RIBA members challenged the three candidates to explain how they would champion the cause of the one-man practice, get students involved in the RIBA and improve architectural education. Candidates were asked how they would address the perceived lack of democracy at the RIBA and the decline of public sector architects departments. They were also asked how they would improve the planning process.
Two of the candidates, Modern Design Partnership director John Wright and RIBA honorary treasurer Colin James, locked horns over how the RIBA should be structured.
Wright claimed that in the past some RIBA presidents and council members "had never attended a branch meeting". He said: "We have failed terribly to respond to the grass-roots of the profession." James said Wright's proposal to create a federal structure, in which power would be devolved to the regions, was "undeliverable. We would be diverting our resources to contemplating our navel, when we should be advancing architecture."
Richard Rogers Partnership director and candidate Marco Goldschmied said: "It is time we stopped apologising for the undoubted errors we made in rebuilding Britain in the 1950s and 1960s and started promoting what architects can do." He added: "Only 30% of buildings are designed by architects in this country - a ridiculous proportion in a civilised country. If we get it up to 50%, we've got a 66% increase in workload." A one-man practitioner complained: "This is like a club where you all know each other. You are like male MPs talking about women's rights. The RIBA has complete contempt for what we do. You have no statistics on us, you do not know who our clients are. There is no promotion of the role of the sole practitioner."
James warned small firms: "It is going to get tougher - you are in a global economy and you are in the wrong sector of the market. I have no time for small practices who tell me it is not how it used to be."
