Built By Us | FLUID mentee, Ibrahim's Story

Tell us about your career, what inspired your path?

Looking back, I am grateful for the positive influence my parents had on me. They were both working professionals who instilled the importance of hard work and education in my siblings and I from an early age through conversations with us but also through example. Being the only creative amongst my siblings, I was lucky enough to have parents that encouraged my creative interests, but also engaged me in conversations about my future without pressuring or dictating a career path.  

Growing up, I was a well-rounded student, but particularly enjoyed and excelled at the creative subjects. After completing A’ Levels, I was unsure about what career path I wanted to pursue which led me to undertake a one-year Art + Design Foundation course at Central St Martins where I studied Product Design, Typography and Spatial Design. It was the latter that I clicked with the most and after choosing Spatial Design as my specialism for the final semester of the course, I decided I wanted to be an architect. 

I went to Kingston University for my undergraduate degree and graduated in 2008, just as the financial crisis had started. It was tremendously difficult to get a work placement and I discovered that most of my peers who I graduated with were also struggling to find jobs. Eventually, halfway through the year, I managed to get a placement with a sole practitioner who had himself recently been made redundant. He took me on as a Part I Architectural Assistant for about five months before I went back to do my Part II at the University of East London.

After completing this, I looked for a Part II Architectural Assistant role, but things were no better, in fact, they were worse. I was eventually offered an internship after months of looking for work and took the position having been so desperate to get some experience. I interned for six months before the practice employed me as an Architectural Assistant for another six months but then had to let me go due to financial difficulties. One of the directors at the practice helped me to get work at Burrell Foley Fischer, where she had worked early on in her career.

Burrell Foley Fisher took me on and provided some great opportunities and experience - I ended up staying there for six years. During that time, I worked on a number of cultural projects including several independent cinemas, Listed buildings and conservation projects. I was fortunate enough to gain experience across all RIBA work stages and returned to Kingston University to do my Part III having felt prepared by the experience I had gained. I qualified as an architect while working at BFF and the practice was instrumental in my professional development. They were really good at giving younger members of staff the opportunity to run projects which I personally found was a great tool for building confidence, resilience and problem-solving skills.

While doing my Part III, I reflected on my career progression to date, what it meant to be a professional and the social and ethical dimensions of architecture. I noticed that there fewer people from BAME backgrounds the further I progressed both as a student and in practice.

The numbers of architects from BAME background most certainly did not reflect the society we serve, and I wanted to do something about this. I became an advocate for EDI, initially through mentoring with the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust and at the University of East London where I did my Part II. I later became a member of the RIBA’s Expert Advisory Group on EDI, Architects for Change.

How did you hear about Fluid Mentoring?

At work, I had reached a stage where I wanted to progress to the next level in my career but didn’t know how to go about it and was finding it difficult. I came across Fluid Mentoring in 2018 through two friends who were mentors on the programme, Yemi Aladerun and Tara Gbolade. I’d also heard about Fluid at the RIBA through Dieter Bentley-Gockmann, a director at EPR, who was also a mentor on the programme and a member of Architects for Change. I was drawn to the programme because I was at a crossroad in my career and saw the programme as an opportunity to strategize and take action towards career progression. Having been a mentor at The Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust and at UEL, I also wanted to use the opportunity to experience the conversation from a mentee’s perspective, with a view to sharpening my skills as a mentor. 

When applying to be a mentee on the programme, I remember filling out the questionnaire and thinking carefully about the question ‘would I prefer a mentor from the same ethnic background as me?’ I thought long and hard about my answer and although I had experienced a lack of BAME role models to aspire to in the profession, I concluded that the same ethnic background wasn’t necessarily the most important thing for me. What was more important, was having a mentor in a senior position who could share how they got through their journey and overcame challenges.

Coincidentally, I was paired with Dieter. On the face of it, this wasn’t a conventional pairing, but he too was part of an underrepresented group in the industry and experienced having to overcome challenges as a gay man working in the built environment. He has challenged, guided and supported me on my journey and provided insight into how he progressed through his journey. \

How has the Fluid programme impacted you?

I’ve found my mentoring experience with Dieter extremely valuable. His guidance and support of my aspirations for career progression have helped me to move forward. Dieter engaged in conversations about my motivations for career progression and constantly challenged me to think about these in relation to my aspirations.

We spoke openly about money as a motivator and Dieter encouraged me not to be embarrassed about it if that was an important factor for me, which it was. We also spoke about my other interlinked motivations which were wanting to have a family and maintain a healthy work/life balance – subjects which are often not spoken about and almost considered taboo in the industry. A great deal of our mentoring sessions discussed road-mapping my route to progression.

We explored where I wanted to be in 5, 10, and 20 years’ time, as well as at the end of my career and looked at planning how I would get there. I found this massively helpful as a process. Planning for my aspirations made them far more tangible. These conversations allowed me to identify gaps in my knowledge/experience and address how to fill them. Conversely, these conversations also allow me to explore and identify what my unique skill sets were and how I could use these as a tool to leverage progression. 

It was around this time that I heard about Public Practice, an organisation that works to improve the quality and equality of everyday places and to build the public sector’s capacity to pro-actively plan. They pair built environment professionals who have specific skill sets with Local Authorities that are looking to recruit and have a need for that skill set. My work with Dieter on my unique skill sets was extremely useful as the Public Practice application process involved demonstrating your skills with a view to being matched to a Local Authority. 

I was fortunate enough to get a place as a Public Practice Associate and was paired with the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea as a Senior Urban Design Officer. Three quarters of the borough is in a Conservation Area, and they have an agenda for growth whilst maintaining high quality, sustainable design. My experience working on conservation projects and as a Project Architect at BFF has put me in good stead for the role and I am currently enjoying the slight change in direction of working in the public sector and the differing challenges and perspectives that this comes with.

Dieter and I have kept in touch beyond our mentoring relationship and I will forever be indebted to him and the Fluid programme for the support provided at a crucial point in my career.

Do I think others should get involved in Fluid? 

I absolutely do! Mentoring is massively important for knowledge sharing and helping people navigate their career paths. Particularly as the construction industry is not very diverse, the Fluid programme provides an opportunity to have important conversations about your career with mentors you can relate and/or aspire to. This can be difficult to gain access to, particularly if you are from an under-represented group. When you’re working in practice, mentoring tends to happen informally, but can be difficult to gain access to If you’re from an underrepresented group, as those in senior positions are often drawn to people that they see themselves in.

The fact that the Fluid programme formalises mentoring and provides excellent mentors, allows mentoring to be accessible to a wide range of individuals which is just fantastic.

I remember speaking to a Director at Public Practice who has a background in tech and she mentioned that having two or three mentors was common practice in this industry. I feel that this is a culture we need to encourage and promote in the built environment.

I would highly recommend the Fluid programme and encourage anyone thinking of joining as a mentor or a mentee to get involved. You will get so much out of it either way.