Part W: The London-Based Action Group Campaigning to Raise the Profile of Women in the Built Enviroment
From left to right: Yẹmí Àlàdérun, Zoë Berman, Alice Brownfield. Portrait by Morley von Sternberg.
By Julia Gamolina
Part W is an action group, founded in 2018 by architect and lecturer Zoë Berman, that campaigns to raise the profile of women in the built environment by celebrating and drawing attention to women’s projects and skills. It seeks to bring about change in how women’s work in placemaking, design and architecture is valued and recognized — and challenges policies that cause gender discrimination in built environments. The organization is run by a core steering group of ten women who work across the sectors of architectural design, sustainable transport, planning, design education and journalism.
For this interview, we spoke with Zoë, as well as with two founding members of Part W, Yẹmí Àlàdérun and Sarah Wigglesworth. Yẹmí Àlàdérun is an architect currently working as a senior development manager at Meridian Water, Enfield Council. She is a founding member of Part W and Co-founder of Paradigm Network. Sarah Wigglesworth MBE is founder of Sarah Wigglesworth Architects. Her practice has a reputation for sustainable architecture, is an advocate of the role of women in architecture. She is a founding member of Part W, was an initiator of the “Desiring Practices: Architecture, Gender and the Interdisciplinary” exhibition, symposium and book. In their conversation with Julia Gamolina, Zoë, Yẹmí, and Sarah talk about how Part W started and evolved, some of their most significant projects and campaigns, and what is needed next for true equality.
JG: How did you all meet, and how did Part W come together?
ZB: I had wanted to find ways to contribute to addressing gender inequality in the architectural industry but wasn’t sure what I alone could do to bring about positive change. With the hope of sharing ideas with others and embracing the existing knowledge of many who have already developed fantastic work in this sphere, I contacted other women across the wider built environment sector — those working in design, place-making, sustainable transportation, planning, education and architectural journalism. Some of these fantastic women I already knew; some I was aware of things they had done but hadn’t yet had the pleasure of meeting them. The supportive response was amazing. Multidisciplinary knowledge was crucial for me, as the built environment is shaped by so many contributors with diverse skill sets.
How did you first develop what the group would do, and its mission?
ZB: As a group we first sat down together with snacks and wine in September 2018. As a starting point, we set out where we felt there remain hurdles for women in the built environment. I termed this a kind of pollution map — a set of problem points that need addressing. We met up every two or three months from there and built a rapport, a sense of trust and began to hone in on what themes we might collectively first seek to tackle.
Those early gatherings formed the basis of our first campaign that we launched in February 2019, where we challenged the huge gender imbalance in architectural awards. We shone a spotlight on the fact that at that point, just 3% of the top international architectural awards had ever been granted to women and here in the UK, since 1848 the Royal Gold Medal for Architecture had — when we started our work — been given only ever to one women in her own right, and had never been awarded to any person who is Black. Change was well overdue.
Part W: Alternative List of crowd sourced nominations. Courtesy of Part W.
Wow. Well overdue indeed. How did you begin to develop first-step solutions to these issues that you were seeing?
ZB: Initially the group came about because I was seeing — at a global level — the rights of women and girls coming under threat. I didn’t have a singular vision for what the solution was. Bringing together collective thought was crucial.
Our discussions kept circling back to the problem of representation. There is a connected cycle where the achievements of women — women from different social backgrounds and with diverse religious beliefs, Black women, non-white women, transgender and non-binary persons — aren’t recognised equally to that of men.
We see this in design awards, in publications, architectural exhibitions, and media. This in turn defines who is — and is not — known about, the role models the sector presents, who is written about and featured in archives, and from there, who wins work. Directly following on from this is the resulting problem that as those who identify as female aren’t being given an equal seat at the table, we consequently end up with cities where the lived experience of women aren’t taken into account.
It’s a deeply problematic cycle and one we seek to disrupt. Focusing directly on that problem of recognition and representation is core to our mission. At an immediate level that is intended to better support those in the sector and those considering joining the industry. At a wider level, ensuring women are part of taking decisions about city making is paramount to make places and spaces that are supportive of all.
“We want to record and celebrate women’s contributions to the built environment, reclaiming their loss from the historical record...advocate for the recognition that people experience the world differently; and campaign for greater equality in careers, such as equal pay, flexible working, recognition of caring responsibilities and helping women achieve their potential.”
