Funmbi Adeagbo for RIBA President 2024

BFA are SUPPORTING Funmbi Adeagbo’S Campaign to become RIBA’S FIRST BLACK FEMALE President IN 2024.

 

Voting is open now and will close on 4pm BST 28th June 2024. Check your inbox and spambox. If you have not received the Ballot Email elections@riba.org

ABOUT FUNMBI

“It’s not the position you occupy that matters but the distance travelled to get there. When you have been given privileges others could not afford you must give back and pave the way forward for those who need it.”
— Funmbi Adeagbo

Oluwafunmbi (Funmbi) Adeagbo is a British-Nigerian Architect and RIBA presidential candidate. Born in Lagos Nigeria to an economist and homemaker, she moved to the UK as an unaccompanied minor to complete her GCSE’s and A level’s at Roedean School, Brighton. As a child, she showed great prowess in both the sciences and arts as well as strong leadership.

Her motivation to pursue a career in architecture came from first-hand witness of the social disparity and spatial injustice that precludes the developing world. She recognised the roles architects can play in these systems as industry leaders.

She obtained her BSc in architecture (Part I) at the University of Bath before moving to London where she completed her diploma (Part II) with a joint Masters in Spatial Planning and Urban Design at LondonMet (previously Sir John Cass). She completed her Professional Diploma (Part III) at the University of Westminster, London.

Funmbi has an international perspective, being a migrant herself, but also having worked and studied internationally during her training in Japan and France respectively. She has a strong technical background having worked to design and deliver complex major schemes in central London and excels in fostering collaboration between members of the design team.

Funmbi is passionate about outreach, mentoring and community engagement. She is an active member in the Paradigm Network, Just transition Lobby and the Black Females in Architecture network. She also has a long history of representation including her roles as student representative during her time at undergrad and master’s. She continues this in her professional life, as an elected council rep in the RIBA for the London region and newly appointed co-chair for the Finding and Access architecture expert advisory group.

She is an advocate of issues including but not limited to, the architects and wider industry responsibilities within the climate emergency, spatial justice within community, diversity, inclusion and equity, business efficiency and working conditions, the decolonisation of architecture and strengthening the global links to our professional community.

 
 

ELECTION STATEMENT

“We still today have a long way to go and we have to continue our work”
— Rosa Parks

Sincerest greetings to the entire community during a time of changing regulations, climate emergency and great uncertainty.

I am a worker, and like many, we wake up contemplating the future of our planet, society, and the profession.

I stand for the presidency, believing that we can take charge of the future of architecture and the built environment and ensure our value is uncontested in our workplaces, institutions, wider industry and society. Let us not be passive to the changes that affect us but take a firm stance and continue to push for accountability, transparency, and bold ambition in our leadership.

Now is the time to reclaim our roles as competent, confident, industry-leading professionals who are valued regardless of rank. Let us use our institutions as engines for collaboration and progress, working away from cultures that prevent us from thriving. Breaking the generational cycle of injustice, prejudice and colonial legacy is not easy, but it can be done!

I do not stand in this election alone, but with the collective of every member who wants to see a change in the profession and to build a responsive institution grounded in the act of ‘service’. This service is to the whole community and must be perceivable.

I will build on the work of my predecessors while laying the foundation for others to come. My vision is for a genuinely open and equitable profession. One that is reflective of the society it serves.

I join those who want to see architecture and architectural workers flourish in a hospitable and sustainable ecosystem—an environment where we participate in shaping our built environment and feel secure and supported.

Architecture and its inherent processes and practices exist within material, social, and economic contexts. The way forward exists only if we, as a community, take more holistic and collective approaches to addressing these political and economic contexts both now and in the long term. I see the role of the RIBA and its President as a conduit for this change.