Tag: BAME

FAME: Exposing the Barriers in Architecture | Friday, December 4, 18:00-19:30 GMT [Online event hosted by Architecture Foundation via Zoom]

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

When: Friday, 4th of December, 6pm-7.30pm

Eventbrite link

FAME will be hosting their first event to expose the barriers female architects of minority ethnic face in the architecture industry today

About this Event

FAME: Female Architects of Minority Ethnic: founded by Tumpa Husna Yasmin Fellows and Tahin Khan.

FAME Collective is a research-based network founded to support women of diverse backgrounds and ethnicities in architecture and the built environment. Their aim is to raise awareness of the barriers, inequality and lack of diversity in architecture and to demand change that responds to our collective challenges. This event is part of a series of events which will be documented and shared with those in power to change and address the inequality that exists in architecture.

Join us for the launch of FAME’s first symposium ‘EXPOSING THE BARRIERS IN ARCHITECTURE’ hosted by Architecture Foundation via Zoom, and presented by Tumpa Husna Yasmin Fellows. Our distinguished keynote speaker Sumita Singha (recent RIBA Presidential candidate). Our panel of speakers include Annette Fisher (from Let’s BUild), Hilary Satchwell (from Tibbalds and Part W), Femi Oresanya (from HOK and the Chair of the RIBA Architects for Change Expert Advisory Group) and Anna Liu (Director of Tonkin Liu, won the 2018 Stephen Lawrence Prize for Old Shed New House).

This is a participatory event to explore the impact of racism, injustice and inequality contributing to the barriers in architecture. We want to hear about the lived experiences of practitioners, academics and students from BAME backgrounds, to unpack the grievances.

FAME is responding to an urgent need for understanding how race and gender affects established practitioners, young scholars and students, from diverse backgrounds, knowledge and practices by engaging in conversations about the barriers in architecture and the built environment. Our aim is to collectively respond and to demand change and the much-needed support to overcome barriers of racial and gender inequality both in academia and in practices. Our Q + A and participatory sessions will provide an opportunity for participants to share experiences of racial and gender inequality in architecture and the built environment.

This event is being hosted by the Architecture Foundation via Zoom.

The details for all participants will be announced soon.

Technical Studies Lecture Series: “Post Pandemic Housing,” Kristofer Adelaide, Kristofer Adelaide Architecture (KA–A), Thursday, November 19 at 18:00 [online via BB]

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

When: Thursday, 19th of November at 6pm

Event Link (no need to register): https://eu.bbcollab.com/guest/ef03d69ea2934064a205c2159e77e760 

It is always a pleasure to welcome back former students and we are delighted to host a talk by Kristofer Adelaide (School of Architecture alumnus, 2009). Kristofer Adelaide Architecture (KA–A) was established in 2016 and is formed of a diverse range of architects, an artist, and accounts and management team. They are a young BAME led practice based in South London. KA–A employs a diverse team of ARB registered Architects, Designers, Architectural Assistants and a BIM Coordinator. They share resources with other architects when required as part of the London Architects Group and Paradigm networks, promoting BAME representation in the built environment. 

KA—A have developed an excellent reputation, obtaining difficult planning consents and successfully delivering projects across London and the South East. These consents have varied from small extensions and alterations in conservation areas, through to new build and multi-unit schemes. Our clients have been a mixture of private residential and medium scale developer led schemes. The practice has recently developed – the Architecture for (the) Reasonably Ordinary (A.F.R.O) House – A concept dwelling, that uses modular construction to satisfy high housing demand, with quality manufacturing, working toward a zero-carbon and passive design standard. Inspired by the Garden Cities movement, this initiative seeks to provide affordable housing in a flexible, scalable way to meet local demand. 

In October KA–A were awarded RIBA London practice of the month, and the practice were recently one of Seven practices shortlisted to pitch ideas for post-pandemic housing that addresses the needs of young people to a panel led by residential developer HUB. In August 2020 they were one of six practices selected for the Brick by Brick – housing infill project in Croydon, working in partnership with the Stephen Lawrence Trust.  

Tumpa Husna Yasmin Fellows’ article for RIBAJ: “Practical steps towards real inclusion”

Posted on by Mirna Pedalo

Tumpa Husna Yasmin Fellows, an architect, researcher, and the BSc Architectural Technology Year 2 leader has published an article in The RIBA Journal on how the architects can use their skills to help improve conditions for the disadvantaged and marginalised communities and members of our society.

The Covid-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities and highlighted the urgency for community collaboration towards positive societal changes.  The pandemic has changed our lives in many ways. My family is grieving the loss of several family members and friends (of Bangladeshi origin), living in the UK.

Research issued by Public Health England reveals that you are more likely to die from Covid-19 if you are BAME than someone who is white, and people of Bangladeshi ethnicity are twice as likely to die from Covid-19 than those who are white and British. The recent global protests for the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement brought to focus communities’ collective actions to rise up against racial injustice and various social and health inequalities which have been exacerbated by the pandemic. The power of community action and collective response has become urgent for communities worldwide, whether they are affected by racial injustice, health inequality or new developments in their neighbourhood (sometimes resulting in eviction) and for all those passionate to change systemic racism and inequalities.

As practitioners and architects, we could act many ways to facilitate the voices of those who have been marginalised in the society. One of these is to get involved in local planning issues: for example, by alerting the planning authority to any new development that negatively affects low-income communities in the neighbourhood through gentrification.

I am passionate about being part of the change in my area, so volunteered to be part of my borough’s design review panel. There I have the opportunity to help address some of the issues and push the design team and the developers, to hear and respond to the voices of the community. Unfortunately, in all the recent projects we have reviewed (which happened to be led by influential architects), the design decisions did not reflect local engagement (in an area with one of the largest BAME communities in London), and showed a lack of communication with the community they had designed for. Very little work had been done towards any such local engagement in the design process. […]

Tumpa Husna Yasmin Fellows for RIBAJ, October 2020

To read the full text please go here.