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Elsie Owusu

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Elsie Owusu
OBE
Born
Elsie Owusu

(1953-12-30) 30 December 1953 (age 70)
Ghana[where?]
Alma materStreatham and Clapham High School
OccupationArchitect
Websitewww.owusu.uk

Elsie Owusu OBE RIBA FRSA is a Ghana-born British architect, a founding member and the first chair of the Society of Black Architects.[1][2][3] She is also known to have co-led the refurbishment of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom in 2009[1] and worked on Green Park tube station.[2] she has been an elected Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Council member since 2014, and vice-chair of the London School of Architecture.[4][5]

Education and career

Born in Ghana, Elsie Owusu attended Streatham and Clapham High School in London.

She has been working as an architect since 1986,[6] founding her own architectural practice, Elsie Owusu Architects (EOA), of which she remains principal.[7] She was a partner for 10 years with Fielden+Mawson,[8] where she was co-lead architect for the UK Supreme Court and the masterplanning team for London's Green Park Station,[5] As a conservation architect, she has also worked on public transport and regeneration projects in Ghana and Nigeria.[9][5] She is a director of the UK company JustGhana, which promotes investment, sustainable development and constructive social engagement in Ghana, as well as a director of ArchQuestra, "formed to provide the best of British architecture, art and engineering to support emerging economies".[10] In 2015 she was one of 12 to be named a "RIBA role models" in support of inclusivity and diversity.[9][11]

She has been a board member of organizations including Arts Council England, the National Trust of England, and the UK Supreme Court Arts Trust, as well as being a trustee of the Council of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and of the Architectural Association.[5]

In 2017, to mark the 25th anniversary of the murder of Stephen Lawrence, who had hoped to become an architect, Owusu launched, with the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust, the RIBA+25 campaign to boost diversity in architecture,[12] a profession was reported The Architects' Journal in 2015 to be "one of the least diverse in the UK, with 94 percent of architects defined as white", and only 4,000 of RIBA's 27,000 chartered architects being women.[13] After the "+25" initiative, which received support from such colleagues as David Adjaye, Alison Brooks and Richard Rogers, Owusu was no longer the sole non-white member of the RIBA governing council but one of 12.[4]

In 2018 Owusu was announced as a candidate for the presidency of RIBA, nominated by more than 70 chartered architects including Sir David Adjaye OBE, Owen Luder CBE, Deborah Saunt and Yasmin Shariff, and endorsed by Baroness Doreen Lawrence.[14][15] Owusu has spoken out about issues around institutional racism and sexism within the architectural industry.[13][16][17][18]

Awards

She was voted African Business Woman of the Year in 2014.[19][20]

She appointed an OBE in the Queen's 2003 Birthday Honours list, and has said: "To my great pride my citation for my OBE was as chair of the Society of Black Architects. I am a campaigning architect. That’s what I do. It’s part of my architectural life."[6] She has also been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.[21]

References

  1. ^ a b Adam Lusher (2 December 2015). "Riba run like a racist 'boy's club', says leading female architect". The Independent. Retrieved 22 January 2016.
  2. ^ a b "Elsie Owusu OBE". Royal Institute of British Architects. Retrieved 22 January 2016.
  3. ^ "Elsie Owusu". Architects' Journal. 12 January 2012. Retrieved 22 January 2016.
  4. ^ a b Kelly L. Beamon, "Interview with RIBA President Candidate Elsie Owusu", Architectural Record, 3 July 2018.
  5. ^ a b c d "Elsie Owusu, Vice-Chair pf the Trustee Board", The London School of Architecture.
  6. ^ a b Caroline Davies, "Riba investigates architect's allegations of institutional racism", The Guardian, 3 December 2015.
  7. ^ "RIBA Role Model: Elsie Owusu", RIBA, Architecture.com, 1 June 2015.
  8. ^ Richard Waite, "Elsie Owusu leaves Feilden + Mawson", Architects' Journal, 25 October 2015.
  9. ^ a b Nana Ocran, "Regenerating Accra's forgotten areas", Design Indaba, 25 June 2015.
  10. ^ "About", Elsie Owusu Architects.
  11. ^ "RIBA Role Models", RIBA, Architecture.com, 30 August 2017.
  12. ^ "Championing diversity in the architecture profession", Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust.
  13. ^ a b Jonathan Morrison, "Threats sent to architect Elsie Owusu after she said Riba was racist", The Times, 17 April 2018.
  14. ^ Richard Waite, "Owusu and Jones throw hats into ring to be next RIBA president", Architects' Journal, 13 April 2018.
  15. ^ "Candidate for the RIBA Presidency: Elsie Owusu OBE", RIBA.
  16. ^ Alannah Francis, "Architect Elsie Owusu Could Be RIBA’s First Black President", The Voice, 18 April 2018.
  17. ^ Anja Popp, "Leading architect says institutional racism has not gone away", Channel 4 News, 22 April 2018.
  18. ^ Jonathan Morrison, "Architect Elsie Owusu sent gagging order after speaking out against Riba", The Times, 3 July 2018.
  19. ^ "Award Winners 2014", African Enterprise Awards.
  20. ^ Steve Onions, "Africa’s Business Woman of the Year, Elsie Owusu offers advice for architects hoping to break into the region", Building Construction Design, 8 December 2014.
  21. ^ "Ghana at Fifty: Leaders on the UK Arts scene", Africa Beyond – Celebrating African Arts in the UK, BBC, 21 May 2007.


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