This entry looks into the power of networking within architecture and questions why we don't do it more often, focusing on my experience in the month of October 2018.
As a recent employee of BPTW (Aug 2018), it was great to once again be part of a large practice that solely focuses on residential architecture. Having spent the last 9 months in a rather small practice of 13 people (Wilson Mason), being surrounded by a 100 other people at any given time is a great feeling. However, I am reminded that diversity is still a prevalent issue in architecture. I wondered if there was a society somewhere that had a groups of BAME practitioners who I could be in contact with.
Prior to this year, I had spent the better part of 2017 exploring the seemingly endless pages of eventbrite and attending various networking events hosted by the RIBA and some independent bodies. With the power of LinkedIn on one hand and my ability to talk for long periods, I quickly built a large amount of connections (about 1100 people) who I met at those networking events including the London Regional Director of the RIBA (Dian Small). I also met a couple (Directors) who were recently married and helped them with some photography for their private architecture-developer practice. A year later (May 2018) these three individuals will end up championing a society called ‘PARADIGM Network’ a “professional network championing BAME in Architecture”.
Website - https://www.paradigmnetwork.co.uk/
The fact that I was already in contact with them prior to the initiation of the society allowed me to become one of the first 15 members of the now 195 strong fold of architect and students. This privilege exposed me to unpredictable opportunities to meet more architectural practitioners of African and Caribbean descent who work for much larger practices including Grimshaw and Foster+Partners. In the last few months, Paradigm has hosted a number of social and educational events that have put me contact with managers and high level directors of large developers and construction companies including Bouygues. I have since learnt that the architecture sector is small relative to the built environment, which contains a lot more players than the isolated point of view I was fed at university and my previous practice. I have now come to the understanding that I need to consider my future role within the ‘Built Environment’ and not only the ‘Architecture’ sector of the built environment; this proposes endless possibilities.
The greatest highlight of this month however is that fact that I was nominated and celebrated as one of the ‘Next Generation of Black Architects’ by the RIBA Black History Month campaign, as a result of my involvement with PARADIGM Network. In a nutshell, I am realising that my role as an architect in training is most definitely not confined to my ability to produce beautiful drawings that will inspire the clients I work for, but to find out a way to truly add value to the built environment as a whole
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