Archinect - News

29% Equal podcast explores the impact of women in architectural practice today

2023-03-08T08:00:00-05:00

Just in time for Women's History Month, a new podcast called 29% Equal recently launched, bringing attention to the influence of several women architects on the way the profession is practiced today.

Produced by Newcastle University doctoral candidate Sarah Ackland with support from the RIBA Research Fund, three episodes of the six-part series are available so far, featuring voices like Farshid Moussavi, 2021 MJ Long Prize winner Alice Brownfield, activist architect Elsie Owusu (herself a guest on Archinect's podcast in 2016), and others working in the UK — in close association with the Part W action group — towards similar goals aligned with gender equity and the representation of women in academia, professional practice, and architectural history.

“In an effort to eliminate this continual erasure of women, I have invited a young architect, designer, artist or activist from Part W (and friends) to have a discussion with a woman they feel deserves recognition, or perhaps more recogn...

So Far to Go, So Much to Gain – discussing diversity with Elsie Owusu on Archinect Sessions One-to-One #9

2016-02-01T19:36:00-05:00

Based in London, Elsie Owusu OBE runs her own firm (Elsie Owusu Architects), is a national council member at the Royal Institute of British Architects, and is vice chair at the London School of Architecture. But it’s likely that many Archinectors hadn’t heard of Owusu until December of last year, when we reported on claims of institutional racism and sexism she had made against RIBA, alleging that they had rigged an election she was up for in favor of another candidate, who wasn’t an elected council member.

In my correspondence with Owusu to arrange our interview, she analogized the issue this way (paraphrased here): an African-American or minority ethnic female actor (her) being nominated for an Oscar, only to have a white actor who hasn't even made a film "parachuted in" and given an award for Best Supporting Actor.

I wanted to speak with Owusu about her work alongside issues of diversity and exclusion in practice generally, and also at the institutional level of RIBA. We discuss th...

National council member accuses RIBA of "institutional racism", prompting investigation

2015-12-04T19:40:00-05:00

[Elsie Owusu] alleged that the election [for Riba’s vice-president of practice and profession] was rigged in favour of a rival candidate, and in a complaint to Riba’s president, Jane Duncan, she claimed it was “tantamount to institutionalised racism in my view”. [...] “The banter, discrimination and treating black people worse than other staff goes through architecture like a stick of rock. It’s absolutely disgraceful and it starts at the top with Riba."

In response to Owusu's allegation, RIBA has initiated a formal investigation, and states that a report will be filed in time for discussion at the next national council meeting in March of 2016.

According to the Guardian, the allegations include not only accusations that the election of the Vice President of Practice and Profession was rigged in favor of Owusu's competing candidate, who is not black, but also references "sexist" banter by council members.

Also as quoted in the Guardian, Owusu invokes the Equality Act of 2010 in her claim that being passed over in the election constitutes institutional racism:

And this is an example: when there are two people up for a job, one an elected member, the other not, to use the weight of the institution from the president’s chair to support a white person over a black person, when we are both equally qualified, to me is the institution using its power to support behaviour that is tantamount to racism.

More details on the allegations can be foun...