{"id":12005,"date":"2026-06-10T03:01:32","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T03:01:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bespokecareers.com\/?p=12005"},"modified":"2026-06-10T06:55:39","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T06:55:39","slug":"has-architecture-lost-its-nerve-austin-williams-riba-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bespokecareers.com\/articles\/has-architecture-lost-its-nerve-austin-williams-riba-elections\/","title":{"rendered":"Has Architecture Lost Its Nerve? &#8211; Austin Williams | RIBA Elections"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\n(function(){var s=document.createElement('style');s.type='text\/css';s.textContent='.bespoke-transcript{width:100%;font-family:inherit;color:#1a1a1a;line-height:1.85;font-size:inherit}.bespoke-transcript .bt-heading{font-family:\\'Helvetica Neue\\',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:22px;font-weight:700;margin-top:52px;margin-bottom:20px;color:#111;letter-spacing:-0.3px;border-left:4px solid 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0!important;line-height:1.5!important}.bespoke-transcript .bt-qa-speaker{display:flex!important;align-items:center!important;gap:10px!important;font-family:\\'Helvetica Neue\\',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif!important;font-weight:700!important;font-size:13px!important;text-transform:uppercase!important;letter-spacing:0.6px!important;margin:0 0 12px 0!important;color:#2b2b2b!important}.bespoke-transcript .bt-qa-speaker img{width:28px!important;height:28px!important;border-radius:50%!important;object-fit:cover!important;flex-shrink:0!important;margin:0!important}.bespoke-transcript .bt-qa-answer{margin:0!important;padding:0!important;font-size:16px!important;line-height:1.75!important;color:#1a1a1a!important}.afc-post-content .content-wrap > .socials-container{position:static!important;float:none!important;clear:both!important;width:100%!important;max-width:100%!important;margin:48px 0 0 0!important;padding:0!important;display:block!important;top:auto!important;right:auto!important;bottom:auto!important;left:auto!important;transform:none!important}.afc-post-content .content-wrap > .socials-container .socials-title{margin:0 0 12px 0!important}.afc-post-content .content-wrap > .socials-container .socials-wrap{display:flex!important;flex-direction:row!important;flex-wrap:wrap!important;gap:14px!important;justify-content:flex-start!important;align-items:center!important}';document.head.appendChild(s);function mvShare(){var sc=document.querySelector('.afc-post-content .post-details .socials-container');var cw=document.querySelector('.afc-post-content .content-wrap');if(sc&&cw&&sc.parentNode!==cw){cw.appendChild(sc);}}if(document.readyState==='loading'){document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded',mvShare);}else{mvShare();}})();\n<\/script><\/p>\n<div class=\"bespoke-transcript\">\n<div class=\"responsive-video\" style=\"position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; margin-bottom: 36px; border-radius: 4px;\"><iframe style=\"position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; border: 0;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3UvEzfUu7NE\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-intro\">2026 feels like a hinge moment for UK architecture. A housing crisis, a climate agenda, the looming impact of AI, and a profession under real pressure as fees, procurement, risk and responsibility all rise at once.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bt-intro\">In this series we&#8217;re putting the same questions to each of the four candidates standing for RIBA president, so you can compare them like for like.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bt-intro\">Austin Williams is an architect, academic and writer, and course leader for the Part 3 professional practice programme at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kingston.ac.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Kingston School of Art<\/a>. His career spans practice, education, journalism and research: sole practitioner, site architect, technical editor of the Architects&#8217; Journal, expert witness, author, and six years teaching in China. He&#8217;s known for plain speaking on regulation, education and fees, and argues for open debate and clearer guidance on the everyday realities facing architects.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bt-intro\">In this episode: mantras and orthodoxies, the confusion around competence, thinking big on infrastructure, and why fear of the future is the real threat.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"bt-hr\" \/>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-chris\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1.jpg\" alt=\"Chris Simmons\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\"><span class=\"bt-green\">Bespoke Careers<\/span> (Chris Simmons)<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">What experiences in your career brought you here and motivated you to stand for RIBA president?<\/p>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-sabrina\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/austin.jpg\" alt=\"Austin Williams\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\">Austin Williams<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">A longer history I have than many of the other candidates, I have to say. I was an architect for 14 years or so, a sole practitioner for a short while. One reason I quit architecture to be a journalist was the increase of health and safety policies, the introduction of CDM, which I found incredibly bureaucratic. Obviously nothing on what we have today. Then I went into journalism, and it was much easier for me to criticise other people&#8217;s work through writing than the other way around. Then I moved into film, then I went to China for six years and saw it from the education side, and I&#8217;ve come back to teach at Kingston School of Art.