Hundertwasser’s home in the Kaurinui Valley, located just 20 minutes north of Kawakawa and less than a three-hour drive from Auckland, is to be the only one of his homes around the world that is open to the public. I was given a tour by volunteers from Living Hundertwasser, including Richard Smart, who worked closely with Hundertwasser for eight years and now represents the non-profit Hundertwasser Foundation in New Zealand. Born Friedrich Stowasser in Austria in 1928, Hundertwasser was a world-famous painter and architect, renowned for his radical views and eccentric approach to design. His childhood, marked by the devastations of World War II, led him to find solace in painting alternative worlds filled with nature, vibrant colours and abstract forms that would later influence the trajectory of his environmentalism and architecture.1 The Eyeslit, Kaurinui, 2025.© Image:  Richard Smart In 1976, he settled in New Zealand, purchasing a dairy farm in the Kaurinui Valley with the intention of setting nature free.2 He did just that: over two decades planting 150,000 trees and widening the Kaurinui Stream that flows through the farm. His philosophy is embodied in every aspect of the property and, despite recent health-and-safety upgrades, Hundertwasser’s dwellings remain as he left them, down to his last shopping list and paintbrushes left on the table. The tour begins at the Eyeslit, a Hundertwasser design built after his death, replacing the old decaying farmhouse. Aligned with his distinctive style, it features vibrant pink walls, colourful mosaics and columns reminiscent of his iconic Kawakawa toilets. The Eyeslit serves as a communal space for a pre-tour introduction to Hundertwasser and his legacy that lives on in Kaurinui. The Bottlehaus, Kaurinui.©  Image:  Richard Smart The tour continues through four of his six idiosyncratic dwellings scattered throughout the property, each reflecting his ecological philosophies. The next stop is The Boatshed, a gabled timber building, home to his boat, La Giudecca. Across a bridge over the Kaurinui Stream is The Cave, a space dug into the hillside, containing a bench and hundreds of wētā. Returning over the stream, we arrive at The Pigsty, Hundertwasser’s primary dwelling, which, true to its name, is a former pigsty converted into a habitable space. Inside, a hallway stretches the length of the home, with the kitchen, dining and living room, and a combined bedroom and bathroom branching off. It is built from recycled glass bottles and natural materials, such as earth bricks and logs laid on their sides, extending from inside to outside, mortared in place with a lime, cement and sawdust mixture. With its spontaneously vegetated green roof, felled tree trunk columns and uneven interior floors, the dwelling echoes his philosophy that buildings, like human skin, should grow and wrinkle over time, evolving alongside nature.3 Mountain Hut, Kaurinui, 1994/95.©  Image:  Richard Smart The Bottlehaus, originally the farm’s milking shed, is Hundertwasser’s other main residence. The interior is filled with natural light from the polycarbonate skylight and bottle walls, providing perfect conditions for painting. Not yet included in the tour because of their distance are the Railway Hut and Mountain Hut. Smart recounts how he and his children would hike up to the Mountain Hut, spending the night in the home, built three-quarters underground. The walls and floor are clay earth and the roof, covered in wild greenery, sits just above the ground’s surface. Hundertwasser’s alignment with Māori culture is reflected throughout his homes; adorning the walls are timber-carved tiki and the koru flag he designed for New Zealand, symbolising a unified national identity. Hundertwasser was inherently nomadic, moving between buildings based on their various functions, inadvertently resembling the organisation of customary Māori papakāinga settlements, where buildings serve distinct purposes. Māori would move between kāinga seasonally, leaving structures built from natural materials to decay and return to the earth. At the tour’s final stop, the Exhibition Building, a letter from Hundertwasser’s friend A. D. Fagan in 1974 describes him as a guardian of the land, a sentiment akin to Māori identification as kaitiaki – guardians of the whenua. Before his death, Hundertwasser expressed his desire for Māori artists to have equal opportunities in New Zealand. This wish was realised in the Whangārei Hundertwasser Art Centre and Wairau Māori Art Gallery, completed in 2022.4 Throughout the property, Hundertwasser’s interventions – from a waterwheel and outdoor bath to timber plank bridges and ladders feeding into ponds – speak to a lifestyle that reinforces his commitment to living in harmony with nature. In contrast to his bold European architecture, Hundertwasser’s New Zealand home is more subdued and organic, blending seamlessly into the forest, indistinguishable from the natural environment. As Living Hundertwasser