UK efforts to bring public sector contracts to Black architects are floundering
Southwark council declared that its New Architect Design Services Framework was a “first-of-a-kind” attempt to engage with a new generation of diverse designers. As councillor Leo Pollak put it: “It is the framework some architects have been waiting for all their years.” It turns out that black architects will have to wait even longer.Writing in The Guardian, architecture critic Oliver Wainwright highlights the long-standing barriers Black and other minority architects in the UK face with regards to attaining public building contracts. Wainwright finds that while the 2010 Equality Act compels localities to improve how public projects impact and support minority communities, a lack of demographic collection data has hampered efforts to diversify public projects in London to include the contributions of minority designers.
Southwark council declared that its New Architect Design Services Framework was a “first-of-a-kind” attempt to engage with a new generation of diverse designers. As councillor Leo Pollak put it: “It is the framework some architects have been waiting for all their years.” It turns out that black architects will have to wait even longer.
Writing in The Guardian, architecture critic Oliver Wainwright highlights the long-standing barriers Black and other minority architects in the UK face with regards to attaining public building contracts. Wainwright finds that while the 2010 Equality Act compels localities to improve how public projects impact and support minority communities, a lack of demographic collection data has hampered efforts to diversify public projects in London to include the contributions of minority designers.
