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5 questions for… RIBA President Ruth Reed
Facing into a recession-riddled New Year as RIBA President might unnerve some people, but not Ruth Reed. She talks to Plan about her priorities for the next two years, why students shouldn’t work for free and the help that’s available for small practices
Is the role of RIBA President more about coping with what’s going on as opposed to achieving goals at the moment?
Interestingly you’ve got more influence in a recession I think because people are looking for the answers and listening to your responses. I suspect it would be very easy to be president when things are going swimmingly but in fact there’s not the same imperative to make a difference. I think there is a grim satisfaction that we’re being asked by government and political parties what the situation is. We’re keeping a close eye on monitoring economic trends because we tend to be the marker profession for the rest of the construction industry. So if we’re doing badly then the rest will follow.
Are architects availing of the help that RIBA is providing to help architects cope with the recession?
The telephone helpline has never been busier. It’s not necessarily hard-nosed issues they’re after. Frequently people just want to talk through the difficulties they’re facing. The membership renewal and subscriptions renewal also gets the same kind of traffic on the phone. And we do have a very high hit rate on the offering that we have on architecture.com in the way of help.
What is that help?
We’ve got a recession toolkit which provides a lot of help. Like who to go and talk to and also more constructive things like how to set up your own practice. There’s a considerable increase in the number of practices now as the large practices have shed very able people who immediately set up on their own.
Coming from a small practice yourself, how does RIBA protect small firms?
I think that one of the great things that can help practices is community. When I was a very small practice setting up in the early 90s in that recession, it was my fellow RIBA members in the branch that were as much use as anybody else. The moral support, the day to day hand-holding came from fellow RIBA members. The problem we have is that we often see architects and the RIBA as two separate things. But for me, architecture is about the RIBA as much as it is about anything else. It’s just an aspect of professionalism. We have a small practice conference which is held outside London. It’s a chance to air issues and take on board some new skills. There’s a lot going on; it’s up to the individual member or practice to take out of it what they need.
How can you encourage firms to take on students when so many firms won’t even take them on for free?
Working for free is a big issue for students. It raises all sorts of questions about affordability; only those with families that can support them will be able to succeed. So the whole working for free as a rule for year out isn’t an acceptable model. It wouldn’t make us a diverse profession. We encourage practices to give even three months, even that makes a difference. We also suggest the host practice scheme where students avail of a desk space in an office. I have some students doing that who are working part-time on a research project and the rest of the time they’re using the space in the office to do a competition. It keeps the architectural muscles working. It also puts them into the office environment so they’re aware of how it works. We have been trying very hard to get funded internships through some of the RDA’s but we’re struggling as it would be hugely expensive.
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