Call Us What We Carry’ – called ‘Practice Makes People’. It begins:

The making of plans,

When this is over

The We can’t wait,

Really our knuckles rapping

Against the future, sounding

Out what lies beneath its hull.

But tomorrow isn’t revealed,

Rather rendered, refined. Wrought.

Remember that fate isn’t fought

Against. It’s fought for. Again

& again.

The call from Blueprint for All inviting me to speak to you today came at a really interesting time.

You know I was, until a few months ago, the Director of Inclusion at the RIBA; the decision to leave has caused me much angst, because, when I started, I stated that working at the RIBA those unheard voices in the built environment will not only have a place to speak, but will be listened to, as together, we work to build a better world.

I acknowledged, there would be more challenge, there would be more strife, BUT that there was reason to hope, and that step-by-step we would deliver change.

And I’ve wrestled with how I’ve let down underrepresented groups in the sector.

Coincidentally, just a couple weeks before I was contacted, I had been here in London with my Trini family, and my young teenage nephew had expressed a strong desire to become an architect. An African- Caribbean and Indian-Caribbean heritage boy from North London wants to become an architect. And he’s talented… his sketches, concepts and designs, are next level for his age…

So, my heart has been torn as I grappled with my decision and how to bring my best self and expertise to support this profession and ensure that people like my nephew are given the best possible chance to not only succeed, but to thrive in a profession that needs a diversity of voices, talents, experiences and backgrounds.

“We shape our buildings and thereafter, our buildings shape us” after all.

And when Blueprint for All reached out, I realised, how arrogant I was to be weighed down with such introspective malaise, as if it had ever been all up to me, or dare I say, even the RIBA, to sort out the issues of discrimination in architecture.

Yes, bringing clarity and strategy and solutions to the issues is what I do, but we’re in this together – the underrepresented with those who have the power and motivation to fix these issues - and Blueprint for All and the Building Futures programme has been delivering hope long before I decided to show up.

And so, I shake my head at my ego over-inflation (maybe that’s why I’ve fit so well in architecture?!)

So, it’s truly humbling to be asked to stand before you – this organisation – now, to speak about the issues of inclusion in the profession.

Building Futures. It’s such a good name for a programme like this. Layered and layered with meaning. Building your future. Ours. Society's.

How do we build a future that’s inclusive? Well, yes, it’s absolutely about you, the participants we celebrate today, but it’s also about ensuring you are supported going forward, not just today, but every day, now until the time that you choose - not at a time that's chosen for you by the circumstances you find yourself in.

No one sets out onto the architecture path with a view to giving it up because the situation they find themselves in, is too painful and problematic. All the years of training is about shaping our world – which in turn will shape lives. It’s not for you, the discriminated against to mitigate the bias of those afflicted and who perpetuate biased systems.

There’s nothing wrong with underrepresented groups; the support that schemes like Building Future provides, is only part of the solution to creating equity in the profession – we also need to try to get rid of those barriers that make Building Futures necessary in the first place, and reduce the gap between what is currently achievable and what is ultimately necessary.

So, the burden of responsibility lies with those who can hold up the mirror, look deep into the eyes of discrimination, and tackle it - head on.

We’re all biased. To be human is to be biased.

Speaking on RIBA Radio – a resource I recommend you all delve into – and for the architects amongst you, listening to it all counts as CPD (!) - Dr Pragya Agarwal author of Sway, Unravelling Unconscious Bias, said: “We are all human and we are all biased. We need some of these templates, or stereotypes or biases to process information in the real world. When we are bombarded with information, more so with social media, and so on, our brains don't have the capacity to process it all in a rational manner, so we make quick hasty impulsive decisions”.

The thing is, these quick hasty processes our brain goes through, whilst biologically essential, aren’t always helpful.

That’s why we need something else.

Because we can have the best HR policies, the most amazing initiatives to uplift the underrepresented, even awards for our EDI work, but it all counts for nothing, if there is not the support, leadership and behaviours to implement those policies – not just write them; to continue to support the underrepresented throughout their careers – not just at the beginning; to follow through on the promise of those awards – not just celebrate winning them.