volunteer Clive Jackson explains, “He wanted to let the colours of nature speak.” He allowed nature to exist in its most wild and natural state, supporting his 1983 Peace Treaty with Nature, where he asserted that humanity must put itself behind ecological barriers so the earth can regenerate.5 As an example, he considered trees to be fellow ‘tenants’ on the property, who ‘paid rent’ through their provision of oxygen, beauty and joy.6 Hundertwasser died in 2000 and, at his own request, was buried under a tulip tree at Kaurinui, his body returning to the earth to nourish the ‘tree tenant’. This final act encapsulates his lifelong philosophy of humanity in harmony with nature and, as such, he lives on through the property. Hundertwasser famously stated, “We are only guests of nature and must behave accordingly. Man is the most dangerous pest ever to devastate the earth.”7 In a world where modern architecture is disrupting the natural environment and climate, Kaurinui offers a blueprint for a return to ‘original nature’ – a more sustainable, symbiotic relationship with the earth, and one that resonates with our country’s indigenous identity and the role we must assume as kaitiaki, guardians, of the natural world. REFERENCES 1 Nir Barak, 2022, ‘Friedensreich Hundertwasser (1928–2000)’, The Architectural Review, 18 October 2022. 2 Andreas J. Hirsch, 2022, ‘Hundertwasser’s “Five Skins” Unfold’, in Hundertwasser in New Zealand: The Art of Creating Paradise. Auckland: Oratia Books, p. 72. 3 Wieland Schmied, 2007, For a More Human Architecture in Harmony with Nature: Hundertwasser Architecture. Köln: Taschen, p. 259. 4 Cooperation Agreement 2016, p. 24. 5 Friedensreich Hundertwasser, 1983, Peace Treaty with Nature, Hundertwasser Foundation. hundertwasser.com/en/texts/friedensvertrag_mit_der_natur 6 Wieland Schmied, 2007, For a More Human Architecture in Harmony with Nature: Hundertwasser Architecture, p. 86. 7 Hundertwasser Foundation. 2016. Hundertwasser Architektur & Philosophie. Germany: Wörner Verlag GmbH, p. 30.

The Architects Registration Board (ARB) has published its new equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) strategy for 2025 to 2027, outlining a plan that seeks to improve access to the profession and raise standards around workplace culture and conduct. The strategy sets out four headline goals. The first two are focused on ARB’s regulatory remit: becoming a more inclusive organisation and increasing access to the register for underrepresented groups. The other two seek to support sector-wide change through collaboration, aiming to create more inclusive workplace cultures and end discrimination and sexual harassment in the profession. According to ARB, the architects register does not yet reflect the diversity of the society it is meant to serve. The new EDI strategy was developed with support from Purpose Union, a consultancy specialising in social impact. The process included a review of ARB’s legal remit, as well as its internal policies and procedures, and an analysis of best practice from other organisations. Purpose Union also held detailed consultations with key stakeholders, including the RIBA. The strategy is further informed by ARB-commissioned research into professional culture and misconduct in architecture, carried out by Thinks Insight & Strategy. Source: ARBAlan Kershaw, chair of the ARB board ARB chair Alan Kershaw said: “This strategy is a bold step toward building a profession that truly reflects the diversity of our society, and a profession where talent and ability, not background or circumstance, determine success.” He added that ARB was already acting on a number of the commitments set out in the document. One of the first steps in the plan is a new research project to find out whether ARB’s recent changes to architectural education are helping more people enter the profession. The education changes removed the need to follow the traditional three-part qualification route and are intended to make it easier for people to qualify through different types of courses and career paths. Other planned steps include more data collection on student demographics and attrition, a new survey of registered architects, and the development of an online resource hub to support those experiencing discrimination. ARB also intends to strengthen guidance through its Code of Conduct and convene a senior leaders’ taskforce to promote greater diversity in decision-making roles. While some goals fall within ARB’s direct powers, the regulator acknowledges that others require broader collaboration across the sector. The strategy states that progress will depend on engagement from architectural practices, educational institutions and professional bodies such as RIBA. Implementation of the strategy is set to begin in 2025. ARB said it does not expect all goals to be achieved within three years, but described the plan as a long-term commitment to reducing barriers to entry and progression across the profession.

