On July 26th, voting closes for the election of the next RIBA president. When the winner commences their two-year term as president on September 1st, 2023, they will be confronted with a list of burning issues across the UK’s architectural profession; and will be expected to publicly lead a response.

Some issues are specific to the UK context: a turbulent national political landscape, the soaring cost of indemnity insurance, and the implementation of new or upcoming UK laws on planning, construction, and emissions, to name a few. Other issues are specific to RIBA itself: an institution which has seemingly lurched from crisis to crisis in recent times, be it on accusations of inadequate diversity, election rule changes, or just this week, questions over a “buried” internal report on bullying.

These UK-specific issues aside, many of the challenges facing the UK profession will be familiar to architects across the world, including mental health in architecture schools, working conditions in professional practice, and the contribution of building and construction to global greenhouse gas emissions. The new RIBA president, therefore, has an international platform to place such issues at the center of our discourse, to lead by example, and to set a model of best practice for their international peers.

This responsibility will fall on one of three candidates for RIBA president: Jo Bacon of Allies and Morrison, Muyiwa Oki of Mace, and Sumita Singha of Ecologic Architects. 

With one week left before voting closes, we asked each candidate: "What action(s) would you take to address each the following topics during your term as RIBA President?" 

Below, we have republished their unedited responses. 

Mental health in architecture schools

Jo Bacon: The RIBA has a duty of care to all employees, members and students in validated schools and will publish in time for the new university term a code of conduct for architectural schools. Architects and teachers in schools should all be trained and committed to championing a nurturing culture and look out for the wellbeing for all. Now is the time for reflection and positive change.

I will push for an upgrade of the validation process, so all students at all schools are offered the opportunity to partake in confidential feedback surveys and require evidence of mental health training of all who teach.

Muyiwa Oki: The culture of the all-nighters, the labour of love, and work 70-hour weeks on repeat is an ideology that should be discouraged and eliminated from our psyche. In my opinion, these attitudes are part of the triggers of mental health issues in schools of architecture in the UK and internationally.  The RIBA can first set a benchmark of how good working practice should occur in its own organisation and use campaigns and events to help its members address the issue.

Further work can be done by partnering with mental health institutions to reduce the logistical stress on students and other professionals to search, locate and access quality care, so they can clear up valuable head space for a more enjoyable work/life balance. These partnerships will give members access to things they would otherwise go without. This can be a value add to a membership fee.

Sumita Singha: I have been teaching for 30 years in the UK and abroad. I was part of the NHS for nine years. I’m also a trustee of Architects Benevolent Society where I sit on its Welfare committee. Our expenditure for mental health has gone up to nearly half of our expenditure now. There are other surveys and reports to suggest that mental health in architecture schools has become an acute problem. My manifesto asks for the remit of the ‘RIBA Compact’ to be extended to include an ethical charter for students [and employees]. There will be zero tolerance for bullying and harassment, and abusive behaviour. Mentoring, support, and training at work will enable students to cope better.

To eliminate discrimination, I will also advocate integrating into the curriculum a recognition and redress of predominant colonialist social narratives and emphasise the critical role that diversity and inclusion plays in fostering creativity, equity, and respect.

Unpaid overtime in architecture firms

Jo Bacon: Architecture is a vocation and a profession operating within a commercial industry. The practice of unrewarded excessive working is one I oppose. The truth is the only way architects can avoid overwork and underpay is to charge more for professional services. I will focus on that conversation as President.

The profession sees committed, hard-working professionals — many of whom are, at all levels, underpaid compared to, say, RICS equivalents.

 Average salaries of architects have fallen in real terms 20% since 2013 — most clients don’t know this, and many practices have not been able to account for this in calculating their fee proposals. I will urgently address this, through advice notes for practices on fee preparation. We must avoid the drive to the bottom on fees. Otherwise, we will continue to be marginalised and underpaid. 

Muyiwa Oki: I will make the RIBA more equitable and mandate overtime pay for RIBA chartered practices. Create a toolkit to facilitate practices to transition into employee ownership and create an integrated career development coaching service, building on existing programs like the future architects, guerrilla tactics, RIBA Academy.