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">I was a site architect for a very long time. That was really my forte, which I think is fundamental to what students should learn and what they don&#8217;t learn. So I&#8217;ve got a handle on all different sides of the equation: seeing how young people are taught, what they learn, what their interests are, and really the decline, as I would put it, of the education profession itself. I think I&#8217;ve got a very rounded approach.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">In terms of what made me stand, if I&#8217;m being frank, which obviously I should be: I read an article by Duncan Baker-Brown in the AJ saying I&#8217;m going to stand for president, and I thought, another eco-activist, self-advertised as an eco-activist. I thought, I really have to stand to maybe put a counter position to this.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"bt-hr\" \/>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-chris\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1.jpg\" alt=\"Chris Simmons\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\"><span class=\"bt-green\">Bespoke Careers<\/span> (Chris Simmons)<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">When you look at architecture today, what&#8217;s the single biggest challenge facing the profession?<\/p>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-sabrina\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/austin.jpg\" alt=\"Austin Williams\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\">Austin Williams<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">There&#8217;s lots. But I think more abstractly than just looking at a topic itself. For me, the over-concentration, as I would put it, on the environment, or sustainability, or net zero, or carbon counting, all this stuff which architects have to do as a bureaucratic process, is part of the problem. Building stuff is a creative profession, which means actually having an impact on the planet. If you read the sustainability literature, having an impact on the planet is a negative concept, whereas I&#8217;ve always thought it was a positive thing. Why would you do it if you didn&#8217;t have an impact?<\/p>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">We have an ideological conversation which suggests maybe we shouldn&#8217;t build at all, so revitalising some of that conversation is fundamentally important. Growth or degrowth. I&#8217;m series editor of a series of booklets, five critical essays, and the next one will be on growth: actually having a critical interrogation of what growth is, what&#8217;s holding it back, and why society has changed its mindset from seeing it as a positive to seeing it as almost problematic.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">This is what I always say: if you are an environmentalist, and I&#8217;m not, right, if you&#8217;re an environmentalist, well done. Crack on. I&#8217;m not here to argue the toss with you. But what I do find is that everybody is being pushed into this agenda and repeating mantras and orthodoxies they don&#8217;t really believe. Students are saying it because they have to say it if they want to pass. Practices are saying it if they want to get grant funding or the next job. It&#8217;s a false representation of what people believe, and people are hiding their real identity.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"bt-pullquote\"><p><span class=\"bt-pq-mark\">&#8220;<\/span><br \/>\n<span class=\"bt-pq-text\">If you&#8217;re an environmentalist, well done. Crack on. But everybody is being pushed into this agenda, repeating mantras and orthodoxies they don&#8217;t really believe.<\/span><\/p>\n<footer class=\"bt-pq-attr\">Austin Williams<\/footer>\n<\/blockquote>\n<hr class=\"bt-hr\" \/>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-chris\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1.jpg\" alt=\"Chris Simmons\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\"><span class=\"bt-green\">Bespoke Careers<\/span> (Chris Simmons)<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">You&#8217;ve been speaking to architects throughout the campaign. What concerns and frustrations are coming up most?<\/p>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-sabrina\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/austin.jpg\" alt=\"Austin Williams\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\">Austin Williams<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">They&#8217;re confused about what on earth is going on within the profession. One example is the post-Grenfell shift towards the Building Safety Act, that whole idea Hackitt brought out to suggest that maybe we have to prove our competence, which in the first instance suggests we should see ourselves as incompetent, in need of training, which I don&#8217;t really hold. I think most architects are very competent. But that idea that we now have to demonstrate competence is a process. How do you do that? I go on a course organised by the RIBA and I have a certificate on my wall saying I&#8217;m competent. That doesn&#8217;t change anything really.