Bella Ramsey and Pedro Pascal in "The Last of Us." Credit: Liane Hentscher / HBO If you thought the death of Joel (Pedro Pascal) would be the most heartbreaking part of The Last of UsThat honor falls to Season 2, episode 6, a flashback episode all about Joel and Ellie's (Bella Ramsey) years in Jackson — and why they grew apart.The episode's heartbreak comes in waves. Early sequences of Joel and Ellie's happiest memories become tragically bittersweet with the knowledge of what's to come. And of course, watching the two fall out is a surefire recipe for sadness. By the end of the hour, your eyes will be damp and your heart will have shattered into a million tiny pieces. But hey, at least we got Joel back for a bit!Here, in chronological order, is every time The Last of Us Season 2, episode 6 broke our hearts. When young Joel's father gets vulnerable about parenting.Episode 6 opens with a flashback to Austin in 1983, when young Joel (Andrew Diaz) tries to protect Tommy (David Miranda) from a beating from their father (Tony Dalton). But instead of physically punishing either of his sons, Joel's father decides to tell him about the warped blueprint of fatherhood he inherited from his own abusive dad, and how he hopes to improve upon it, bit by bit. "I'm doing a little better than my father did," he tells Joel. "When it's your turn, I hope you do a little better than me."That line proves to be the thesis of the episode, with Joel trying to do a little better than his own father during his time with Ellie. Knowing how limited that time is — and how the two ended things — kickstarts episode 6's heartache. And guess what? It's not about to let up anytime soon. When the opening credits change to bring back Joel.After Joel's death, The Last of Us' opening credits made a devastating change. Instead of ending on the image of two fungal silhouettes, meant to represent Ellie and Joel, they ended with just the Ellie silhouette, highlighting her new loneliness. In episode 6, however, the Joel silhouette is back! It's both a welcome return and a reminder that we're on borrowed time with this pair. Who knew a shadow of a fungus could make me so emotional?When Joel sings "Future Days" to Ellie. Bella Ramsey and Pedro Pascal in "The Last of Us." Credit: Liane Hentscher / HBO So many elements of Ellie's 15th birthday tug at the heartstrings, from Joel's reaction to her burning her arm to hide her bite mark to him customizing a guitar for her. But the moment that opens the floodgates is undoubtedly Joel's rendition of Pearl Jam's "Future Days" (teased by Ellie herself back in episode 5).The song's lyrics — "If I ever were to lose you / I'd surely lose myself" — are a resounding reminder of how much Ellie and Joel have come to mean to each other. (It's also a dark portent of how Ellie may be losing herself on her revenge quest.) But the performance is also a payoff of a story thread from all the way back in Season 1, when Ellie asked Joel to sing for her and teach her to play guitar. Well, it's finally happened, and I wouldn't blame you for getting teary-eyed. When Joel and Ellie visit the museum. Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey in "The Last of Us." Credit: Liane Hentscher / HBO After a full season and a half of watching Joel and Ellie run from Infected and human enemies alike (and in Joel's case, you know, dying), any scene where these two can just relax and enjoy themselves is a blessing. And what a blessing Ellie's 16th birthday is!Joel brings Ellie to a museum, where she spends the day clambering on dinosaur statues and blasting off to space in an old capsule. In one of the season's most poignant moments, her imagined space flight becomes reality, with the light of the real world fading around her until she's drifting in the dark void of space.The entire sequence is Joel and Ellie at their happiest. She gets to actually be a kid for once, and Joel revels in her joy, knowing he's doing a good job as a father.Of course, the scene also serves as the calm before the storm. Ellie's insistence that she goes on patrol is a reminder of the dangers Jackson faces, as well as the fateful patrol that will one day rip Joel from her forever. For now, though, we get to enjoy Joel in dad mode, attempting to give Ellie "the talk," all while being clueless about her sexuality. Talk about bittersweet.When Ellie moves out of their house.If Ellie's 16th birthday celebration is Joel's dream, then her 17th birthday is his nightmare. He walks in on her smoking pot, getting a tattoo, and hooking up with Kat (Noah Lamanna). "All the teenage shit all at once," as he puts it. Mashable Top Stories Stay connected with the hottest stories of the day and the latest entertainment news. Sign up for Mashable's Top Stories newsletter By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up! While Joel's exasperated dad act seems funny at first — what's worse, dodging Clickers or teenage rebellion? — it moves into upsetting territory pretty fast. Dismissing Ellie's relationship with Kat as an "experiment" is