An equitable membership thinks big and creates their dream architectural career path. This will be achieved with support from policies like these.

Sumita Singha: Unpaid overtime work is bad for health, unproductive, and shows poor business management. Unfortunately, such culture begins during education, so I will attempt to address this with schools of architecture as well. Bigger practices could have a ‘guardian of safe working’ as in the NHS.

As a ‘carrot’, I will institute an award for employers who demonstrate the behaviours and modelling that include, but would not be limited to, effective EDI policies, employee welfare, elimination of pay gaps, and good pay and working conditions for all. This award is something I have been advocating for the last 22 years.

Declining fee levels for architecture services

Jo Bacon: Specific challenges now such as inflation, fee stasis, talent retention and recruitment alongside the technical demands of the climate crisis and building safety.

I’ll say it again — the profession is underpaid. Architects create opportunities, solve problems and bring great value to clients and the communities with whom they serve. By 2025, we must have demonstrated to the public and our talent pipeline the value of being a RIBA Architect. If this is better recognised, it should lead to practices being more profitable, a benefit that should be more widely shared.

So, to retain talent at all levels, we must not be in a drive to the bottom with the consequences that brings to our members’ ability to reward their staff at all levels. As RIBA president, I will prioritise being an advocate for this.

Muyiwa Oki: Business innovation and embracing the skills for a digital future are required across the profession. The RIBA can begin this journey by embracing and engaging architectural professionals across wider technology and innovation organisations. So that they can share their ideas on how they generate new revenue streams. This will ensure that architectural skills and traditional design practices change with the times to be relevant and valuable.

I will stimulate innovation — developing work from anywhere strategy and using the RIBA building assets as incubators for start-up businesses and practices.

Sumita Singha: I want to increase the work that architects do and, at the same time, help in mitigating the cost of living and climate crises by extending the scale of retrofit and refurbishment projects that architects are already carrying out.

I’m working with a high-level (non-RIBA) task group that is looking at retrofitting social housing. I am asking for reduction in VAT rates for such work so that it is attractive to both clients and procurers. I want to introduce such retrofitting to most buildings. Protection of function will also enable architects to increase their work and thus fees.

Further looking at the spread of RIBA regionally and internationally, I want to increase collaboration, knowledge and resource sharing between practices that will bring in work for all.

Unionization among architecture workers

Jo Bacon: The RIBA is not constituted to be a union. Instead, it was founded for ‘the general advancement of Architecture, and for promoting and facilitating the acquirement of the knowledge of the various arts and sciences connected therewith’. It receives no public funding and relies on its 40,000 members, sponsors and charitable giving.

If popular, there is no reason not to start a union, but my focus will be on what I can do as RIBA president. I will encourage Chartered Practices to stand together for higher fees to effect improved salaries. I will champion adherence to the RIBA Code of Conduct, which is what is expected of a member. The majority of RIBA members I meet or have met are proud to adhere to the Code, but many architecture students are or have experienced salaries lower than the Living Wage. This must be addressed.

Muyiwa Oki: It may be inevitable that architects unionize. Other professionals have a union, i.e BMA for Doctors in medicine. I have had a series of conversations with the UVW-SAW (section of architectural workers) group, and they are the voice of a growing collective and are building their leverage. Their message on the value of architectural work and the leverage we require to influence a situation and achieve a particular outcome — better pay, resonates with me. If this resonates with a large section of workers, I believe that they should have the ability to stand together to lift industry standards.

I believe that leverage grows through the articulation of value to society. Our lack of ability to quantify our work’s impact leads to limited leverage.

Sumita Singha: Unions can be effective in bringing about positive change. However, that change also has to come from the practices. So, I advocate an ethical charter for architectural workers. Secondly, I will institute an award for employers who demonstrate good practice.