We need in the profession of architecture, in architecture education, in architectural design, and in all aspects of the sector, to develop the behaviours, so we can create, implement and enforce procedures, practices and policies that mitigate the impact of unhelpful bias.

How do we develop the behaviours to mitigate bias?

Unhelpful bias is especially activated when we’re faced with difference. This is not something that has happened overnight. It’s been centuries, millennia, in the making, where those that benefit from reinforcing ideas of what is different, and difference, keep perpetuating those myths that maintain the status quo. And so, we are thoroughly socialised, educated and ideologised into absorbing these unhelpful biases. We didn’t stand a chance. We had no choice.

Thankfully, there’s a whole heap of research that’s been done over the last 20 years into what we can do to combat it and to give ourselves a chance. To give ourselves a choice.

The research question that’s now been asked for more than a quarter of a million people across 170 countries, is what’s the difference between those that succeed in today’s globalised, multi-cultural world, and those that fail? What’s the difference between success and failure when wanting to work and relate with those who are different from you?

And the answer has been coming back consistently… we need four combined skills and attributes:

We need MOTIVATION – we’ve got to want to work and relate with those who are different from us. We’ve got the feel the fear and do it anyway. We’ve got to lean into the discomfort that is consciously facing your biases. We’ve got to have DRIVE.

We need UNDERSTANDING – we’ve got to discover what we don’t know. We’ve got to realise what we’ll never know. We’ve got to acknowledge that others have experiences that we’ll never have, but must listen to. We’ve got to get to grips with whatever we believe to be true, the opposite may also be true. We’ve got to have KNOWLEDGE.

We need THINK ABOUT WHAT WE’RE THINKING – we’ve got to take that knowledge and check it, check our assumptions. We’ve got to be hugely self-aware about our own perspectives and power; we’ve got to plan for the different outcomes our, for example, potential policy might give rise to. We’ve got to have STRATEGY.

And we need ADAPTABLE BEHAVIOURS – we’ve got to realise everyone needs something different from us in order to be effective at working and relating with them, and we need to have a repertoire of adaptability that is still authentic to us. This is about making a choice, not about covering or code-switching to hide; it’s about the process to bring about inclusion, not assimilation. We need to have ACTION.

These four attributes, DRIVE, KNOWLEDGE, STRATEGY & ACTION are the behaviours of the culturally intelligent, having the capability to work and relate effectively with those who are different from you – and they’re the behaviours the architecture profession must develop in order to be successful at the policies to support the underrepresented in the profession and to be truly inclusive in every part of it.

And, thankfully, RIBA have asked me to write the book on it – so standby! It’s on it’s way!

Those responsible for the paths into architecture and architecture education are looking at what needs to change. At RIBA, the Education Team have been looking into behaviour-based work, and the intersection of RIBA, studios, and educational establishments; and the Action Plan that the Joint Institutes, of RIBA, RICS, CIOB, RTPI, Landscape Institute and ICE, developed has a clear focus on the support needed from leadership to deliver on the Pipeline actions, measures and outcomes. ARB know things need to change, hence their desire to examine the Part 1,2,3 programme drawn up by those who may have sought – consciously or unconsciously - to keep it elitist.

None of us can afford for the profession to remain elitist.

As we face an uncertain future of climate change and increasing conflicts of all kinds, we must look on the flip side – at the possibility within – of people, not as problems to solve, but as potential to unfold - to our shared values, our shared planet, our shared humanity - and building futures which are cognisant and inclusive of us all.

Amanda Gorman’s poem Practice makes People, continues:

Maybe there is no fresh wisdom,

Just old woes,

New words to name them by

& the will to act.

We’ve seen life lurching back in stops & starts

Like a wet-born thing learning to walk.

The air charged & changed.

Us, charged & changed.

A yoked-out eternity

For that needle to pierce our arm.

At last: a pain we asked for.

Yes, it is enough to be moved

By what we might be.

Congratulations to the participants of the Building Futures Programme of 2022.