The Elephant Campaign

The London Festival of Architecture is launching a major new campaign that tackles discriminatory behaviour in the built environment and encourages industry leaders to commit to positive change. Running throughout the year and launching ahead of the gathering of industry leaders at the international MIPIM property event, the campaign calls on the built environment profession to acknowledge that discriminatory behaviour exists and to pledge positive actions to stamp out that behaviour for good.

The campaign is being spearheaded by Tamsie Thomson, Director of the London Festival of Architecture. Her tweet of women dressed as Las Vegas showgirls to sell building products during UK Construction Week in October 2017 first drew attention to some of the discriminatory and exploitative behaviour that still prevails in the construction industry. More recently, the dominance of property professionals at the now notorious male-only Presidents’ Club dinner brought the industry’s problems into yet sharper focus. The normalisation of objectification and exploitation that still persists goes some way to explain the troubling statistic – revealed recently by The Architects’ Journal – that one in seven women architects have experienced sexual harassment.

Conceiving the industry’s problem as an elephant in the room that continues to be ignored by some – and an identity crisis harming the built environment profession – the London Festival of Architecture’s Elephant Campaign aims to challenge outdated attitudes and ensure that the property industry is safe and welcoming for everyone.

By signing up to the London Festival of Architecture’s Elephant Campaign, industry leaders pledge to acknowledge the industry’s problem and take action that recognises:

• Those already at the top should recognise the influence they have in creating a culture and lead by example.
• Everybody needs to acknowledge that discriminatory behaviour and attitudes remain a problem within the built environment profession
• Everybody needs to feel safe in calling out inappropriate behaviour
• Everybody needs to offer unequivocal support to any colleague if they call out inappropriate behaviour wherever they encounter it.

Show your support with the twitter and instagram hashtag  #SeeTheElephant – where you can also share your sketch of an elephant, as many others have done here.

You can let us know you support the campaign by filling in this form and we’ll list you below. 

Supporters so far include:

ING Media; Goodfellow Communications; Chris Dyson Architects; Bell Phillips Architects; bptw partnership; Cottrell and Vermeulen Architecture; Sarah Wigglesworth Architects, IF_DO;  StructureMode;  Mulroy Architects; Kingston Smith; Hamson Barron Smith; Emrys; Finkernagel Ross; Spheron Architects; Hudson Architects; Jonathan Clark Architects, Carl Turner Architects, New London Architecture, Child Graddon Lewis; Threefold Architects; RCKa; Studio AVC; PiM.studio Architects; Brady Mallalieu Architects; Baynes and Mitchell Architects; Scenario Architecture; pH+; London First; Greater London Authority; Marks Barfield Architects; Feix&Merlin Architects; Mackay and Partners; Mattinson Partnership; Atomik Architecture; Duggan Morris Architects; MEMALONDON; Buckland Architecture; The London Stand at MIPIM; London Real Estate Forum; Levitt Bernstein; Proctor and Matthews Architects; Four Zero One; Warwick Estates Property Management Ltd; AreBe; AECOM; Indigo Planning; Denton Corker Marshall; Haptic Architects; Arney Fender Katsalidis; Emrys Architects; Urban Fabric Architects LLP; Penoyre & Prasad; Arrant Land; Native North Architects; Mæ; ZCD Architects; White Label Creative; PUBLIC PRACTICE; Office Sian Architecture + Design; Birgit Schmoltner Communications; BUJ Architects; Nick Willson Architects; Free:; Nick Willson Architects; The City Centre; Conisbee; Bionic City; Constructure Ltd; Marble Arch London BID; Atomik Architecture; Erect Architecture; Wates Group; Coffey Architects; Pegasus Group; The [204] Design Collective; Concrete Communications; Pi; Pipers Model Makers; Perkins+Will; Ben Adams Architects; White Arkitekter; LDA Design; GVA; Faulknerbrowns Architects; MIPIM; Inter Urban Studios; LTS Architects; Amos Goldreich Architecture; Whiston Solutions Ltd; SAY Property Consulting LLP; AHAUS arquitectos; CREOpoint; Teresa Stillebacher; AJ Architects; BDP; Moore Stephens LLP; Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios; Historic England; Reiach and Hall Architects; Exterior Architecture Ltd; LIV Consult; Marchini Curran Associates; Neu Architects; Knight Architects; Donald Insall Associates; PropList Ltd; BuroHappold Engineering; Formation Architects; InsideOut; MSMR Architects; John Robertson Architects; dlg Architects; Arcadis UK; APAM; Robert Bird Group; Urben; St. Modwen Properties PLC; Morph Structures; Innesco Ltd; Gleeds; St. Modwen Homes; The Equilibrium Network; Colander Associates Ltd; ArchitecturePLB; Ayre Chamberlain Gaunt; Vinci Construction Uk; SODA; Pinnacle Group; Barr Gazetas; Ramboll; Design Engine Architects; 39 Essex Chambers; Cornerstone Assets; Quinn Architects; Meinhardt; Crossrail Ltd; Studio Gil; Archio; Benedetti Architects; AFL Architects; Build4NG – Build For Next Generation; Built by Both; Hue Design Laboratory; Glenn Howells Architects; Halogen; PRP; Wates Residential; Heyne Tillett Steel; OBRC; Simone de Gale Architects; dMFK Architects; Wates Group; Hill; Grimshaw; HUT Architecture; London; Borough of Sutton; Symmetrys Structural & Civil Engineers; Brian O’Reilly Architects ; CallisonRTKL; Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners; Aros Architects; Collyer Bristow LLP; Poliform uk; London Communications Agency; Elliott Wood ; MorenoMasey Ltd; Fathom Architects