RIBA Collections: EDI content

RIBA believes that an inclusive and diverse profession that is representative of the society it serves is pivotal to meeting the challenges of the future. As we work to promote the diversification of the profession, explore our EDI resources within our RIBA collections below.

• RIBA Collections research guides
  Our growing collection of research guides highlights the range of people, practices and projects represented in RIBA Collections. Browse the list to find out what material we hold and how you can access it, either in person or online.
  
  
• Unpacking imperialism
  Read about how the history of RIBA is closely entwined with that of the British Empire, which expanded and consolidated its colonial grip around the world during the institute’s formative years in the 19th and early 20th centuries. We acknowledge this to promote EDI. 
  
  
• "The Partners": Seely and Paget 
  The firm Seely and Paget played an important role in British architecture from the 1920s to the 1960s, from their controversial transformation of Eltham Palace for Stephen and Virginia Courtauld in 1936, to their work as successive surveyors to the fabric of St Paul’s Cathedral. 
  
  
• Revisiting Florence's Duomo 
  We explore how the dome of Florence Cathedral reveals the presence of queer stories at the symbolic heart of the Western architectural tradition. 
  
  
• Revisiting the Collections: The queer aesthetics of Strawberry Hill House 
  Strawberry Hill House in Twickenham, southwest London, can be read as a "queer architectural rebellion”, raising important questions about the connection between architectural innovation and queer identity. 
  
  
• Revisiting RIBA Collections: Plas Newydd and the Ladies of Llangollen
  Chair of RIBA’s internal LGBTQ+ Community group, Emily Jeffers explores how a cottage in rural Wales has led contemporary historians to re-evaluate how we project our own understanding of female queer relationships onto historic figures, particularly women, who have expressed intimacy in different ways.  
  
  
• Who was the first Black RIBA Member?
  This is a question we’d like to be able to answer more definitively. In this article, our RIBA Collections team share their approach to answering it, signpost to RIBA Library and Collections sources that inform their research, and explore why some questions remain unanswered.
  
  
• "This Dilemma": Collecting and constraints at RIBA
  Chater Paul Jordan explores the shaping of RIBA Collections, to consider what absences and silences they might be defined by.
  
  
• A dwelling of her own: Housing for single, working women in the 20th century
  Working women weren’t a new phenomenon; many British women had been factory workers, teachers, and domestic servants throughout the 19th century, and many more worked within their own homes. Read about housing for single, working women in the 20th century.
  
  
• Pioneers then and now
  Jane Drew, Pat Tindale, Elaine Denby and Rosemary Stjernstedt reflect upon their careers as women architects. 
  
  
• Revisiting the Collections: The Forgotten Women
  Sarah Ackland of Part W calls for collections like RIBA’s to do more to proactively address the under-representation of women architects from architectural archives.