Building Inclusion – Changing the Culture of the Built Environment

How we talk about, engage with and understand our built environment, are all matters of inclusion, and that ultimately impacts how we experience it.

Who has a say, how they are enabled and empowered, and the urgency with which we need this engagement to solve people, place and planet issues will be at the crux of this talk and panel as Marsha Ramroop leads a discussion based on the recent publication of her book, Building Inlcusion: A Practical guide to EDI in Architecture and the Built Environment.

Focussed on solutions, this knowledgeable and engaging panel will draw on audience participation for some plans to move projects forward that will make a difference.

This event will be followed by networking.

Speaker: Marsha Ramroop FRSA is author of Building Inclusion: A Practical Guide to Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in Architecture and the Built Environment. She’s a global award-winning inclusion strategist and consultant and was the inaugural Director of Inclusion at the Royal Institute of British Architects. She runs her own consultancy Unheard Voice, before which she had a 30 year career in broadcast journalism, including 20 years at the BBC.

Panel:

Dr Devorah Block FRSA has worked with cultural organisations in the UK, Europe, and the United States including museums, libraries, archives, and schools.

Her initiative, the Place Literacy Project, promotes knowledge and collaboration as key tools to empower individuals, communities, and professionals to determine the shapes and impacts of the places where we live, work, grow, and play.

Dr Rhiannon Jones FRSA is a thought leader in Social and Design innovation. She is the Associate Professor (Civic Practice) for the University of Derby where she leads the University Institutional Success Measure for Civic. She also leads CivicLAB an Institution-wide centre on participatory culture, creative dialogue, and civic practice. She is a regular participant of the All Party Parliamentary Design and Innovation Group and provided a case study on Place for the National Centre for Academic and Cultural Exchange. 

Pedro Gil ARB RIBA is Director of architecture practice Studio Gil. He is passionate about the creative process of crafting buildings and the subtleties of designing for people, places, and communities. In 2020, he was appointed as one of 15 panel members for the Mayor of London’s Diversity in the Public Realm Commission. His lived experience, as a second generation migrant of Black-Colombian dual heritage, allows him to engage with ethnic groups in a meaningful and collaborative way. He is a member of RIBA Architects for Change, as well as a trustee for Carnaval del Pueblo, a charity that serves to increase awareness of Latin American culture. He combines practice with teaching, as Associate Professor at the Bartlett School of Architecture UCL, focusing on narratives around The Global South and Latin American diaspora communities in London.

This event is free to attend and open to Fellows, friends, and colleagues interested in supporting the work of the RSA.