There is a candidate for everyone in this RIBA election, so go and vote!

The architecture profession is facing a raft of unprecedented challenges. The environmental crisis requires us to fundamentally rethink the way we design buildings. Grenfell and the recent Bartlett report have exposed inadequacies in our education system. And Brexit, pandemic and war have ushered in a new era of stagflation, contributing to squeezed fees and falling real wages.

因此，这是多年来竞争最激烈的RIBA主席竞选之一。

今年的候选人来自该行业的三个主要支柱:高级管理人员、小型业务和领薪员工，这与其说是有意为之，不如说是出于偶然。

Each of these distinct groups has its own take on what matters most to the profession. This is no bad thing, and perhaps in a different context there might be a useful discussion around how the RIBA can better represent all three strands of the membership.

The good news for RIBA sceptics and disengaged members is that there is something for everyone in this slate of candidates. If you can’t find someone in this list who is speaking for you, then you probably never will.

Jo Bacon is arguably the candidate that most closely fits the mould of the traditional RIBA president

Amidst the diverging priorities there are also promising signs of consensus. The environmental crisis is high on all the candidates’ lists, as is a general concern about the cost of living, although perhaps approached from subtly different angles.

Jo Bacon is arguably the candidate that most closely fits the mould of the traditional RIBA president. She is a managing partner at one of the UK’s biggest architecture firms, and is the unashamed continuity candidate. But she is also a woman who has made it to the top in what has long been a male dominated industry and is well known and respected. She offers to bring the experience gained from her successful career in senior management to bear on RIBA’s long list of challenges.

>> Also read:Interview with Jo Bacon

>> Also read:Interview with Sumita Singha

>> Also read:Interview with Muyiwa Oki

Her position is that the RIBA has been through a tough period, but thanks to institutional reorganisation and Simon Allford’s leadership, things are getting back to a sound footing. She highlights low fees and the environment as pressing concerns. And while not wanting to promise miracles, she tells us the RIBA is already addressing many of the issues that matter most, and that we should trust in the existing processes to deliver.

不难理解为什么她获得了众多其他行业领袖的支持。正是这些人赢得了大项目，创造了最大的员工流动率，并为英国成千上万的人提供了工作机会。她能说他们的语言，理解他们的优先事项。然而，对一些人来说，这正是他们认为她是错误选择的原因。

Sumita Singha represents that often overlooked but sizeable constituency – those who run their own small practices. Small practitioners are very often at the coal face in terms of engagement with clients and representing the industry. These are the architects who are doing everything for themselves – winning the work, implementing it, and perhaps also managing a small team of staff.

Sumita Singha represents that often overlooked but sizeable constituency – those who run their own small practices

辛格也是一位自豪的移民，她庆祝自己的印度血统，并努力提高行业的多样性和女性地位。在过去的四分之一个世纪里，她一直以各种方式与英国皇家艺术学院(RIBA)打交道，结合了对该学院运作方式的理解，以及她所主张的批判性但仍然独立的观点。

Reflecting her small practice background, she is keen to highlight the immediate, on-the-ground issues many small practitioners are facing. Professional indemnity insurance (PII) and the cost of living crisis are key concerns. “It’s just going to make practising architecture unbearable,” she says. One of her policies is for the RIBA to help establish a new insurer for architects. These are bread and butter issues that will appeal to many small business owners but may go over the heads of salaried workers.

This takes us to Muyiwa Oki, the self-styled voice of the workers, breakout candidate and clear outlier in the current race. He has emerged from relative obscurity with the backing of a range of activist organisations including Future Architects Front.

Oki is raising issues that have desperately needed clear articulation in the industry for decades. He is talking about problems with the education system, low pay and long hours. His viewpoint is that more of the same is the very opposite of what the RIBA and the profession needs.

But as Bacon implies in her BD interview, is the RIBA the right vehicle for Oki’s campaigning approach, or is he actually a shop steward in search of a trade union? In my view the industry would benefit from unionisation, which by driving up wages would also force bosses to quote realistic fees.

RIBA is not a trade union with a remit to protect the workforce

The truth is that whoever wins the election, two of the three main constituencies among the membership are likely to feel unheard and unrepresented. This perhaps explains why membership satisfaction and engagement is so low within the RIBA. The organisation simply cannot meet everyone’s expectations.

I believe that one of the main reasons so many members remain disillusioned by the RIBA is that it is not the organisation they are looking for or need. As Bacon goes out of her way to explain in her interview with BD, RIBA is not a trade union with a remit to protect the workforce. And neither is it a commercial trade body, there to push the commercial interests of its members.

RIBA’s Royal Charter clearly states that it’s purpose is “the general advancement of Architecture, and for promoting and facilitating the acquirement of the knowledge of the various arts and sciences connected therewith”.

很明显，RIBA的作用并不是推进以Bacon, Singha和Oki为代表的三个关键群体的特殊利益优先事项。如果有什么区别的话，它最明确的职责是确保建筑教育是有目的的，这是几十年来可以说是失败的。

In some ways it is an intractable problem. The RIBA is not the organisation that most RIBA members want it to be. Many of them might be better off joining a trade union, the Federation of Small Business, or Institute of Directors.

What the RIBA and the winning candidate could helpfully do is more clearly articulate to members what they can and cannot expect from the institute. And like any canny politician, they would be wise to pick over their opponents’ manifestos for those ideas that have broad appeal across the membership. I would put education reform and help with PII close to the top of that list.

Ben Flatman is Building Design’s architectural editor