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">What I am finding is that all of these regulatory, technocratic influences on the way we practise are confusing people, and people don&#8217;t know which way to turn. So ironically, I&#8217;m not seeing incompetence, but I am seeing a confusion about what competence means. What should people do, what rules should I follow, which regulations should there be? It&#8217;s a nightmare world, and it&#8217;s changing every other week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">Look at that tribunal case at the beginning of last year about what counts as a storey height for a building. You think, blimey, it takes me two years to teach my students that it&#8217;s 18 metres or seven storeys or higher, and now, oh, if you have plant or a green roof, maybe that&#8217;s a storey. That&#8217;s been knocked back, but for a short while people thought, hang on, what on earth am I meant to do? All of that&#8217;s going on in the world of architectural politics and technocracy. It should be simplified, and people need to get a handle on what really is the real business of architecture.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"bt-pullquote\"><p><span class=\"bt-pq-mark\">&#8220;<\/span><br \/>\n<span class=\"bt-pq-text\">Ironically, I&#8217;m not seeing incompetence, but I am seeing a confusion about what competence means.<\/span><\/p>\n<footer class=\"bt-pq-attr\">Austin Williams<\/footer>\n<\/blockquote>\n<hr class=\"bt-hr\" \/>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-chris\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1.jpg\" alt=\"Chris Simmons\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\"><span class=\"bt-green\">Bespoke Careers<\/span> (Chris Simmons)<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">What do you see as the role of the RIBA today, and what influence does the president actually have?<\/p>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-sabrina\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/austin.jpg\" alt=\"Austin Williams\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\">Austin Williams<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">It&#8217;s a funny one, isn&#8217;t it? Because obviously there&#8217;s a figureheadishness to the presidency, where you can&#8217;t do bugger all really. While at the same time, I did like Simon Allford&#8217;s House of Architecture thing. I think it&#8217;s extortionate, and I&#8217;m in favour of it, provided it&#8217;s not asking the members to stand up for it. Refurbishing, making it a bit more accessible and livening up the crappier parts of that building is very important, and what it represents for the exhibition space. The museum thing, in house or out of house, I don&#8217;t really know, but putting that on the table was very important.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">I think Chris Williamson, ironically, doing that thing where he resigned from the ARB: it&#8217;s a small thing he did off the top of his head, but it had a major impact on the conversation. I don&#8217;t know whether it means anything, but it does mean people can now begin to start criticising the ARB, deservedly so. So there are small things people can input into which will make a big, big difference. Even opening up a conversation is fundamental.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"bt-hr\" \/>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-chris\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1.jpg\" alt=\"Chris Simmons\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\"><span class=\"bt-green\">Bespoke Careers<\/span> (Chris Simmons)<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">Should the RIBA primarily reflect the views of its members, or lead and challenge the profession on important issues?<\/p>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-sabrina\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/austin.jpg\" alt=\"Austin Williams\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\">Austin Williams<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">From what I&#8217;ve said, maybe the latter is more in my mind. No, it does both, doesn&#8217;t it? It represents members, but what do the members represent? My worry is that there&#8217;s an awful lot of mandating going on within architecture, within professions generally, that uni-party approach: follow me or you&#8217;re no longer part of the team. We need to open up more of a conversation to find out what members genuinely do think, and then I think you&#8217;ll find they don&#8217;t think what you think that they think.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">It&#8217;s not a question of presidents roaming around the country patronising the local branches and saying, I&#8217;m going to take back your views. It means literally having open conversations and public debates, panelled conversations, which I&#8217;ve been doing for 25 years. It doesn&#8217;t necessarily lead to a conclusion, but it opens the door to a wider conversation. It gives people a voice, and I think that&#8217;s important.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">If you are mandating that you have to do a climate literacy module in order to qualify as an architect, first of all that means if you don&#8217;t do it, you&#8217;re illiterate, which I find very offensive. And secondly, some people don&#8217;t think the climate issue is a problem. I think it&#8217;s a problem, but some people don&#8217;t, or it&#8217;s not their number one issue. So why is it being foisted on people? It&#8217;s a bit crude. We need to be a little bit more open and frank, and maybe a bit more liberal about these things.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"bt-pullquote\"><p><span class=\"bt-pq-mark\">&#8220;<\/span><br \/>\n<span class=\"bt-pq-text\">We need to find out what members genuinely do think. And then you&#8217;ll find they don&#8217;t think what you think that they think.