Towering Ambition

Adil Ray follows the inaugural Architecture for Everyone campaign, launched in Stephen Lawrence's memory to correct UK architecture's glaring ethnic imbalance. Stephen Lawrence wanted to be an architect, so when his mum Doreen discovered that only two per cent of the UK's practising architects come from black and ethnic backgrounds she set up the inaugural Architecture for Everyone scheme, with RMJM Architects, to readdress the balance. Through a series of workshops in Birmingham, Liverpool, Glasgow and London, six young people were selected for a scholarship to Harvard's School of Design. They are Paula McDonald, 25, from Glasgow; Callum Gilbert, 21, from Liverpool; Oni Hinton, 20 and Luke Henry-Powell, 18, from London; and Yohanna Iyasu and Nick Ackers, both 19, from Birmingham. They all come from radically diverse backgrounds. Nick was adopted as a baby from a Romanian orphanage, Yohanna came to Britain by way of Eritrea and Holland, Luke rebelled at school and wanted to prove himself, Oni was escaping from a chaotic home life, Callum had been a young knife crime victim, and Paula, the eldest of the six, had been made redundant and needed to boost her self-esteem. The common theme among them was that this break had the potential to change everything.