I can’t recall exactly when I first learnt what happened to Stephen Lawrence. I moved to the UK in the early 2000s, after he was killed in an unprovoked racist attack. But I think for Black people living in the UK it’s in our collective consciousness early on. I’m more familiar with the aftermath of the case – the report of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry and its findings, and how these will forever impact the Black community. His story, especially as someone who lives in London, gets passed down. It’s something you carry with you.
Stephen had wanted to become an architect, and that resonated with me strongly, not least because I had similar ambitions. In some ways, Stephen’s aspirations potentially became intertwined with my own. And I’m sure this is the case for many.
I knew I wanted to be an architect early on in life. It was creative and different, which particularly appealed to my inner middle child. Starting to explore what a career in architecture could look like was a point of discovery for me in many ways. Learning what it meant to be an architect, which subjects you needed to study, which interests were helpful to have, were all things I had to learn on the way. It’s interesting to wonder, if Stephen had lived to achieve his ambition, whether he may have been someone who could have helped me in navigating that journey.
Had he become an architect, it’s not impossible to imagine that our paths could have crossed. He’s a generation or so ahead of me, so perhaps he would have been a mentor, an inspiration, a colleague at some point in my career. Certainly, he would have been an inspiration to myself and to other Black people in the community and profession.
In the UK, there aren’t many visible Black architects for aspiring practitioners to look to. Navigating this in my own career I had to formulate a different approach to my journey, which I don’t think is uncommon for Black architects. Over the next few years, and hopefully with more and more people from diverse backgrounds in positions like mine, more work can be done to address the homogeneity of the profession and make it so that architects don’t have to think of their ethnic background as something that could adversely affect their success.
To make architecture truly inclusive for Black practitioners, we need to address the issues of fairness in practice. RIBA’s Business Benchmarking data shows that in 2023, the ethnicity pay gap among RIBA Chartered Practices was 14%.
When I’m asked if I would recommend architecture as a career for young Black individuals, data like this makes it difficult to give a clear-cut answer. My response fundamentally comes down to addressing the economics of architecture as a job. Unfortunately, there’s a high representation of global majority groups in poverty statistics. The primary objective of a job is to have economic security. Architecture needs to put these practical and financial considerations at the forefront of conversations of diversity. Soon, we will publish the results of our recent Pay and Conditions survey – understanding the problem is the first step towards fixing it. We need to create a reality in which architecture is a viable means of lifting people out of cycles of poverty.
Architecture has a role to play in addressing systemic issues like racism. I think there is a tacit understanding of how it props up such hierarchical structures. It’s encouraging to see the work underway to tackle inequity, both here at RIBA and in other architectural and cultural spaces. That burgeoning interest needs to be nurtured.
When tragedies like the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence happen, the victims become forever present in the minds, imaginations, and ambitions of the communities affected. I believe that this is perhaps especially so for Black architects like myself. As we celebrate Stephen and reflect on how he changed the nation, I think we should be proud that change in architecture will have a small part in his legacy.
Words by RIBA President Muyiwa Oki.