<\/span><\/p>\n<footer class=\"bt-pq-attr\">Austin Williams<\/footer>\n<\/blockquote>\n<hr class=\"bt-hr\" \/>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-chris\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1.jpg\" alt=\"Chris Simmons\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\"><span class=\"bt-green\">Bespoke Careers<\/span> (Chris Simmons)<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">We talk about low fees, limited influence, a lack of public understanding. Why does the profession struggle to communicate its value, and what can change that?<\/p>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-sabrina\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/austin.jpg\" alt=\"Austin Williams\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\">Austin Williams<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">Because we&#8217;re incestuous. We talk to ourselves, we have our own trade magazines, and it doesn&#8217;t go very much further. And partly there&#8217;s a dismissal, a refusal to engage with people who don&#8217;t think the things they should be thinking, that they&#8217;re not the right-thinking people.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">I&#8217;ve come from a background where I was doing architecture, then I was technical editor of the Architects&#8217; Journal, then making films and all the rest of it. I want to be seen as a commentator. Influencer is a horrible word, I don&#8217;t like that word either. But I want to commentate on certain things, and getting onto the media is important. Mainstream media, not the architectural press, much as I enjoy it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">Not in the way many presidential hopefuls might think, which is, I&#8217;m sitting with parliamentarians, I&#8217;m having a backroom deal, I&#8217;m sitting behind closed doors in the Westminster bubble. I think that&#8217;s insulting, because we&#8217;re not party to that conversation. But to be seen and to be held to account, like this. If this is going to be on social media, there&#8217;ll be a whole stream of people telling you what they think of me, and hopefully one or two might like what I&#8217;ve got to say. That&#8217;s the issue: really making architecture into a social creative force rather than an internal trade issue.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"bt-hr\" \/>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-chris\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1.jpg\" alt=\"Chris Simmons\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\"><span class=\"bt-green\">Bespoke Careers<\/span> (Chris Simmons)<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">If you could focus the profession&#8217;s attention on one issue over the next five years, what would it be?<\/p>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-sabrina\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/austin.jpg\" alt=\"Austin Williams\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\">Austin Williams<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">We&#8217;re living through a recessionary time without really calling it recessionary, and I&#8217;ve been through three recessions and lost my job each time. So first of all, we have to man up, or woman up, or whatever we say these days, to recognise that we can get through it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">Secondly, I do think a lot of the clients may disappear or restrain their money. Grant funding might dry up, universities might have to close and shut their doors. These are cruel things, and I think we should be fighting against it, by the way, but that&#8217;s the direction of travel. What we should be doing is looking at the need, which will be a growing need, for infrastructure, for nuclear, for cities. I mentioned my manifesto Forest City, which I think is another mad idea, a bit like Chris Williamson&#8217;s loop. But there&#8217;s potential in having an ambitious model. You could get halfway. If you have a limited agenda, you don&#8217;t get anywhere. Thinking big is always good.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">What gets lost in that equation is biodiversity net gain, which would be no loss to me. I&#8217;m a big fan of rabbits and bats and what have you, so don&#8217;t condemn me for that. But the entire process has bureaucratised and stultified the very industry we&#8217;re part of. Even the Labour government is considering how to get around some of these institutionalised bureaucracies they&#8217;ve implemented. We have to relax a little bit. The \u00a3200 million bat tunnel was nonsensical anyway, but it&#8217;s representative of something crazy going on within construction.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"bt-hr\" \/>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-chris\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1.jpg\" alt=\"Chris Simmons\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\"><span class=\"bt-green\">Bespoke Careers<\/span> (Chris Simmons)<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">What do you think architects continue to get wrong today?<\/p>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-sabrina\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/austin.jpg\" alt=\"Austin Williams\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\">Austin Williams<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">They forget that they&#8217;re part of an industry, the construction industry. It&#8217;s understandable in some respects. We want to see ourselves apart, we are a profession. But how you get things built is by actually having a conversation with the site team.