Big Names Back the Bartlett

The Bartlett School of Architecture at University College London (UCL) is among the highest ranked schools of architecture in the world. Its reputation has come into dispute of late, however, following the release of a report summarizing the results of an independent investigation into decades of alleged abuses of its students. In response to the report, architecture’s Big Names have come out swinging. The report, produced by the investigative consultancy company Howlett Brown, found the school’s educational structures and culture had the “purpose and effect of creating a toxic and in parts, unsafe learning and working environment, where people have felt silenced, and in several instances deeply traumatized by their experiences.” Building on the cases of alleged abuse first documented in a dossier compiled by former Bartlett student Eleni Kyriacoua, Howlett Brown documented in an extensive survey of staff and students multiple complaints of bullying, intimidatory, racist, sexist, and class-discriminatory conduct at the school. One respondent notes that “the environme…