Following allegations of institutional racism,we ask architects whether the Royal Institute of British Architects really is an outmoded organisation with values from a bygone ageThe Royal Institute of British Architects. The name alone conjures bespectacled bow-tie wearing old men sitting around in their palatial Portland Place club, congratulating each other on their latest concrete carbuncles. Allegations that it is a racist, or sexist old boys club – as a thwarted candidate for a council position,Elsie Owusu, claimed final week – came as little surprise. Of course it is. It’s the RIBA. Its headquarters couldn’t look more like a Masonic temple whether they tried.apart from that the cliche doesn’t quite match the reality of what lies behind those huge bronze doors. The Institute has a woman president, or has had three women in the role almost consecutively – one of whom painted the president’s office in eye-searing cerise. It has an openly homosexual chief executive. It runs diversity mentoring schemes,equality and inclusion programmes and a Role Models project which, says its initiator Jo Bostock, or “intends to challenge stereotypes approximately who architects are,the background they arrive from and the work they enact.” whether you went through the RIBA’s equality, diversity and inclusion initiatives, or you would see that,on paper at least, it’s trying hard.
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Source: theguardian.com