Parlour shortlisted for RIBA President's Award for Research
The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) announced that the Parlour: Women, Equity, Architecture initiative has been shortlisted for the Outstanding University-located Research category of the President’s Awards for Research 2015.
A site for active exchange and discussion, Parlour brings together research, informed opinion and resources on women, equity and architecture in Australia. It seeks to expand the spaces and opportunities available to women while also revealing the many women who already contribute in diverse ways.
According to Parlour editor Justine Clark, the RIBA short listing provides further recognition of the initiative’s work in researching and advocating for gender equity in architecture.
“We have achieved a huge amount over the last three years. Being shortlisted for this award, on top of other recent successes, give us great confidence as we enter into out new phase as an incorporated association.”
The RIBA award nomination is for the ‘Parlour Guides to Equitable Practice’, which have been developed to help Australian architecture move towards a more equitable profession. They are also an important example of how a research project can have broad impact says Justine Clark.
“The Guides present important evidence back to the profession in the context of strategies for change. This work is unusual in its detailed attention to the mechanisms of the architectural workplace, and in its ambition to activate research findings as part of an explicit program for change within the profession,” she says.
The RIBA Awards champion high-quality research, raise the profile of architects and academics engaged in research and highlight the need for research across the profession to foster innovation and strategic thinking.
This year, for the first time, the winning entry across the four award category winners will be presented with a new Research Medal. The new design of the Research Medal will be determined by a two-stage competition.
Now an incorporated entity, Parlour was initiated as part of the Australian Research Council-funded research project ‘Equity and Diversity in the Australian Architecture Profession: Women, Work, and Leadership’. Led by Dr Naomi Stead of the University of Queensland, it involved Melbourne School of Design researchers Professor Julie Willis, Dr Karen Burns and Justine Clark.