How has Part W evolved over the years?
ZB: We started in an informal way. Our first campaign gained traction fast and we had to race to keep up with the interest in what we’d started. Part W is run alongside full-time jobs, respective care-giving responsibilities and various health needs. With a growing interest in our campaigns has come a significant increase in our workload and the need to have supportive systems and governance. Gathering donations requires a bank account, a bank account requires a fixed address and the preparation of tax returns, a tax return means needing an accountant, engaging an accountant has a cost — and so on.
We’ve had to evolve from something loose-fit and organic into having more structure. There is a huge amount of work going on every day behind the scenes to manage that. It’s something myself and fantastic Part W Co-Director, Alice Brownfield grapple with. I remember Professor Lesley Lokko commenting on how even the most democratic organisations need some kind of structure. It’s something I think of often.
We seek for our campaign work to be joyful and celebratory but as any activist knows campaigning work can be stressful and deeply tiring. Sitting at the forefront of pushing for industry change is not often a comfortable or easy place to reside.
Tell me more about Part W's various campaigns and special projects.
SW: We haven’t had a single game plan. Rather we’ve picked up on pertinent issues and found interesting and exciting ways of drawing attention to the inequalities we perceive. We want to record and celebrate women’s contributions to the built environment, reclaiming their loss from the historical record; reframe the conversation around values; advocate for the recognition that people experience the world differently; and campaign for greater equality in careers, such as equal pay, flexible working, recognition of caring responsibilities and helping women achieve their potential. Our aim is to enjoy what we do, have fun and be creative.
ZB: To reframe the conversation around value, and to make some progress in bringing the work of women into the spotlight we have most recently launched our “Women’s Work: London” mapping project of buildings and projects in which women have played a significant role. We crowdsourced suggestions for projects, and an independent judging panel helped us whittle down suggestions to thirty projects that appear on a printed map. The project seeks to address the huge gap in how women individual and collective work is so often missed off digital and printed maps and in archives.
The public participatory element of this latest project draws on the participatory activism of our previous campaigns. We launched the Alternative List project in 2019, where we drew attention to this imbalance in design awards, with the Royal Institute of British Architects Gold Medal being an example of that. We took to social media to invite others to suggest amazing women from across the globe who — as per that particular award — have through history globally made a fantastic contribution either “directly or indirectly to architecture”.
Launch party of Part W’s latest mapping project. Photography by Morley von Sternberg.
Women’s Work: London Map, by Part W. Courtesy of Part W.
Launch party of Part W’s latest mapping project. Photography by Morley von Sternberg.
From there, we submitted and called upon others to stand hand in hand with us to nominate women alive today for that same RIBA award. Nominations were made by us and others for many leading figures including the Denise Scott Brown and Dr. Sharon Egretta Sutton from the USA, Czech architect and designer Eva Jiřičná active in London and Prague, British architect Kate Mackintosh. Others in the field put forward Yvonne Farrell and Shelley Mcnamara, who received the Royal Gold Medal in 2020.
When we started that campaign, the Gold Medal had never been granted to any person who is Black. Since then the award has subsequently been bestowed on Sir David Adjaye and we celebrated seeing Francis Kéré becoming the first African to receive the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2022.
Alisha Morenike Fisher, Founding Director of Migrant's Bureau nominated Yasmeen Lari, Pakistan's first female architect and founder of the Heritage Foundation of Pakistan for the RIBA Gold Medal. With this wave of people coming together to bring about much needed change we are thrilled to see the success of that project, grateful to everyone who got involved and delighted to see real shifts happening.
After such progress, what have the mission and efforts of Part W evolved into today?
ZB: Today, the mission is connecting the dots between the micro level of in-industry representation, to the macro of how that representation impacts the design and maintenance of healthy cities made accessible for all. We operate under a wider-reaching umbrella of calling for gender mainstreaming — that is, calling for public policy and processes that assess the implications for all genders of legislation and policy. This is the wider mission and we need to see this being applied in design, architecture and place making.
You've kept your eye on the industry these past five years through the lens of Part W — what changes are you seeing that are spurring progress?
