Welcome to 29% Equal

29% Equal is a podcast celebrating significant women who have shaped how we practice architecture today, produced by me, Sarah Ackland.

Why 29% Equal? The last formal survey undertaken by the ARB (or the Architects Registration Board) was in 2019, this revealed that only 29% of qualified architects are female identifying, women are routinely excluded from the architecture profession, from the books we read and even the references and precedents we study at university.

In an effort to eliminate this continual erasure of women I have invited a young architect, designer, artist or activist from Part W (and friends) to have a discussion with a woman they feel deserves recognition, or perhaps more recognition. We ask these amazing women about their defining moments, their activism, who inspires them, the advice they would give to their younger selves and finally what a more equitable city might look like.

This series is in conversation with Part W.

Part W is an action group of women working across architecture and design, infrastructure and construction campaigning for gender parity founded by Zoë Berman. Part W is an independent campaign group that has no formal funding. If you would like to support their valuable and on-going work, please donate here or on their website.

To give you a hint of what’s to come in this six-part series, we talk to an acclaimed social housing architect, a powerful campaign group, a member of Matrix the feminist design collective, and more.

This podcast has been created with thanks to the RIBA Research Fund and supported by my research supervisor Katie Lloyd Thomas of Newcastle University.

All graphics by the amazing Linda and Ella of Mackinnon Byrne.

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