awful, plain and simple, as is his assertion that Ellie isn't currently herself. No wonder Ellie wants to move into the garage: Having her own father figure refute her identity like that marks a major blow to their bond.Thankfully, Joel recognizes the error of his ways and tries to help by giving Ellie more space, but this fight and subsequent move mark the beginning of the end for Joel and Ellie. You want to grab them through the screen and yell at them to communicate with each other, that they only have a few years left. Instead, all you can do is watch the tragedy snowball.When we learn what Ellie's moth tattoo means. Bella Ramsey and Pedro Pascal in "The Last of Us." Credit: Liane Hentscher / HBO One of Joel's attempts to bond with Ellie post-fight is to ask her about her moth tattoo. It echoes her drawings, which he used as inspiration when decorating her guitar. Ellie says she chose the moths because of what they represent in dreams. Joel mistakenly believes they're symbols for change and metamorphosis, but therapist Gail (Catherine O'Hara) reveals the truth: They represent death.That means Ellie has been carrying around the deaths of everyone she's lost, like Riley (Storm Reid), her mother (Ashley Johnson), and more. As seemingly the only person in the world who's immune to Cordyceps, there's also a layer of survivor's guilt here. Ellie's surrounded by death, yet protected from it too. That's a crushing burden to bear, one that's defined her entire coming-of-age — and one that Joel will never truly understand.When Ellie questions what happened in Salt Lake City. Bella Ramsey in "The Last of Us." Credit: Liane Hentscher / HBO On Ellie's 19th birthday, she gets what she's wanted since moving to Jackson: to go on patrol with Joel. But now, she wants something else, too: answers about what really happened in Salt Lake City at the end of Season 1.Before she and Joel head out to patrol, she sits in her room, rehearsing questions she has about Salt Lake City. "If the Fireflies spotted us a mile from the hospital, how did they get surprised by an entire group of raiders?" she wonders. "If the raiders could kill all those soldiers and Marlene, and you had to carry me the whole time, how did we get away?"These brief moments signal how much Ellie has replayed that pivotal day, how these discrepancies have been eating at her for years. Deep down, she knows that Joel lied to her. Perhaps that subconscious knowledge influenced her need for space from Joel, further widening the rift between them that Joel may have just attributed to teenage rebellion. Based on episode 1, we know that that rift is about to get a whole lot wider, so the inclusion of Ellie's questions here suggests the other shoe is about to drop.When we finally learn what happened with Eugene. Joe Pantoliano in "The Last of Us." Credit: Liane Hentscher / HBO This is the big one, folks. Ever since episode 1, The Last of Us has been talking about Joel killing Gail's husband Eugene (Joe Pantoliano). Now, we finally get to see it play out.Eugene is marked for death from the moment he gets infected on patrol. He accepts that, but man, do his final moments sting. It all starts when Ellie insists that Eugene has enough time to make it back to Jackson and say goodbye to Gail before he fully turns, and she makes Joel promise that he'll help. But Joel, thinking to protect Ellie and Jackson, goes back on his promise and shoots Eugene anyway. It's a brutal betrayal not just of Eugene, who gets a few seconds of false hope before reality sets in, but also of Ellie, who realizes that Joel's promise mirrors the very promise he made to her after the events of Salt Lake City. Related Stories "You swore," she says, all the weight of years of pain and questioning coming through in just two words.Ellie's discovery of Joel's lie plays out differently in the show than in the game, where Eugene is already dead from a stroke. Still, watching her put the pieces together — and watching Joel betray her even after their relationship seemed to be tentatively mending — is nothing less than devastating.When Joel and Ellie take steps towards healing in the porch scene.Up until now, episode 6 has revealed why Joel and Ellie aren't on speaking terms by the start of Season 2, as well as what happened with Eugene. There's only one major question left to answer: What happened the night before Joel's death to make Ellie say she and Joel were "better now"?The answer plays out in episode 6's gorgeous final scene, a continuation of the porch scene from episode 1. Here, The Last of Us reveals that Ellie didn't just turn in for the night after seeing Joel out on the porch. Instead, she came back to ask him, point blank, about what he did to the Fireflies. Her line of questioning serves as a direct parallel to Abby's (Kaitlyn Dever) interrogation of Joel right before his death: The two both know the role Joel played in the massacre, but they want to hear him confess it for himself.The conversation that follows is full of lines that double as gut punches. Upon learning that