Legacy Of Stephen's Dream Has Inspired Others

By Afua Hirsch, Social Affairs and Education Correspondent

Young architect Joseph Conteh knows good things can come from tragedy.

He is among 10 fully qualified architects who may not have been able to pursue the profession had it not been for the help of the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust.

As undergraduate students, they received bursaries which enabled them to continue their studies.

"During my second year of undergraduate studies, I had some financial difficulties and I had to take a year out to raise some funds," Mr Conteh, 37, explains.

Joseph Conteh was one of the first recipents of the charitable trust

"I would not have been able to continue my final year studies, just to know financially I had some support, that meant I could focus.

"I did one of my best projects that year, which was presented to the head of the school."

Mr Conteh is one of more than 100 student architects helped by the trust, which was founded in 1998 by Stephen Lawrence's mother Baroness Doreen Lawrence.

Baroness Lawrence (centre) founded the trust sixteen years ago

As she marks the day that Stephen would have had his 40th birthday, she says helping other young people from minority backgrounds into architecture - a profession Stephen one day dreamed of entering - has helped her cope with the loss of her son.

"I've had to take solace in the fact that a lot of the [students] who have graduated represented Stephen in some way, they have managed to fulfill their dreams," said Baroness Lawrence.

"I'm really pleased that I have been a part of it. I've been a part of helping them to fulfil their goals in life."

Baroness Lawrence said she was driven to start the trust as a way of helping more minority students gain access to architecture because of the lack of diversity in the profession and its professional body, the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).

Stephen, 18, was stabbed to death by a gang of white youths in 1993

"Until Stephen's name became so prominent, I don't think anybody would ever know who [the RIBA] are," said Baroness Lawrence.

"They themselves wouldn't start looking at themselves and say how can we open up and include a lot more people of colour."

Figures from the Architects Registration Board show that 9.5% of those joining the register in the last year were from a minority group.

One renowned black architect, David Adjaye, who designed the Stephen Lawrence Centre, where the trust is based in southeast London, says the legacy of Stephen's dream has inspired other architects.

The Stephen Lawrence Centre, designed by David Adjaye

"It touched me that Stephen, a young boy who had not been traditionally seen as the type of person who would want to get into that, was really interested in that," said Mr Adjaye.

"This young boy wanted to be an architect, how great, that could have been me, that was me, that was a lot of my friends I know."

:: On Tuesday, September 16, Mr Adjaye, OBE, will give the annual Stephen Lawrence Memorial Lecture at the Royal Institute of British Architects.

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