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">I was a site architect, and when I first qualified I worked for this guy in Newcastle. He was a nutter, my first boss. What he used to say in the opening pre-start meeting was: look, we all want to get away from this job. We want to get away on time, we want to make a profit. So if you&#8217;re going to ask any questions, ask them nicely, and when the client isn&#8217;t present. If you embarrass me in a site meeting, I&#8217;ll break your legs. And I thought, well, that&#8217;s quite a nice way of putting it. What you found was that you built up this general rapport with the site team and you worked as a unit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">QSs are having a hard time of it. Engineers are having a hard time of it. The House Building Federation. We&#8217;re all suffering this thing, and we&#8217;re all suffering individually and mouthing off that we&#8217;re a special case, whereas actually we should all come together and form a bit more of a united front.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"bt-hr\" \/>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-chris\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1.jpg\" alt=\"Chris Simmons\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\"><span class=\"bt-green\">Bespoke Careers<\/span> (Chris Simmons)<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">Has increasing regulation, particularly the Building Safety Act, strengthened the profession or made it harder to practise?<\/p>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-sabrina\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/austin.jpg\" alt=\"Austin Williams\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\">Austin Williams<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">It&#8217;s harder to practise, without a shadow of a doubt. I will say there are some people who will take advantage of it. The big boys will get bigger and stronger. But if you said to many, many architects I know, what is a principal designer&#8217;s role, they haven&#8217;t really got a clue. Or they&#8217;ll say principal designer, CDM, and won&#8217;t recognise it&#8217;s a broader thing. All these little rules and regulations have tremendous force, from litigation to liability, costs, time, effort, and they&#8217;re really bearing down on the nominal profits architects are making.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">Very often, if you say to a client, look, I can also be your principal designer, the client says back to you, but isn&#8217;t that part of your statutory duty? So why are you asking me for an extra half a percent? Get on with it. And they do. If the Building Safety Act remains as it is, and there are actually questions being asked in the House as to whether we start changing the height rules back to 30 metres, which was the original conversation, then fair enough, it might liberalise it a little bit more. But at the moment, I think it&#8217;s just one big mess. It&#8217;s confused the industry. Like I say, competence is leaching out of every pore. We have to be careful.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"bt-pullquote\"><p><span class=\"bt-pq-mark\">&#8220;<\/span><br \/>\n<span class=\"bt-pq-text\">At the moment, I think it&#8217;s just one big mess. It&#8217;s confused the industry. Competence is leaching out of every pore.<\/span><\/p>\n<footer class=\"bt-pq-attr\">Austin Williams<\/footer>\n<\/blockquote>\n<hr class=\"bt-hr\" \/>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-chris\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1.jpg\" alt=\"Chris Simmons\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\"><span class=\"bt-green\">Bespoke Careers<\/span> (Chris Simmons)<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">What changes are most needed in architectural education to make the profession fit for the future?<\/p>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-sabrina\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/austin.jpg\" alt=\"Austin Williams\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\">Austin Williams<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">Well, let&#8217;s educate some people. That would be my starting point. That&#8217;s a very pompous start, isn&#8217;t it? The problem with education is that we are very much in hock to the student. Students became consumers 30 years ago, and the university now relies on them paying in order to keep going. Therefore criticising them, or worse, failing them, is killing the golden goose.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">Secondly, we have to recognise that architecture is an important job, not just in terms of creativity and drawing fancy sketches on the backs of napkins. We have to build buildings, and therefore there&#8217;s a duty not to kill anybody. So you have to know your stuff, and that&#8217;s not really being taught. And if I fit it into the environmental criticism I had earlier: if I see another building made out of rammed earth and bamboo and thatch, I&#8217;ll scream, because I&#8217;ll think I&#8217;m in the wrong bloody century.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">I&#8217;m a great believer in knowledge for knowledge&#8217;s sake, art for art&#8217;s sake. I don&#8217;t necessarily think education has to be instrumental, teaching people for a job, which is what&#8217;s happening in schools. Obviously there&#8217;s a slight difference within architecture, because you are learning for a job. One of the good things about architecture is that it gives you a critical mind, to be able to analyse and deconstruct certain things. You never look at a film the same way again, or read a book the same way. So encouraging people to watch films and read books would be a good start. Putting critical thinking at the heart of education, and not in the way it&#8217;s been done so far. Whenever you hear the words critical thinking, it doesn&#8217;t mean any criticism or very little thinking. Being able to approach a topic with a broader social, cultural context is a fundamentally important start. Once you do that, you start to have people coming out of universities who are well educated, who have a head start on universities who aren&#8217;t playing that game. Those well-educated people will get the gigs.