YA: It’s good to see individuals feeling far more emboldened to speak up about injustices in the industry, and employers being increasingly open to listen to concerns of their employees. Amongst those who commission projects, there is starting to be greater understanding about the power clients hold in making cities and spaces intersectional and accessible for all, and some of those key commissioning bodies are demanding positive changes in respect of those they work with.
SW: The fact that gender inequity is being spoken about openly and acknowledged as an issue, and social value being recognized as part of architecture’s contribution to culture
“There is still a lot of work to be done to scrutinise historical and current contexts to locate and make visible silenced and marginalised perspectives. The sector can’t rest on our laurels.”
What are you seeing that is taking too long to take hold?
YA: Diversity, equity and inclusion — DEI — is still viewed as a secondary objective in many businesses. There is a need to reframe it as integral to a company’s core values and to back this up with policy changes to ensure long lasting change. Many recognize that tackling DE&I is important but it is not treated with urgency.
SW: The connection between climate change and women’s experience is not nearly high enough on the agenda. The industry is largely in denial about the climate crisis but women are set to come off far worse from its consequences because they have fewer resources and more responsibilities. This needs urgent attention.
Looking back at it all, what have been the biggest challenges?
SW: All of us are working on this in our spare time. We should not have to; we are already lower paid than our male colleagues and many of us have many other responsibilities such as running practices and caring duties. Each campaign is exhilarating but exhausting. The back room organizing is also a huge task and hard to handle. We often wish for steady income that will allow us to employ some regular staff.
Part W Team Members and volunteers 2023. Front row from left to right: Part W Co-Director Alice Brownfield, Zoë Berman , Sarah Wigglesworth, Yẹmí Àlàdérun. Back row left to right: Nadine Adamski, Sarah Castle, Sarah Ackland, Fiona MacDonald, Emma Carter. Photography by Morley von Sternberg.
I can certainly relate to this. What have you also learned in the last six months?
YA: There is still a lot of work to be done to scrutinise historical and current contexts to locate and make visible silenced and marginalised perspectives. The sector can’t rest on our laurels. Many organisations that have made promises to advance diversity, equity and inclusion work especially in the context of racial equality, are falling short on delivering.
ZB: On International Women’s Day 2022 we released our Women’s Work mapping project. It’s available to buy via our website. We started this with a London prototype, and are keen to expand it to other cities UK wide and beyond. We’ve learned a lot on this project journey. How much work there still is to do, how doing this work takes much energy and many hands, how valuable the map project has been to many people out there and also how this kind of work is by no means definitive; there is so much more to do.
What are you most excited about right now with Part W and looking ahead in the industry?
SW: We have finally managed to raise some funding that could provide administrative support. That could really help us grow our network of helpers. There are plenty of campaigns we can imagine developing but we need more time, money and support. Fundraising alone takes a lot of time. We could do so much more with steady funds behind us.
In the industry, we need more male leaders to step up and begin to make change happen. For too long too many men have relied on women folk to carry them. Fundamentally salaries — which also means architects fees — are too low in our professions and need these to rise so there is more choice available to women.
“At an immediate level that is intended to better support those in the sector and those considering joining the industry. At a wider level, ensuring women are part of taking decisions about city making is paramount to make places and spaces that are supportive of all.”
Who else are you admiring now and why? Which action groups are doing wonderful work all over the world?
ZB: So many! It’s a long list. We look to the work of the many women who have through their careers been calling for equality and dedicated their work to supporting others. We’re based in the UK and have strong links here. Sound Advice, Afterparti, Resolve Collective, Black Females in Architecture, Architecture LGBT+ and Muslim Women in Architecture to name a few are doing great things. In the academic sphere, we look to PRAXXIS, Prof. Katie Lloyd - and in Australia Parlour, born out academic origins. Educator and architect Dr. Harriet Harris has for years been empowering students internationally. Lesley Lokko, curator of the forthcoming Venice Biennale, Founder and Director of the African Futures is a transformative leader. There is a critical mass of people, working on issues of equity in different ways.
Finally, what advice do you have for those starting their career? Would your advice be any different for women?
YA: Don’t wait to be granted permission to do what you are passionate about, take a stand about what is important to you.
SW: Don’t expect others to do things for you. If you are dissatisfied, work with a group of like-minded people and do something about it!
ZB: Find your group — those who share your values and sense of purpose.