‘We need more women in architecture’

Concorde may be the main attraction at Aerospace Bristol, but there are also rising stars behind the scenes who are making waves in industry.

Una Breathnach-Hifearnain, the lead architect on the ambitious project to convert a hanger on the former Filton Airfield into a museum of the city’s aviation history, won a national award for her detailed design and delivery.

Named as a 2017 Rising Star by the Royal Institute of British Architects Journal (RIBAJ), the 31-year-old is using her own success to highlight the need for more diversity in a sector that, she says, is still largely male-dominated.

Concorde moving into its new home

“I had a curiosity about how things were made when I was a child, so I was keen on building things,” she says, reminiscing on the beginning of a long journey to where she is today.

“I was quite good at maths, so always pushed towards those types of things. But I went to an all-girls school in my home town in Ireland. I could do art there, but not any technical drawings.

“When I had an interview with a careers guidance person, architecture was never mentioned, I guess because it’s not considered ‘very female’, so I started studying interior architecture.”

Úna on site during the creation of Aerospace Bristol

Fast forward to 2017 and Una sits with a pot of tea in a far corner of Society Café by the harbourside one winter morning. She is softly spoken and modest about her own achievements, while quietly determined to speak out and encourage more girls and people from low income families into architecture.

“I actually really wanted to be an architect,” she tells Bristol24/7. “I finished that degree at the top of my class and then went to work for a practice in my home town and they encouraged me to go back and study architecture.

“In Ireland, it was about 80 per cent men studying architecture, but that might not have been the case in England. I’m still the only person from my school to have become an architect.”

Concorde Alpha Foxtrot in place at the museum

The Redland resident, who speaks no less than three languages fluently and is half way through learning Japanese, was inundated with job offers across Europe after her graduation, and went on to take up an opportunity in the Cotswolds.

She had never set foot in Bristol before uprooting her life to move here, but says she doesn’t regret the decision for a second and, after securing a position with Bedminster Parade-based Purcell, her career has gone from strength to strength.

Una says: “Purcell were looking for someone good at new build design, but also with an eye for conservation. I went straight onto the Bristol Aerospace museum project. The initial tender had to be out two weeks after I started.”

Speaking about the sector in which she is fast carving a name for herself, she says: “Attitudes generally are still a little bit backwards – there is still the assumption if you go to a meeting with a male colleague that they are the lead.

“In practise, there are a lot more males than females who are actually architects and there is definitely a move needed to address that.

“It is changing though. The contractors I worked with on site at Aerospace were brilliant. Kier were really supportive and have a zero tolerance policy so everyone is respected. With those sites, things like cat calling and low level harassment just does not happen.

“And that company is the only one in which I see female operators.”

Concorde Alpha Foxtrot arrived at Filton following its final flight

Una believes greater diversity would improve the sector in the UK as a whole and, in order for this to happen, she says it needs to shed its elitist image and be presented to all young people as a possible career choice.

She adds that The Architecture Centre is doing a lot of positive work to inspire children in the city, but more needs to be done in general to help the industry move forwards.

Read more: How different would cities be if women built them?