How the power of mentoring can positively impact future architects

October 24, 2024

Dhruv Gulabchande, recently named one of the RIBA Journal’s Rising Stars for 2024 and a member of the London Architecture Festival 2025 curatorial panel, is the founder and driving force behind the non-profit mentoring community, Narrative Practice.

And, with National Mentoring Day just a matter of days away (Sunday, October 27), it’s the perfect opportunity to celebrate this impactful support system and the power it can have in shaping the lives of young architects in training.

How did Narrative Practice begin?

In the four and a half years since its inception – starting when Dhruv was considering how he could help young people during the COVID-19 pandemic – Narrative Practice has evolved considerably. From regular monthly sessions organized by its own London-based practice, it has now become a mentoring working group that partners with some of the capital’s biggest practices to support young architects from underrepresented backgrounds.

Over time, Dhruv has built a network of around 20 volunteer mentors (and friends) from large and small practices across London and reports that his community has engaged and helped around 740 mentees so far.

Raised in a diasporic family dependent on the welfare state, Dhruv overcame significant socioeconomic challenges to succeed in architecture. Despite growing up in council housing in Bradford, he moved to London in 2010 to study at university, supporting himself through undergraduate and postgraduate studies. He is now Associate Director of HFM Architects, based in Southwark, and Associate Professor of Technical Studies at UAL Central Saint Martins.

With parents of South Asian origin, raised in the Portuguese community of Mozambique, who arrived in the UK as asylum seekers via Lisbon, Dhruv explains that his approach to mentoring is rooted in his desire to provide the kind of personal development support that I wish it were available to him. while navigating multiple cultural identities.

“We’re trying to create the kind of opportunities I would like to have for people from different backgrounds,” he says. “Mentoring doesn’t have to be about race, gender or disability, but can also be for different socioeconomic backgrounds. Essentially, mentoring is working with like-minded mentors.”

How did the idea develop?

During the pandemic, while working full-time and teaching at a graduate design studio, her initial idea was to provide free one-on-one virtual mentoring to anyone around the world who felt isolated from their institutions. The initiative has reached Melbourne, Hong Kong, Syria, Barcelona, ​​Ireland, Texas, Calgary, Peru and the Maldives, to name just a few, in addition to workshops in Islamabad, as well as work with an RIBA-accredited School of Architecture in Bogotá .

Despite early success, Dhruv says it became clear that he could not personally answer all the questions or, in some cases, speak the necessary languages, which led to the first evolution of the Narrative Practice model – drawing on his immediate network to match mentees with mentors who could answer their specific questions.

As the pandemic dissipated, the need for local community building became much more apparent to Dhruv. When developing the in-person sessions in London, he applied a similar model of mentor-mentee choreography, introducing a booking system where mentees could share in advance what they hoped to gain from the sessions. His goal was to ensure that there was always a mentor to meet the needs of the mentee.

He recalls a PhD student who was looking to discuss “robotics in architecture in a future lifeworld” and was pleased to be able to say, “I know the person you should talk to.”

From late 2023, Narrative Practice began collaborating with some of London’s biggest practices to address issues of underrepresentation, working with companies such as AHMM, Fathom and Wilkinson Eyre and many more on joint mentoring events.

In its current format, a typical mentoring evening for 40 young people features a 10-table setup, with each mentee having a reserved 30-minute session with their mentor. In addition to these structured sessions, mentees can interact with other people in the room, including professionals from the fostering practice, creating “networking” informally and building connections between peers.

“I don’t think there’s any other long-term mentoring program in the UK other than ours where they help you find specific people you can talk to,” says Dhruv.

The natural progression of the program introduced workshops, talks and office visits designed to break down accessibility barriers often associated with broader practices, creating a more open and accessible environment for mentee engagement.

What happens in the sessions?

Practices already have their own internal mentoring structures, but continue to invite Narrative Practice to collaborate.

Why? Dhruv explains that it is proof of the distinctness of the sessions. Internal mentoring, no matter how well executed, typically focuses on team dynamics, project performance, and career development from a technical perspective.

Their sessions, however, go beyond these typical workplace conversations, focusing on personal circumstances and challenges that are often overlooked.

Whether it’s building confidence or addressing imposter syndrome in a profession often considered privileged, these sessions are centered on the individual. Mentors begin with questions about how the mentee is feeling and their self-perception – not as an employee, but as a person – before exploring the issues at hand. These open discussions are free from the usual constraints of project performance or employment-related issues, allowing for more meaningful and personal reflections – “simply, a supportive sounding board”.

“Our mentors tend to be from underrepresented communities,” he says. “In that sense, they are easy to relate to for our mentees. Most importantly, they can. By providing mentorship by like-minded people, we hope students will look up to them and look to their mentors as a path to success.”

What does the RIBA offer when it comes to mentoring?

The RIBA facilitates its own Future Architects mentoring scheme for architecture students every year, bringing practices into education to support the next generation. In 2023/24, 1,500 students from 45 RIBA-validated Schools of Architecture took part in its scheme, collaborating with 375 Chartered Practices.

This flexible program is a way to gain invaluable practical experience, providing students with a unique insight into the profession, as well as helping to build a network for the future.

For architects working within RIBA Chartered Practices, the Future Architects mentoring scheme is an opportunity to connect with RIBA Schools of Architecture and support architecture students in preparing for a life in architectural practice. By participating, they will also be eligible to record CPD points.

Read more about the Future Architects scheme and explore additional resources such as videos.

Thanks to Dhruv Gulabchande, founder of Narrative Practice and Associate Director of HFM Architects

Text by Neal Morris. This is a professional resource edited by the RIBA Practice team. Send us your comments and ideas.

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