Architects’ Institutes around the world are examining their membership bases against a backdrop of observed changes in practice. The RIBA, for example, recently commissioned a study, Building Futures, which set out to explore the future role of architects, asking: Who will design our buildings in 2025? What roles will those trained in architecture be doing then? And, how will architectural practice have changed as a result?
Through a series of one-to-one interviews and roundtable sessions the study aimed to examine the breadth of those who shape the built environment, including traditional architects and those working in expanded fields of practice. The resulting speculations have pertinence for our Institute, especially for an examination of our current membership categories and how well they will meet our future needs as an Institute of Architects. I report some of them here:
“One thing is certain – we are in a period of change and liquidity that we have not witnessed for just over a generation. This change will almost certainly reconfigure our cities, towns, suburbs and villages – and by consequence us, as a profession. Make no mistake, there will be no ‘back to normal’; we are at the tipping point of a systemically different conversation.
“Which means, inevitably, we need to think about the institution and its role in agitating, facilitating, encouraging, catalyzing, driving, narrating, interrogating and sharing our reflections – but fundamentally driving the systemic renewal of the profession – from our ethics, to our