We’re celebrating UK Black History Month this October. This year’s theme, saluting our sisters, is an occasion to showcase the exceptional achievements of Black women that have been overlooked or forgotten, and a chance to reflect on the contributions of Black female architects.
Let’s all be more Rosa
In this blog, RIBA Chief Executive Dr Valerie Vaughan-Dick MBE highlights a Black woman who inspires her, Rosa Parks, and reflects on how we can all learn from the example she set.
Saluting our sisters blogs
Muyiwa Oki: celebrating our Black sisters
In this blog to mark the end of Black History Month, RIBA President Muyiwa Oki reflects on the contributions of Black women to the field of architecture and beyond.
Charlotte Shields: Architecture needs cultural cross-pollination
In this blog to mark Black History Month, Architectural Designer at Broadway Malyan Charlotte Shields discusses the importance of cultural awareness for architects.
Lechelle Ndlovu: The lost heritage of Zimbabwean stone ruins - preserving the soul of African civilisation
In this blog to mark Black History Month, Lechelle Ndlovu, Architectural Assistant at Donald Insall Associates, discusses Zimbabwe’s architectural heritage.
Naomi Shewa: My architectural heroes - saluting our sisters
In this blog to mark Black History Month, Naomi Shewa, architect at BDP, discusses her architectural heroes who happen to be Black and women, and highlights the importance of community in the profession.
What’s on at RIBA
CPD accredited webinar: Celebrating Black History Month with RIBA North West and Women in Property
Wednesday 25 October 2023, 12:30 to 2pm, online
Join this CPD-accredited virtual panel discussion from wherever you are across the globe. Hosted by RIBA North West and Women in Property and chaired by Chithra Marsh, Director at Buttress, National Chair of Women in Property and co-chair of the RIBA North West EDI Group.
The panellists are Georgie Manly, Retail Customer Propositions Director at Landsec, Karl Brown, FRSA and Chairperson at Bristol Property Inclusion Commission, and Aidan Mwombeki, Part 2 Architectural Assistant at Chapman Taylor.
Register for free by Tuesday 24 October 2023.
New RIBA EDI Leaders Action Group helps the profession share best practice
Last month, we brought together leaders driving equality, diversity, and inclusion in architecture. Sharing insight into positive cultural change already underway in practices around the UK helps us all learn, improve and inspire. We’re grateful to Foster + Partners for hosting our first event.
Find out more and get involved.
Resources and insight
Saluting our sisters: a reading list
The RIBA Publishing and RIBA Collections teams have selected books and articles from RIBA’s wide range of library resources, highlighting the experiences, contributions and achievements of Black professionals, and especially Black women, in the built environment.
All the books and journals are available to browse and read for free through the RIBA Library.
Books and articles about Black architects, especially women
- DIVIA Award 2023: diversity in architecture e.V. by Ursula Schwitalla, Christiane Fath (eds.). (Berlin: Hatje Cantz, 2023) RIBA Library shelfmark: REF 72-055.2 // DIV
- Raising the roof: women architects who broke through the glass ceiling by Agata Toromanoff (Munich; London: Prestel, 2021) RIBA Library shelfmark: REF 72-055.2 // TOR
- AIA Architect (vol. 111, no. 2, 2022 Mar.) Collective success, by Stephen Hicks, p. 31-32 [Riding the Vortex, the collaboration of African American women in architecture founded in 2007, active in various aspects of the profession, aims to increase the number of architects of color.]
- Canadian Architect (vol. 65, no. 7, 2020 Oct., p. 6.) Let's talk about race, by Elsa Lam [On race and architectural practice. Black architects represent less then 2 per cent of licensed practitioners in North America, while black women architects represent less then 0.3 per cent of the industry.]
- Architects’ Journal (vol. 248, no. 2, 2021 Feb. 25, p. 16-18.) Bringing it all back home, by Catherine Slessor [Interview with Lesley Lokko, Ghanaian-Scottish architect, recipient of the 2020 Annie Spink Award and the 2021 Ada Louise Huxtable Prize. Lokko's global teaching career has radically changed the conversation around race, identity and architecture.]
