The Empire Strikes Back: The Commonwealth Association of Architects Conferences, 1963-1983

In 1963 the Commonwealth Association of Architects (CAA) was founded as a liaison organization between various national architectural institutes throughout the English-speaking world. The CAA replaced the RIBA ‘Allied Societies’, which had emerged from the desire of British architects practising in colonial countries to adopt RIBA codes of conduct, ethics, and conditions of contract. At a conference held in London in July 1963, it was proposed that the ‘Allied Societies’ be replaced by a new association, the CAA, in which the RIBA would interact with other national architectural institutes ‘on a basis of equality’ rather than from a position of imperial paternalism.

In its first twenty years, the CAA was very active in organizing conferences. Following the inaugural CAA conference in Malta in June 1965, meetings were held in New Delhi (March 1967), Lagos (March 1969), Canberra (1971), Ottawa (November 1973), York (September 1976), Hong Kong (April 1979), Nairobi (October 1981), and Sydney (June 1983). Topics discussed at these conferences ranged from fee scales, registration, liability, and codes of conduct to the role and status of the architect in society. However, CAA conference records reveal that the aspired-to interaction ‘on a basis of equality’ was difficult to achieve because of the vestiges of imperialism and profound professional and institutional differences between the various national architectural institutes involved in the CAA. Furthermore, the association also had to contend with a rift between different factions: there were the ‘gentleman’ architects loyal to Victorian codes of conduct; ‘messiah’ architects dedicated to producing ‘shelter for mankind’; and ‘hired guns’ entrepreneur-architects who pursued profit at any cost. This paper will examine the nine CAA conferences held between 1965 and 1983 to better understand how professional ethics and identities were (re)defined across the Commonwealth at a time when decolonization, globalisation, and neo-liberalisation were on the rise.