Oliver Lowrie, director and co-founder at Ackroyd Lowrie shares how his firm is championing new talent, and why greater diversity and inclusivity is essential for safeguarding the future of the industry
At Ackroyd Lowrie, we are building a company to design the cities of the future. Architecture has the capacity to impact everyone, so we believe it should be as open and inclusive as possible. To achieve this, we focus on people and creating a workforce with a diverse background, ideally comprising those who grew up in inner city environments, who we can nurture and educate into outstanding designers with their own confidence and passion. However, in our experience, there are two significant barriers into the profession.
The first is that the UK’s architectural education system is very long, expensive, and does not necessarily equip candidates with the skills required to be useful to a business from day one.
The second is a matter of visibility. Architecture is not taught in schools, and we find when we go into schools in our local area of Tower Hamlets and Hackney, it’s not seen as an obvious career route for young people. To design the cities of the future, we need people from all walks of life. Diversity and representation is vital. Young people need to know what careers are viable; they can’t be what they can’t see.
Inspiration behind AL Academy
Inspired by the academy Sir Alex Ferguson built at Manchester United, my co-director Jon Ackroyd and I decided to establish a similar model to find and develop the Ryan Giggs, Gary Neville and David Beckham of the architectural world!
The AL Academy firstly aimed to tackle the challenges of employing graduates straight out of university. Via an internal online portal, new (and existing) members of staff can access educational videos, lectures, design principles and other resources to help onboarding and encourage upskilling. This can be accessed remotely, at any time, which was particularly useful during the lockdowns when face-to-face interaction was restricted.
The skills matrix
The portal contains a skills matrix where employees rate their individual skills and identify any knowledge gaps. This has multiple benefits. Instead of becoming stressed and anxious about what is expected of them, employees use the matrix to gain a clear understanding of what skills they need for their current role, and the experience required for progression, which is mapped in individually-tailored career plans. From a business perspective, it also ensures any shortages are correctly identified and managed.
Our company manifesto is then informed by the skills matrix and gives young designers the confidence and tools to design from their own perspective and passion, but with a shared company vision of what cities of the future should be like.
We quickly realised the real bonus is that this system can be applied to anybody, meaning it’s enabled us to develop a second strand to the AL Academy.
Our outreach programme
This allows us to work with local schools and charities outside of the traditional architectural education system to break down barriers and positively promote architecture as a viable career. It was designed to turn work experience opportunities into paid placements and then into ongoing careers. Through consultation with neighbouring schools and charities including the Jason Roberts Foundation, Sounds Like Chaos Youth Theatre, Social Mobility Foundation and New City College, we devised co-design workshops that we give every month in schools around the Borough, followed by studio placements for those who want to become involved. These not only introduce young people to what a career in architecture is all about but help refine skills, boost confidence and enable greater understanding of the different routes into the profession.
Our first candidate entered the Academy in July 2022, and places are fully booked until the end of 2023. The positive feedback we’ve had from staff and students has been inspiring, particularly where our college contacts have confirmed students who’ve completed sessions now produce coursework with a more sophisticated outcome. We’re thrilled to be making such a difference to young people’s lives.
Looking forward
We’re aware that our local schools and colleges are sharing the AL Academy model to demonstrate to other businesses how they can invest in future generations. This just shows how our pioneering approach was the right thing to do, and will ultimately unlock the diversity and talent we need to create the buildings and cityscapes that are inclusive for all.
To apply or learn more about the AL Academy, contact Joe Maguire or Laurence Richards: www.ackroydlowrie.com; IG: @ackroydlowrie; tel 0203 770 9780.
Oliver Lowrie is director and co-founder at Ackroyd Lowrie