- Architects' Journal (vol. 206, no. 3, 1997 July 17, p. 28-29.) New life under Labour, by Demetrios Matheou [Profiles Elsie Owusu, founder member of the Society of Black Architects.]
Race and architecture
- Race and modern architecture: a critical history from the enlightenment to the present edited by Irene Cheng, Charles L. Davies II, Mabel O. Wilson (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2020) RIBA Library shelfmark: REF 72.01 // RAC
- The black skyscraper: architecture and the perception of race by Adrienne Brown (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2017) RIBA Library shelfmark: REF 721.011.27(73) // BRO
- Architecture in black: theory, space and appearance by Darell Wayne Fields with a foreword by Cornel West (London: Bloomsbury, 2016) RIBA Library shelfmark: REF 72.01 // FIE
- Space unveiled: invisible cultures in the design studio edited by Carla Jackson Bell (London: Routledge, 2015) RIBA Library shelfmark: REF 72.08(73):3 // SPA
- Architects' Journal (vol. 212, no. 12, 2000 Oct. 5, p. 10.) Black practices target top 50 with new client base [The Society of Black Architects (SOBA) will launch a business forum with the aim of elevating at least six black practices to the UK's top 50 within five years.]
Colonialism and British architecture
- Architecture and empire in Jamaica by Louis P. Nelson (New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 2016) RIBA Library shelfmark: REF 72.03(729.2) // NEL
- The age of empire: Britain's imperial architecture from 1880-1930 by Clive Aslet (London: Aurum, 2015) RIBA Library shelfmark: REF 72.03(41/42-44) // ASL
- Neocolonialism and built heritage: echoes of Empire in Africa, Asia and Europe edited by Daniel E. Coslett (London: Routledge, 2020) RIBA Library shelfmark: REF 72:3 // NEO
Inside the collections: saluting our sisters and interrogating our collections
This year’s UK Black History Month theme, saluting our sisters, throws into sharp relief how scarcely Black women are represented in the RIBA Collections.
We know that Black architects have historically been, and continue to be, underrepresented in the profession. This is particularly true of Black women architects who, for example, represent 0.4% of the profession in the UK.
However, the scarcity in our collections is not only a reflection of this lack of representation in the profession, it is also an important reminder of how curatorial choices can perpetuate the status quo.
Read more from inside the collections.
Black History Month: why practices should engage more with grassroots movements
This RIBA Journal feature celebrates the grassroots movement POC in Architecture (POCinA) that’s trying to boost inclusivity and diversity throughout the industry in the present day, as well as support African and Caribbean heritage students in the process of entering the profession. POCinA's work also highlights why increasing diversity is not just about being seen to do the right thing, it has other practice benefits too.
Modernism as a personal statement
This RIBA Journal book review of Amaza Lee Meredith Imagines Herself Modern: Architecture and the Black American Middle Class by Jacqueline Taylor reflects on the story of the artist's self-designed 1939 home for herself and her partner Edna, in an avant-garde representation of the Black American middle class.
Arthur Timothy: how a hobby turned an architect into an artist
This RIBA Journal profile of Ghanaian-born architect Arthur Timothy charts his journey to becoming a globally-recognised artist within six years of receiving a blank canvas as a Christmas gift from his son.
Inspired by a cache of family photos found in a trunk of his late father, his paintings celebrate family and friends from times past, the small black and white images transformed into a feast of pattern and colour.
Who was the first Black RIBA Member?
This is a question we think we should be able to answer more definitively. In this article, our RIBA Collections team share their approach to answering it and explores why some questions remain unanswered.
Black Females in Architecture (BFA) network
Black Females in Architecture (BFA) is a global membership network and enterprise founded to increase the visibility of black and black mixed heritage women within the architectural industry and other built environment fields. Find out more about the BFA network.