Thirdly, we need to recognise that both practices and unions will be more effective if they both work collaboratively. The HR departments of bigger practices can work with the unions. However, as most architecture practices are small without a separate HR department, so I will advocate for a RIBA facilitator who can work with smaller practices to come to a mutually acceptable solution (like ACAS does).

The process need not be a confrontation; it can be a participatory and creative negotiation that will ultimately benefit everyone.

The carbon footprint of architecture

Jo Bacon: Debate and learning at the RIBA must promote innovative responses to the climate crisis to support our members to learn new methods and approaches for a low carbon future.

The journey to net zero, of understanding, assessing and maybe offsetting is really just a big journey right now, and for the smaller practices and or contractors, it is still something that is too hard.

My ambition is for all Chartered Practices to be signed up to and have the skills to deliver projects in line with the RIBA 2030 Climate Challenge by 2025 and understand how to design all projects to net-zero carbon ready performance; have RIBA toolkits to becoming a carbon neutral organisation; and to have incorporated post-occupancy evaluation into projects. 

I will lobby the government on zero VAT on retrofit projects.

Muyiwa Oki: I will introduce cradle-to-cradle accreditation and rewards and introduce a Director of Climate at the RIBA.

Advance the adoption of prefab — offsite — use of robotics and automation. To align with the central government agenda on MMC and DfMA.

Get more than 50% of chartered practices to sign-up for the Climate challenge and set up a Climate Challenge 2030 Design Data Exchange Platform — similar to the AIA's. To make it easier and faster to record and share project data, get actionable information, and advance the energy and carbon performance of your projects.

Sumita Singha: I have been working in the field of sustainable design for thirty years, being the first woman to complete a M.Phil. in Sustainable design from Cambridge. My book, Architecture For Rapid Change and Scarce Resources, has been adopted for design courses in the USA and UK. My practice, Ecologic Architects, and teaching has been based on sustainable design and material technology.

As building operational energy becomes more efficient and greener, material excavation and use remain primitive. Many materials are non-renewable — sand, gravel, and clay — with a huge amount of embodied carbon. We will run out of virgin materials and produce more carbon dioxide if we don’t find ways to reduce, reuse and recycle materials — and use materials that can be grown.

As part of my Presidential pledge, I will lobby for chartered practice status to include mandatory environmental and carbon targets; and encourage them to work in net zero and retrofit projects.

Equality and diversity in the profession

Jo Bacon: I have always championed diversity and inclusion in practice, and I know RIBA leadership is essential.

I propose a paid, part-time role for an elected recently qualified architect to support the President, the RIBA Council and at Board annually. This working 'Vice President' could be an essential diversity link to students and those who have most recently qualified.

There exists no universal standard or government requirement to measure diversity. However, measurement is vital to monitoring progress — and it affords insight. And we must encourage practices to monitor diversity at all levels. 

So, I will promote the RIBA Inclusion Charter — so all practices have a diversity and inclusion commitment, like mine does, including how they will track and disclose data, so we can have a full picture of diversity and representation of all Chartered Practices by 2025.

Muyiwa Oki: The RIBA should be a committed mentor of young and diverse talent within the industry. The already existing mentorship programme should be reviewed to understand the impact it has had over the years. The format and outputs should be reimagined if it has not achieved its original aims.

I will create more opportunities to connect the diverse talent of all levels with one another, but more importantly, to be inspired. For example, this summer I will be hosting an event specifically focused on celebrating and inspiring Black architects in partnership with Black Females In Architecture (BFA), also collaborating with the Paradigm Network.

Sumita Singha: As the founder of the RIBA’s equality forum, Architects For Change, and past Chair of Women in Architecture, I have a long history of campaigning for equality and diversity in the profession. In the last decade from when I started out, the proportion of women in architecture has risen from 8% to 30%, the RIBA has adopted its Equal opportunities policy, promoted the work of diverse architects. I’m now running a course about women practising architecture and raising awareness through lectures and two books.

I also want to extend this internationally through the concept of cultural quotient/intelligence (CQ) because the RIBA operates in 115 countries. And so, charters of inclusion will need to be tailored to each country. It will also enable us to work globally.