Elsie Owusu is a Ghana-born British architect, a founding member and the first chair of the Society of Black Architects. She is also known to have co-led the refurbishment of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom in 2009 and worked on

Green Park tube station Green Park is a London Underground station located on the edge of Green Park, with entrances on both sides of Piccadilly. It is served by the Jubilee, Piccadilly and Victoria lines. On the Jubilee line it is between Bond Street and Westminster ...

. She has been an elected

Royal Institute of British Architects The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three supp ...

(RIBA) Council member since 2014, and vice-chair of the London School of Architecture.

Education and career

Elsie Owusu was born in Ghana and in November 1953 moved with her parents to the UK, where her father was a diplomat in London. She attended

Streatham and Clapham High School Streatham & Clapham High School is an independent day school for girls aged 3 to 18, in south London. The school was founded in 1887 by the Girls' Day School Trust, Girls' Public Day School Company, which established schools for girls providin ...

in London. She has been working as an architect since 1986, founding her own architectural practice, Elsie Owusu Architects (EOA), of which she remains principal."RIBA Role Model: Elsie Owusu"
RIBA, Architecture.com, 1 June 2015. EOA has worked with artist Sir Peter Blake on the low energy house, 60 Aden Grove, that was assembled in three days. As executive architect for this project, EOA has also designed houses and apartments for the Ujima Housing Association. EOA is currently working in partnership with Symbiotica and NS Design Consultants on the living space of UK/Nigerian artist

Yinka Shonibare Yinka Shonibare (born 9 August 1962), is a British-Nigerian artist living in the United Kingdom. His work explores cultural identity, colonialism and post-colonialism within the contemporary context of globalisation. A hallmark of his art is t ...

. She was a partner for 10 years with Fielden+Mawson, where she was co-lead architect for the UK Supreme Court and the master planning team for London's Green Park Station. Owusu, in partnership with Fielden+Mawson, also oversaw the accommodation of the Lammas Centre for St. Bernard's Hospital. As a conservation architect, she has also worked on public transport and regeneration projects in Ghana and Nigeria. She is a director of the UK company JustGhana, which promotes investment, sustainable development and constructive social engagement in Ghana, as well as a director of ArchQuestra, "formed to provide the best of British architecture, art and engineering to support emerging economies". In 2015 she was one of 12 to be named a "RIBA role models" in support of inclusivity and diversity. She has been a board member of organisations including Arts Council England, the National Trust of England, and the UK Supreme Court Arts Trust, as well as being a trustee of the Council of the

(RIBA) and of the

Architectural Association The Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, commonly referred to as the AA, is the oldest independent school of architecture in the UK and one of the most prestigious and competitive in the world. Its wide-ranging programme ...

."Elsie Owusu, Vice-Chair of the Trustee Board"
, The London School of Architecture. In 2017, to mark the 25th anniversary of the

murder of Stephen Lawrence Stephen Lawrence (13 September 1974 – 22 April 1993) was a black British teenager from Plumstead, southeast London, who was murdered in a racially motivated attack while waiting for a bus in Well Hall Road, Eltham on the evening of 22 Apri ...

, who had hoped to become an architect, Owusu launched, with the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust, the RIBA+25 campaign to boost diversity in architecture, a profession that was reported by ''

Architects' Journal ''Architects' Journal'' is an architectural magazine published in London by Metropolis International. History The first edition was produced in 1895. Originally named ''The Builder's Journal and Architectural Record'', from 1906 to 1910 it was ...

'' in 2015 to be "one of the least diverse in the UK, with 94 percent of architects defined as white", and only 4,000 of RIBA's 27,000 chartered architects being women. After the "+25" initiative, which received support from such colleagues as

David Adjaye Sir David Frank Adjaye (born 22 September 1966) is a Ghanaian-British architect. He is known for having designed many notable buildings around the world, including the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D. ...

Alison Brooks Alison Brooks, (born 29 December 1962) is a Canadian-British architect. She is the founder and creative director of Alison Brooks Architects, based in London. Her awards include the RIBA Stirling Prize, Manser Medal, Stephen Lawrence Prize, an ...

and Richard Rogers, Owusu was no longer the sole non-white member of the RIBA governing council but one of 12. In 2017 Owusu was announced as a candidate for the presidency of RIBA, nominated by more than 70 chartered architects including Sir

OBE, Owen Luder CBE, Deborah Saunt and Yasmin Shariff, and endorsed by Baroness Doreen Lawrence. Owusu has spoken out about issues around institutional racism and sexism within the architectural industry.

Awards

She was voted African Business Woman of the Year in 2014. She was appointed an OBE in the Queen's 2003 Birthday Honours list, and has said: "To my great pride my citation for my OBE was as chair of the Society of Black Architects. I am a campaigning architect. That’s what I do. It’s part of my architectural life." She has also been elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), also known as the Royal Society of Arts, is a London-based organisation committed to finding practical solutions to social challenges. The RSA acronym is used m ...

. Owusu received a Recognition Award at the 2017 Women4Africa Award.

References

External links

Elsie Owusu Architects
official website.
@elsie_owusu
Twitter. * Kelly L. Beamon
"Interview with RIBA President Candidate Elsie Owusu"
''Architectural Record'', 3 July 2018.
"RIBA Presidential Elections 2018 – Elsie Owusu"
Riba Architecture, YouTube video, 22 June 2018. {{DEFAULTSORT:Owusu, Elsie 20th-century British architects 21st-century British architects British women architects Ghanaian architects Living people Officers of the Order of the British Empire People educated at Streatham and Clapham High School Year of birth missing (living people) 20th-century Ghanaian women