Rebel with a cause

摘要

Muyiwa Oki becomes RIBA president this month. To get here he won not one but two elections. The first was unprecedented. Young practitioners, coalesced in groups like the Future Architects Front, Section for Architecture Workers and Architecture Climate Action Network, got together to ensure that the younger generation was represented. Four candidates made their case at a pre-hustings hustings and Oki was selected. And then he won again among the wider membership. His young age (32) and his ethnic background, even his recent architectural career working with Mace, mark him out as different from previous RIBA presidents. At an event shortly after his election, around themes of decolonisation and education, he was surrounded by well-wishers buoyed up with enthusiasm. Here and in other conversations over the last year it is clear to see the hope he has engendered for the future of the profession and the possibility of change in architecture. We meet in Sheffield School of Architecture, on the 16th floor of the Arts Tower, surrounded by the designs and ideas of the final show. He chose this location, it is a nod to the impact his part 1 and part 2 studies here have had on his thinking. 'Teaching at Sheffield was participatory, it got you close to the community, you had to go out and talk to people. It was doing live projects before most universities - you actually had to have a client and solve a problem for them,' he says.