‘There was this opportunity to actually do the things that I want. And I thought this opportunity might not come again’

There has been more than the usual excitement about this year’s RIBA presidential elections. You could even go so far as to call it a “buzz” - a noteworthy feat for a poll which struggles to attract a turnout of more than 15% of members.

也许空气中弥漫着这样一种感觉:是时候停止抱怨建筑了——这是建筑师们最喜欢的消遣方式——而真正开始为之做点什么了。

Or it could be because of the sudden appearance of a potential candidate whose name has been cropping up repeatedly at industry events and parties in London of late. Muyiwa Oki, a young, black salaried architect currently working for Mace, was unknown in the capital’s architecture circles until a few months ago.

31岁的她已迅速成为该行业的热门人选，被许多人——尤其是学生和年轻专业人士——视为急需的变革工具。他甚至赢得了英国皇家音乐协会前主席本•德比希尔的支持，德比希尔曾表示，Oki激发的新一批多样化的年轻选民将“为该机构注入所需的生命线”。

>> Also read:Why I’m supporting Muyiwa Oki to be the next RIBA president

日本vs塞内加尔比分上周，在选举候选人名单正式公布之前，《建筑设计》采访了Oki。他刚刚从美国旅行回来，他说他在那里一直“试图度假”，但他花了很多时间“强调”他的候选资格提交。

But he said that he was nevertheless feeling confident, partly because RIBA appeared to have accidentally revealed to him who he will be up against by copying the other candidates into an email.

他表示，他的平台将与竞争对手“完全不同”。他的平台包括推动更灵活的进入该行业的途径，加大努力提高多样性，以及将该机构的注意力从“明星设计师”转向该行业中代表性较低的成员。

Oki’s progressive agenda is giving him momentum among those members who have often felt ignored by the institution. This was turbo-charged last month whenRIBA was accused by Oki supporters of attempting to sabotage his campaign by restricting the number of new members who could vote.

Voting rules were changed retrospectively so that members must have joined at least 10 days before the official notice of the election to be eligible. The Future Architects Front (FAF), a student group which is supporting Oki, described the move as “suspicious” and launcheda complaint with the Charity Commission on the basis that it breached RIBA’s rules on inclusivity.

>> Also read:What’s going on at the RIBA?

Asked what he thought had happened, Oki was more generous, but only slightly. “I think it’s just ineptitude,” he said, though he added that criticisms of RIBA’s transparency in its communications with members is an issue which “keeps cropping up”.

A spokesperson for RIBA said the rule change had been under consideration for at least a year and had been introduced as part of an “ongoing process of updating the rules and improving our processes”. But a perceived lack of transparency is just one of many things it has been firefighting recently.

In May, regional London director Dian Small caused a stir when she said in a LinkedIn post that she saw just two black people at the institution’s regional awards ceremony, which was attended by around 400 people.

It prompted current president Simon Allford topublish a statement saying that practices “must take responsibility” to ensure the profession is more representativeof society. This could be seen as a bit rich coming from a 188-year-old institution that has had just one non-white president, Sunand Prasad, and just a handful of female presidents.

Oki将颁奖典礼上缺乏多样性形容为“令人尴尬的”，他说RIBA解决这一问题的努力感觉像是在“打勾”。他表示，该机构可以“做得更多、更好”。他补充称，需要“提高一点认识，提高一点认识”。

He adds: ”When you have an event, it is a touch point to talk to your membership. And it’s a way to educate, it’s a way to tell a story, it’s a way to nurture and create a sense of belonging within your members.”

Transparency and diversity issues are troubling for many RIBA members, but dissatisfaction with the institution goes deeper. Oki, who counts Grimshaw and Glenn Howells as former employers as well as smaller practices, says he has worked with a cross-section of the profession. “The perspective sort of swings from apathy, which is this sort of general indifference, to a deep frustration,” he says.