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"bt-pullquote\"><p><span class=\"bt-pq-mark\">&#8220;<\/span><br \/>\n<span class=\"bt-pq-text\">If I see another building made out of rammed earth and bamboo and thatch, I&#8217;ll scream, because I&#8217;ll think I&#8217;m in the wrong bloody century.<\/span><\/p>\n<footer class=\"bt-pq-attr\">Austin Williams<\/footer>\n<\/blockquote>\n<hr class=\"bt-hr\" \/>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-chris\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1.jpg\" alt=\"Chris Simmons\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\"><span class=\"bt-green\">Bespoke Careers<\/span> (Chris Simmons)<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">Do you see AI primarily as an opportunity or a threat, and how should the profession respond?<\/p>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-sabrina\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/austin.jpg\" alt=\"Austin Williams\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\">Austin Williams<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">Opportunity and threat. Yes, yes. Tick, tick. Like I said, I write these books of critical essays, and the last one I did was on AI. Five critical essays on AI. It&#8217;s not a polarised conversation in that way, but it is looking at some of the problems and how we deal with it. How we see ourselves as individuals in a world of data. Are we becoming a data set?<\/p>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">One essay looks at education and the idea that, can you trust students to write the essay now? We have to have a rethink in terms of how we monitor this. I&#8217;m a great believer in trusting the students, and if I say don&#8217;t use AI and they do, that&#8217;s a problem. But on the Part 3 course I teach, at least we have a viva voce at the end of it, and you can&#8217;t hide from that. You really find out whether they know their stuff.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">Patrik Schumacher wrote an essay, and obviously he&#8217;s on another side of the conversation. He&#8217;s loving it. He gives one example where he went to a competition with about ten other architects presenting, and when it was his turn he said: you&#8217;ve got ten other architects presenting. I can press a button and get a million iterations of my scheme. Why do you need ten people? And he wins the gig on that basis. So some people who play into it will win rewards. But there are also traditional architects who may want to continue in the old ways of working, traditional in both senses of the word. Use it, make of it what you can.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">I think it reflects a cultural moment: what do we think about the future? If we fear it, which I think is the cultural mood at the moment, then AI is going to be a devastation. It&#8217;s going to take all our jobs, it&#8217;s going to kill us in our beds. Whereas if you have a bit more of a positive vision of the future, that we&#8217;re not all going to die, we&#8217;re not all going to drown in global warming, these things are manageable, because humanity&#8217;s got fantastic creative energy to change these things. And we are a creative force in that conversation. Once you&#8217;ve put a more positive vision of the future, you can start to mould this discussion to your own advantage.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"bt-pullquote\"><p><span class=\"bt-pq-mark\">&#8220;<\/span><br \/>\n<span class=\"bt-pq-text\">These things are manageable, because humanity&#8217;s got fantastic creative energy to change these things.<\/span><\/p>\n<footer class=\"bt-pq-attr\">Austin Williams<\/footer>\n<\/blockquote>\n<hr class=\"bt-hr\" \/>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-chris\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1.jpg\" alt=\"Chris Simmons\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\"><span class=\"bt-green\">Bespoke Careers<\/span> (Chris Simmons)<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">If elected, at the end of your term what would architects notice had changed that would make you call your presidency a success?<\/p>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-sabrina\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/austin.jpg\" alt=\"Austin Williams\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\">Austin Williams<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">I don&#8217;t know whether I can put my finger on a thing, like a House of Architecture, although maybe the RIBA will be bankrupt by then because of it, and I&#8217;ll be the guy responsible. No, it&#8217;s more that hopefully more people will speak up. The idea of, I will be the voice of the voiceless, is like some kind of Jesus syndrome, and I&#8217;m not saying that. But I am saying I want to encourage more people to speak up. It&#8217;s fundamentally important to the profession.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">Whenever you go to meetings with architects, public debates, and you say, any questions? Nobody. It&#8217;s a very passive industry, and then we go out and we complain. Speaking up and bringing those complaints to the table, you&#8217;d be surprised, because most people in the room have those complaints and they wish they&#8217;d said it. So that&#8217;s the agenda: being able to feed back into a broader conversation about where we should be going, and realising there&#8217;s a diversity of opinion within architects. You can&#8217;t say architects are a thing. Some people support this, traditional architects, modernists, whatever it might be. And that&#8217;s a great thing. Why aren&#8217;t we celebrating that?