MANIFESTO DEDICATED TO THE ‘FORGOTTEN’

Career’s Day! A day where people in love with their professions share their long-lived passion with students - Finding ways to inspire and encourage you. Here, one student is searching for her long dreamed career in life. In the hope of finding this same inspiration as her other peers, already and successfully relating to the Architecture concession. The question is, why hadn’t she? This student hadn’t realised that being both black and female. The chances of her finding a concessionaire that looked or experienced the same as she did in this concession would be very slim compared to her other caucasian peers. — Following this day, this girl becomes doubtful & discouraged from applying, or entering the profession, thinking of other more relatable careers to pursue.

Like this young black woman, other ethnic minority women growing and thriving in education will come across this wall. Why? Because young ethnic ‘women steer clear of professions where fewer female role models [share the same experiences such as] facing bias and discrimination.’ Suppose we young women in the ethnic minority don't see other women of ethnic backgrounds in the roles we wish to pursue. The likelihood of us achieving or thriving for it is unlikely. (You're not going to go in a position that you can't see or picture yourself doing). Statistically, as shown by The Architect's Journal in 2019, of the 40 per cent of RIBA members who choose to state their ethnicity, 4.7 per cent were from a BAME background, and 0.6 per cent were black women. This statistic is why the profession of architecture should be one of the first to be made even more personal and approachable to its ethnic future employees. Make architecture a more inclusive job to give other young ethnic women a sense of reassurance and accessibility to Architecture, not during or after their Career day, but before.

The architectural industry can address these issues through various methods:

1. TALK ABOUT RACE & ETHNICITY

Make information about black female architects' successes, experiences and projects more accessible through advertisement. A great example already as an information hub would be the ‘Black in Architecture’ community and ‘Black Females in Architecture.’ To minimise young black women giving up on research due to constant and unsuccessful digging on the internet.

• IDENTIFY BARRIERS

Acknowledge and understand the challenges faced by ethnic women in the architectural workplace. From the research of Dezeen magazine (2020) 33 per cent of BAME respondents said racism was "widespread" in architecture, up 10 per cent from two years ago. Let’s pinpoint these issues and begin changing them as stated by J Hilburg, ‘Architecture schools must embrace the deconstruction of their curriculums to question not only the future of architecture but to expose the racist past they helped construct’

• GREATER CULTURAL AWARENESS

Connect to ethnic young women by adding a sense of authenticity to one's perspective of architecture. Introduction of culturally aware architects, such as Sir David Adjaye and his projects District Hospitals Ghana & Thabo Mbeki Presidential Library. To give rise to phrases such as I design because “Africa is an extraordinary opportunity at the moment.” Or "Westerners heat their houses we heat our bodies" reflecting the strongly held principles of Japanese culture. So that cultural language can move from being alienated to becoming the norm of architecture.

• INVOLVEMENT OF THE COMMUNITY

Host community challenges & exhibitions. Such as the concept of ‘Architectural drawing in response to music,’ held by the London Festival of Architecture Exhibition 2020 to advertise creative freedom and remove the political capitalism of architecture – Apparent in 21st-century urban cities of Dubai and Malaysia through mundane designs of high-rise corporate buildings in order to invite more attention to the career.

• ORGANISE TALKS ACROSS ALL SCHOOLS

Circulate the successes and journeys of black females in architecture through talks and presentations relaying this information. Just as an architectural journalist, Demar Matthews, ‘I hope to spread light to my school faculty and faculties…[and] most of all I want to let the students who are in the same situation as I am in any field, know that they are not alone’

References

Elsesser, K. (2021, January 8). The Gender Pay Gap And The Career Choice Myth. Forbes. Retrieved May 3, 2022, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/kimelsesser/2019/04/01/the-gender-pay-gap-and-the-career-choice-myth/?sh=29a1df00114a

Jessel, E. (2020, August 6). Black Females in Architecture: ‘We are here to shape our city.’ The Architects’ Journal. Retrieved May 3, 2022, from https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/black-females-in-architecture-we-are-here-to-shape-our-city

Sakyi- Ansah, J. (2021, June 9). About Us –. Black in Architecture®. Retrieved May 3, 2022, from https://blackinarchitecture.uk/blackinarch/home

Black Females in Architecture. (n.d.). News. Retrieved May 3, 2022, from https://www.blackfemarc.com/news

Block, I. (2022, February 12). Racism increasing in UK architecture industry finds AJ survey. Dezeen. Retrieved May 4, 2022, from https://www.dezeen.com/2020/06/09/racism-widespread-uk-architecture-industry-aj-survey-news/?msclkid=f30fbde2cf7b11ecbbe6ef0ac7c32fea

Hilburg, J. (2020, June 17). Un-making ARCHITECTURE: An anti-racist architecture manifesto. The Architect’s Newspaper. Retrieved May 4, 2022, from https://www.archpaper.com/2020/06/un-making-architecture-an-anti-racist-architecture-manifesto/?msclkid=c7ab6fd0cf7c11ec8b7abce50c06f77f

District Hospitals Ghana. (2021, August 28). Adjaye Associates. Retrieved May 3, 2022, from https://www.adjaye.com/work/district-hospitals-ghana/

Thabo Mbeki Presidential Library. (2021, October 8). Adjaye Associates. Retrieved May 3, 2022, from https://www.adjaye.com/work/thabo-mbeki-presidential-library/

David Adjaye Quotes. (n.d.). Quote Fancy. Retrieved May 3, 2022, from https://quotefancy.com/david-adjaye-quotes

Metalkova-Markova, M. (2022). Outline of Japanese Residential Architecture [Slides]. The University of Portsmouth. https://moodle.port.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/3092288/mod_resource/content/1/Milena%20-%20Japanese%20Architecture_default.mp4

London Festival Of Architecture. (2020, July 1). The Tooley Street Triangle: A welcome back to London from the LFA and Team London Bridge. Retrieved May 3, 2022, from https://2020.londonfestivalofarchitecture.org/

The University of Portsmouth. (2021). DESIGN AS AN ACT OF CARE HISTORIES THEORIES + CARE [Slides]. Panopto. https://port.cloud.panopto.eu/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=f1939fe2-bf04-44a0-bac5-ad8800c66398

Matthews, D. (2019, April 23). A Black Architecture Education Experience. Archinect. Retrieved May 4, 2022, from https://archinect.com/features/article/150132758/a-black-architecture-education-experience?msclkid=e7670c8bcf7d11ec9489a12badeec5e7