“Generally people I’ve talked to say RIBA is not mandatory. I don’t really get anything for it. I don’t see the value in it. So therefore, I don’t need it.” The institution, he says, can do much better.

Oki was put forward as a runner in May by a collective of young architects, students and campaign groups, including the FAF. In an open letter, the collective said the next president needed to “represent the membership of the institution beyond empty slogans and self-serving initiatives”.

It added that members need a president who “enacts positive, ethical and progressive change”, someone who is “not afraid to join in with trade unions and protect our rights” and who will “break the cycle of mental health and labour extorsion, perpetuated in architectural education and practice”.

Asked why he decided to run, Oki says: “There needs to be a mind-shift in the architecture profession. We need to energise ourselves and create a platform where under-represented members can be heard.”

He says he thought he had a “clear idea about what should happen and can happen”. Most of all, he says he did not want to be “that person who is always on the outside, chatting and complaining, looking in.

“There was this opportunity to actually do the things that I want. And I thought this opportunity might not come again, because there was this excitement and energy, an appetite for new ideas.”

Oki says the RIBA has been resistant to change “because of the leadership”, and because the leadership has been a “status symbol”. He says the institution needs to get better at promoting all roles in the profession, as there currently exists an “internal snobbishness or elitism” which implies that only those who work in design practices count as architects.

“I want to champion the idea that you can do Part I, Part II, and do something else and that is a legitimate architect, and you can be part of the community and you can take your skills to the wider economy,” he says. “And I don’t think that story is taught at all.”

He thinks part of this change should include new routes of entry into the profession - something which ARB is currently consulting on. At the moment, Oki says, there is an “element of luck” involved in qualifying as an architect because the duration of tuition means potential students will have needed to settle on their career route at too young an age.

While he had made this decision when he was 18 – though he had “swayed and doubted [himself] all the way through it” – others might not realise until too late that they wanted to get into the profession. He is in favour of US-style conversion courses so that people are not tied down by their undergrad degree.

“When you’ve experienced something different, you’ve experienced the world. And now you’re coming in with a sort of energy to actually do the role of an architect.”

The debate about the future of architects’ training has been given a new urgency by thebombshell report into alleged abuses at the Bartlett. Investigators uncovered racism, anti-semitism and sexism at the UK’s top-rated architecture school spanning decades.

I think it’s very damaging. I thought I was challenged… I don’t think anyone made me cry, or was abusive to me. Maybe we’re just all learning a little bit more and growing up and figuring out…

Muyiwa Oki on reports about the Bartlett

The University College London apologised for “unacceptable” findings in the report and removed a number of Bartlett staff from student facing duties. The university added that it is “fiercely committed to lasting, root-and-branch change”.

巴特利特学院以为学生创造具有挑战性的环境而闻名，一些业内人士可能将这种文化视为其吸引力的一部分。但是在谢菲尔德大学学习的Oki说，这份报告的发现“让人大开眼界”。

He adds: “I think it’s very damaging. I thought I was challenged. I don’t think anyone made me cry, or was abusive to me,” he says. “Maybe we’re just all learning a little bit more and growing up and figuring out… maybe that thing that happened, that we talked about, was actually abuse. I think we need to be aware of that and challenge it and root it out.”

There is much more that Oki wants to do if he wins the election. He wants to put more of a spotlight on other architecture schools outside of the capital and hold more events in the regions to combat the view that the RIBA is too London-centric.

在气候危机方面，他希望该机构让其成员开始执行其碳排放目标，而不是发布“尝试承诺”。

He does not know yet how many days a week he would work if he were to become the next RIBA president – Allford is said to do three – and Oki will need to discuss this with his employer. The job could potentially be a sabbatical, he says, with him returning to Mace after his two-year term.

但Oki与RIBA的前任主席截然不同，很难预测他的任期会给他带来怎样的影响。投票将于6月28日开始，结果将于8月2日公布。注意这个空间——这次选举，以及Oki的候选人资格，可能是一场彻底改变的开始。