Why I’m supporting Muyiwa Oki to be the next RIBA president

Change does not come easily at the RIBA. Lasting change of the kind necessary for the profession of architecture to become diverse, equitable, sustainable and prosperous was always going to be impossible under the old regime of governance.

这使得总统们带着各种各样的议程来来回回，经常互相争吵，所以委员会，董事会和执行团队总是被这样那样地拖着。我是RIBA在一个注定失败的体系下的最后一位主席——这就是我们改变它的原因。

Now the RIBA has a board of trustees chosen because they respectively represent a wide range of the necessary competences. Board members’ terms of office span the coming and going of elected presidents.

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

So long as the board works well with the executive and in harmony with the wishes of council, there is a real chance of setting and delivering strategic goals. Crucially, while presidents elected by the membership get a seat on the board, they no longer have to chair it.

I write this as the candidates for the president to follow Simon Allford are due to be announced. Simon has done a good job, working with board chair Jack Pringle to champion some important initiatives, communicate the need for restructuring and especially to calm the fractious atmosphere that existed when he took office. Now, with the machinery of governance in place and operating more smoothly, there is a new and exciting opportunity.

Most candidates will say that they are concerned for the future of the profession, that they will represent the interests of the disadvantaged, the unvoiced concerns of the disenfranchised and powerless. But now that largely silent and disinterested constituency, the RIBA members who don’t vote because they do not see themselves represented among the candidates, can actually vote for one of their own.

Muyiwa Oki是一名年轻的黑人建筑师。他被选为未来建筑师阵线(FAF)、建筑师工人组(SAW)和其他组织的严格竞选候选人。

他是那些不去投票的被剥夺了公民权的人之一，因为他们根本不在乎在那些生活与自己的经历相差如此之远的候选人之间做出选择，他们还不如来自火星。

只有Oki与拒绝者的不同之处在于，他相信自己可以做出改变——作为通常被剥夺公民权的人之一，但在组织内工作。关于这一点，他很可能是对的。

He deserves a chance to make his case among other runners who will be able to say that they have more organisational knowledge and expertise, more practice under their belt and more buildings to their name.

Oki’s opportunity lies in the possibility of galvanising his constituency and, if his campaign succeeds in that, he will have hugely enriched the institute. Think of all those salaried employees whose subscriptions are paid for by employers to make up the minimum numbers necessary to qualify as chartered practices. Think of the students who were not even eligible to vote for the president when I was in office. Oki could bring them out to vote in numbers.

If they do, and in sufficient number for Oki to win, it won’t just be a symbolic victory. A new cohort of diverse young voters with an interest in the outcome of the election is just the injection of lifeblood the institute needs.

And, in office, Oki will be able to call it out in a way that his older, more experienced opponents cannot. There is nothing more effective than someone arguing from lived experience to make the rest of us sit up and take notice.

Talk to Oki and his passions soon become clear – a better deal for Part Is, IIs and young salaried architects, a more meaningful response to the climate crisis in the industry, driving next-generation variety of thought, practice and technology, and of course effective action on equality, diversity and inclusion, which is still woefully absent.

If he can communicate these imperatives effectively to a normally indifferent electorate, he will have no trouble carrying his mandate as victorious candidate to press the RIBA council and board to act on them. And just imagine how refreshing it would be to see someone speak for architecture to members, the public and policymakers as a representative of the future of the profession.

I urge RIBA members, especially those who do not normally turn out to vote: just listen to what Muyiwa Oki has to say.