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By Sonja Fowler |
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Angela Brady is a mother, a wife and alongside her husband is the director of their private Architectural practice Brady Mallalieu Architects in north London. Her architectural approach bridges the building and promoting of eco-friendly designs with housing, community and educational projects. Working her way through Toronto, Dublin and Copenhagen, she has been London based since 1983.
Having been on the panel for Design for London, The Civic Trust National and the CABE / English Heritage Urban Panel, she was also the Design Champion for the London Development Agency Board.
She was the Chairperson on the RIAI London Forum and Women In Architecture Committee for five years. As well as appearing on television and radio and in the national press, Angela has won many awards and was highly commended as a finalist in the Women of Outstanding Achievement at Atkins Inspire Awards.
By Sonja Fowler
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Q The idea behind the exhibition, DiverseCity was a showcase for women architects, but through interest and demand evolved to include both ethnic minorities and students. Did the original concept for this project stem from struggles and obstacles you may have experienced or witnessed being a woman in a male dominated profession?
A We at Architects For Change (AFC) decided to include other minority groups on the committee to be as inclusive as possible and have greater impact.
Q Most people have iconic role models in their profession that have inspired them from the onset. In which ways do smaller, more conventional architects inspire your projects?
A Iconic Role models also inspire, as they are the ones who get into the press the most! However the solid good design work of the small to medium sized practice is a great inspiration and very often better design work and more thoughtful projects are often formed.
QWhat steps are you taking to get more women, students and ethnic minorities interested and involved in the administrative and promotional side of this project?
A I do the admin and promotion!
Q Have you found that you have support from men in the Architectural field than first realised? Has support grown through the education and studies this project brings into focus?
A Personally, I have the best partner as he is my 24/7 husband and business partner and father of our 2 kids. I have no problems and he is a great role model himself!
We have great support from the past two RIBA presidents George Ferguson and Sunand Prasad and now we have the first woman President elect.
I have always found great support from my men colleagues and given them huge support too. However, this is not always the case for many of our colleagues who contact us for advice.
I think that the issues we have raised about increasing the number of women into our profession, backed up by the Building Design magazine pressure 50 / 50 campaign has put pressure in a public way on to the profession to increase the number of women in their practices and make better working conditions for women when it comes to job sharing and maternity leave.
Q If there are over 37% of women studying and graduating from architecture, why is the female work force so low at 14%? Is this a UK problem or is it spread across the globe?
A AFC commissioned a study “Why do women drop out of architecture?” to make the point that we need to retain them.
This is a worldwide problem except in Greece, where there is a higher percentage of women architects in practice and where it is an acceptable profession for women. Also in Palestine where many women are in practice while many of the men have emigrated to Muslim countries such as Kuwait who do not favour women working.
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