Feature: Interview with the incoming president of RIBA, Angela Brady

Published: 26 August 2010
by DAN CARRIER

SCRAPPING plans to do up our crumbling schools may cause a double-dip recession in the building and design industries, the president of the Royal Institute of British Architects has warned.

Angela Brady, the new figurehead for the professional body for British architects, based in Portland Place, told the New Journal in her first interview since being elected to the post what she believes the future holds for the profession.

From the govern­ment’s decision to cancel school building works to how the coalition could take a leaf out of the Republic of Ireland’s book to stop spiralling unemploy­ment, and from architecture saving the planet to why Prince Charles should keep his nose out of the planning process, Ms Brady has in her in tray a host topics whose importance reverberates well beyond professional interests.

Her CV includes stints as vice chair­woman of the Civic Trust Awards and she has sat on the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) and English Heritage Urban Panel. Now she takes on one of the most influential roles in planning, design and architecture and comes armed with views that suggest architects have a new champion to fight their corner. 

One crucial issue many architect firms face is simply finding work: the downturn has cut many smaller jobs, and the lifeline of government-funded programmes to improve public buildings has also gone. Ms Brady is particularly worried about Education Secretary Michael Gove’s decision to scrap the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) project. 

“It was the biggest school improvement programme ever,” she says. “Cutting it was bad, but to make matters worse the government have not said what they will replace it with. These schools are in a terrible state and need this work. This has hit the bigger architect firms very hard and there will be lay-offs.”

But she believes smaller companies will be able to step in when minor jobs, which schools may turn to as stop-gap solutions, come up. She was critical of the way contracts for the work were tendered, saying that, with hindsight, too many firms were working for too few large jobs, pushing costs upwards.

However, she says the cuts are shortsighted and could cause a double-dip recession, not only among architecture practices but in the building trade too. “The fact is you need to do it now or it will only cost more later,” she says. “Investment is crucial in times of reces­sion – otherwise you will cause a further reces­sion. Essential services, like education and healthcare, must be protected.”

Originally from Ireland, Ms Brady believes the UK economy could be boosted out of economic malaise if we looked at how the Irish government are approach­ing the post-credit crunch climate. “Ireland has been in a very heavy recession,” she says. “The Royal Institute of Irish Architects have written a paper about investing in infra­struc­ture, and it points out that it is more expensive to pay unemploy­ment benefit to people than to keep them working on crucial improve­ments to public services.”

The coal­ition govern­ment has also downgraded the role of CABE which was set up under Labour. Yet its role providing a “Brains Trust” of architects, planners and des­igners as investi­gators to advise on schemes has been inval­uable, say Ms Brady, in making sure new buildings are fit for purpose. Their work under the Highgate-based chairman Sir John Sorrell has been a cornerstone in improving the schools that were built before the scrap­ping of the BSF programme. Ms Brady,   said down­grading CABE’s  former statutory powers as planning adviser could have long-term effects for our cities. “I hope the government realises the contribution they have made,” she says. “It gave great advice. It was a critical friend to planners and architects.”

It may seem that Ms Brady is merely fighting the corner for her colleagues. Yet she believes architects have a crucial role to play in creating a better future for all and that we ignore this at our peril. She believes architects have it within their grasp to make a huge contribution to the environment by promoting green buildings, and wants the government to introduce tough legislation to encourage the very best practice to become the norm, not the exception.

“We have the technology – we just need the clients,” she says. “We can have a large say in shaping the future and we have a moral duty to recog­nise that and respond to it.”

She berated designers who work on grandiose schemes in the Middle East without any thought of the effect it will have on the planet. “I hate to see high glass buildings with air conditioning in Abu Dhabi – it is just crazy,” she says. “We know huge glass skyscrapers are harming the world.”

To bring us towards the levels European designers are reaching with zero-carbon buildings, she believes public authorities need to become trailblazers. “They should act as a catalyst for change,” she says, “and be a way of helping us catch up with the rest of northern Europe.”

While these laudable aims may be shared by the bogeyman of British architecture, Prince Charles, Ms Brady is not afraid to tell the heir to throne where he goes wrong. The Prince’s recent intervention in the development of the Chelsea barracks site caused outrage, and Ms Brady is wary of any­thing similar happening on her watch. She said: “His inter­ven­tion is undemocratic. He is wel­come to his opinion but when he tries to influence and change plans, it is completely wrong. It was utterly scandalous.”