making a Cordyceps cure would have killed her, Ellie says, "Then I was supposed to die! That was my purpose. My life would've fucking mattered. But you took that from me, you took that from everyone."Joel's response? "Yes, and I'll pay the price." Little does he know he'll pay the ultimate price the very next day. In fact, the whole scene hurts even more knowing that the journey of forgiveness that Ellie hopes to embark on will be cut short in a matter of hours. Episode 6, you've already made me tear up several times before, but this might take the cake.Adding salt to the wound is one last callback to the Austin flashback. "If you should ever have [a child] of your own, well, then, I hope you do a little better than me," Joel tells Ellie. The line hits especially hard after Ellie's reaction to Dina's (Isabela Merced) pregnancy: "I'm gonna be a dad."With that, The Last of Us comes full circle, making episode 6 a stunning, heartbreaking story of parenthood — and a season highlight.New episodes of The Last of Us Season 2 premiere on HBO and HBO Max Sundays at 9 p.m. ET. Belen Edwards Entertainment Reporter Belen Edwards is an Entertainment Reporter at Mashable. She covers movies and TV with a focus on fantasy and science fiction, adaptations, animation, and more nerdy goodness.

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Among the persistent mysteries of the 2024 election is the roots of the modern political gender gap, particularly among young people. Though their final vote choices were a bit more nuanced than some pre-election polls suggested, young men and women, aged 18 to 29, had the largest divergence in their vote among the age groups. Gen Z men supported Donald Trump by 14 percentage points; Gen Z women supported Kamala Harris by 17 points, per one post-election analysis.Those dynamics, particularly the aggressive rightward shift of young men, have raised some interesting questions: What was driving this divide? Was something in particular moving young men to the right while pushing young women to the left? Could it be the manosphere, economics, or old-school sexism?Or could it be something else, like the apparent resurgence of organized religion?As I’ve reported, the rapid decline of religiosity within the United States has been slowing down over recent years. Particularly since the pandemic, data shows Gen Z is no longer continuing the rapid decline in religious affiliation, particularly Christianity, that started with previous generations. If anything, religious belief has seen a small revival with that youngest cohort.That shift suggests a curious dynamic at play among America’s youth. As Gen Z has been getting more politically polarized along gendered lines, so too has their religious affiliation. Those trends suggest that modern politics and religious beliefs may be having a bit of self-reinforcing effect on each other: As young men find faith and religious belonging, their politics are drifting to the right too, in turn reinforcing their existing beliefs.The opposite seems to be true with young women: Religious customs are not jibing with their political and social beliefs, pushing them out of churches, and reinforcing that drift away from some organized religions.Those religious trends matter. As religious and political beliefs of young men and women move away from each other, it stands to complicate not just electoral choices, but the future of family life, dating, and social belonging.The religious gender gap is changing The last 10 years have seen American Christianity bottom out. After a steady decline in Christian religiosity since the 1990s, Christian belief began to stabilize at around 60 percent of the American adult population — still a historic low point — sometime around the turn of the 2020s.A key contributor to this slow-down appears to be Gen Z. After years of successive generations losing their religion, Gen Z seemed to get as irreligious as it could be. Now, what we’ve seen since 2020 is a kind of dead cat bounce: a slightly higher level of Christian religious affiliation among the youngest adults. Among the youngest cohort of Gen Z, those born between 2000 and 2006, the share who identify as Christian has increased since 2023, from 45 percent to 51, per the Pew Research Center. And overall, Gen Z seems to be more Christian than past trend lines predicted they should be: at 46 percent compared to a projected 41 percent. At the heart of that halt and slight reversal is a dual dynamic: Young women are leaving religious congregations, while young men’s religious identification and practice rises. These changes come across in a few ways. First, the gender gap in religious participation has not just evaporated in recent years, but reversed. The religious researcher and data scientist Ryan Burge has found in his analysis of survey data from the Cooperative Election Study that while women used to attend religious services more regularly than men, the reverse is now happening. Among the cohort born in the 1990s and 2000, it’s men who are now outpacing