<\/p>\n<hr class=\"bt-hr\" \/>\n<h3 class=\"bt-heading\">Quickfire<\/h3>\n<div class=\"bt-qa\">\n<div class=\"bt-qa-num\">Q<em>01<\/em><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-qa-question\">Biggest opportunity for architects over the next decade?<\/p>\n<div class=\"bt-qa-speaker\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/austin.jpg\" alt=\"Austin Williams\" \/> Austin Williams<\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-qa-answer\">The opportunity is only going to be made available to architects if they start thinking big, not thinking small. And some of the notions of what a big idea is, I think are small. Environmentalism is a reductive idea: thinking small, not building. We need to build more, faster, bigger, and build some proper infrastructure in this country.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"bt-qa\">\n<div class=\"bt-qa-num\">Q<em>02<\/em><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-qa-question\">Biggest misconception about architects?<\/p>\n<div class=\"bt-qa-speaker\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/austin.jpg\" alt=\"Austin Williams\" \/> Austin Williams<\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-qa-answer\">That they are rich.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"bt-qa\">\n<div class=\"bt-qa-num\">Q<em>03<\/em><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-qa-question\">Biggest thing holding the profession back right now?<\/p>\n<div class=\"bt-qa-speaker\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/austin.jpg\" alt=\"Austin Williams\" \/> Austin Williams<\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-qa-answer\">Environmentalism, degrowth. There are a lot of restrictive ideas being put on architects. Bureaucracy, technocracy. We really need to push back a little bit against some of this stuff and reclaim some of our agency.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"bt-qa\">\n<div class=\"bt-qa-num\">Q<em>04<\/em><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-qa-question\">One conversation the profession isn&#8217;t having enough?<\/p>\n<div class=\"bt-qa-speaker\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/austin.jpg\" alt=\"Austin Williams\" \/> Austin Williams<\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-qa-answer\">Everything. Other than sustainability, which seems to infect every bloody article and conversation I&#8217;ve ever seen or read or heard. We&#8217;re not really talking more broadly about what is needed for the future of our profession.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"bt-qa\">\n<div class=\"bt-qa-num\">Q<em>05<\/em><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-qa-question\">One piece of advice for your younger self entering architecture today?<\/p>\n<div class=\"bt-qa-speaker\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/austin.jpg\" alt=\"Austin Williams\" \/> Austin Williams<\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-qa-answer\">If I can remember that far back, I would tell myself to speak out more. Maybe read more, but definitely speak out more.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"bt-qa bt-qa-last\">\n<div class=\"bt-qa-num\">Q<em>06<\/em><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-qa-question\">If architects could only remember one thing about your campaign?<\/p>\n<div class=\"bt-qa-speaker\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/austin.jpg\" alt=\"Austin Williams\" \/> Austin Williams<\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-qa-answer\">My name, my web address, voteaustinriba.org, and the idea that we can change the world if only we try.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Austin Williams on mantras and orthodoxies, the confusion around competence, thinking big, and why fear of the future is the real threat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":12008,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","footnotes":""},"categories":[21,68,69,22,67],"tags":[],"location":[],"class_list":["post-12005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-employers","category-jobseekers","category-podcast","category-students-and-graduates"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bespokecareers.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bespokecareers.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bespokecareers.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bespokecareers.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bespokecareers.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12005"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bespokecareers.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12005\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12011,"href":"https:\/\/www.bespokecareers.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12005\/revisions\/12011"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bespokecareers.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/media\/12008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bespokecareers.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bespokecareers.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bespokecareers.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12005"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bespokecareers.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/location?post=12005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}