women in weekly attendance.Looking at other reference points suggests something similar. Young women are more likely than young men to say they are religiously unaffiliated, according to the American Enterprise Institute’s Survey Center on American Life research. Young women are now as likely as young men to say religion is “not that important” to them — a significant development since women have traditionally been more fervent believers. And the religious gender gap among the youngest cohort appears to be narrowing in other ways, too: Regardless of which religion they identify with, young women and young men report about the same rates of daily prayer. For older generations, women greatly outpace men in praying daily.Is religion making men more conservative? We could still stand to get better data about what is happening. It could be that young men simply remain as religious as older generations of men are (while women lose religion), or that men are getting more religious in general, or that men are particularly loyal to organized religion. Some data suggest young women remain religious or spiritual but just don’t identify with organized churches in the same way men do. But the religious gender gap still appears to be changing among Gen Z.But is politics driving these changes in religious behavior and belief? Or is religion driving stronger political beliefs? The data is a little less definitive here, but two things seem to bear out: According to AEI’s Survey Center, young women who are leaving churches report doing so because their congregations’ beliefs are more conservative than the beliefs they hold. Churches are out of step with where most young women are. Additionally, young Christian women who remain in their churches are still more likely to be liberal and hold progressive beliefs than young Christian men. Even as they remain Christians, they are becoming more politically liberal.Underlying all of this is the fact that Gen Z women are more likely to identify as feminists, as LGBTQ, and as supportive of abortion rights. According to the Pew Religious Landscape Survey, young Christian women are 13 points more likely than young men to say that abortion should be legal. They are 18 points more likely to support gay marriage and 26 points more likely to accept LGBTQ people.As the researcher Daniel A. Cox of the AEI’s Survey Center points out, these are all shifts from what young Christians believed 10 years ago. “The gender gap in views of abortion has since quadrupled,” he notes in a recent analysis, but when it comes to views on homosexuality and gay marriage, it seems like young men have moved right. “Young Christian women have hardly changed their views over the last decade, while young men have become less supportive.”On a range of other views of government, political parties, and ideology in general, what’s happening with non-religious young people is also happening among believers. Young Christian women are much more liberal, and more likely to be Democrats, than young Christian men. Cox notes that it might not be religion making these political views so different but the degree to which young Christian women have more connections and exposure to diverse communities and are consuming different kinds of media. Religious young men seem to be stuck in more homogenous environments, both in the digital and in the real world, he suggests.Still, while we can confidently say young women are becoming more liberal and less religious in that process, we can’t say the same for men. Religion may or may not be making young men more conservative, but it does seem likely that their conservative religious and political beliefs are at least keeping young men in churches. It appears to be slowing down their drift away from organized religion.All of which stands to complicate the future of not just Gen Z’s social and cultural bonds to each other but also those of future generations. It’s the youngest cohort of Gen Z, those born between 2000 and 2006, that is narrowing religious gender gaps while widening political ones. That poses issues for their social, romantic, and familial futures. Gen Z already reports struggles with socializing, dating, maintaining healthy relationships, and combating loneliness. Marriage rates continue to fall. So as young men and women drift away from each other, it’s hard to see how prospective partners breach these divides. And these dynamics may very well end up having electoral effects.See More:

As part of proposals outlined by Keir Starmer on Monday (12 May), tougher entry requirements for students and workers would be introduced to reduce immigration. The immigration bill would raise entry requirements to degree level for workers entering the UK, introduce tougher English language requirements, and extend the period for claiming settled status from five to ten years. Universities will, meanwhile, have to score five percentage points more (rising from 90 to 95 per cent) on the Basic Compliance Assessment, which the home office uses to assess compliance with the immigration system. This could reduce the number of places on offer to overseas students.Advertisement Responding to the proposals, RIBA president Muyiwa Oki said immigration into the UK was crucial for filling the current skills gap in the housing sector given the government’s target to build 1.5 million homes in this parliament. He said: ‘The government’s decision to reduce the number of international workers and students comes at a time when they have ambitious plans to drive growth, including delivering 1.5 million new homes. ‘Architects are vital to achieving this, but the sector has a significant skills shortage. We need an immigration system that helps plug these gaps.’ The government’s reforms would abolish the immigration salary list, which put the minimum salary for a foreign worker visa at 80 per cent of the going rate for that profession. Architects were, controversially, among the sectors removed from the list designed to combat occupational shortages through worker visas. Until last year, the list had allowed firms to hire foreign workers in particular sectors on salaries 20 per cent less than the going rate. Oki added that, following the government’s drive to reduce immigration, more investment was needed in apprenticeships and non-traditional routes into the profession.Advertisement The RIBA has previously called on the government not to implement changes that could see practices pay more towards training Level 7 apprenticeships – the equivalent to a master’s degree. Oki commented: ‘We welcome the desire to nurture homegrown talent, and we continue to champion new and accessible routes into the profession, such as apprenticeships. But the potential of defunding Level 7 apprenticeships puts this at risk. We continue to work with the government to ensure a pipeline of talent in the architecture sector and drive growth across the country.’ The Chartered Institute of Architectural Technologists (CIAT) echoed the RIBA’s calls for investment in apprenticeships. CIAT president Eddie Weir said: ‘The UK’s built environment sector faces significant pressures at all levels. If we are to deliver the 1.5 million new homes that our communities need and ensure that our existing homes and buildings are healthy, sustainable and fit for the future, these pressures must be relieved.’ Weir warned the government not to limit skilled professionals where there are gaps in the market and added: ‘Government must also move ahead with reforming the apprenticeships system … At the same time, the industry still needs a steady supply of highly skilled professionals, particularly in building design and project management.’ Meanwhile, Building Cost Information Service (BCIS) chief economist David Crosthwaite compared the construction and health industries. He said both needed migrant workers when domestic supply fell short. ‘If the government is serious about delivering 1.5 million homes and boosting national infrastructure delivery, they must seek both short-term and long-term solutions,' he said. ‘In the meantime, it is critical that we can access migrant workers where there’s a clear economic need, or else risk stalling growth and delivery even further.’ The BCIS chief also called for a transitional arrangement before the introduction of the new immigration rules, and warned: ‘Tightening migration rules could increase costs, delay projects, and make it even harder to meet ambitious targets. Workforce decisions need to be grounded in long-term strategy, not short-term political pressure.’ Comment Paul Chappell, director, 9B Careers A government crackdown on immigration could seriously disrupt the architecture profession, affecting talent pipelines, creativity, and salary dynamics. The sector relies heavily on a diverse international workforce that brings essential skills in areas such as sustainable design, digital technologies and cultural placemaking. Tighter immigration controls risk shrinking the talent pool, making it harder for practices to fill key roles, and undermining the UK’s position as a global design hub, just as the industry appears to be recovering from a prolonged downturn. We've just experienced one of our busiest quarters in a decade, and many practices are urgently trying to recruit large teams without the time or capacity to sponsor visas. In this climate, reduced access to international talent is already driving up salaries, particularly for specialist and mid-level roles where skills shortages are acute. The days of receiving 500 applications for a single job are gone. Most of our time is now spent headhunting, which inevitably requires higher salary offers to entice candidates from secure positions. But this wage inflation is not sustainable, especially for smaller firms operating within tight fee constraints. Over time, we may see widening regional disparities, increased outsourcing and fewer opportunities for Part 1 graduates, who are already struggling to find meaningful year-out placements. Studios, sadly, often no longer have the time or money to support the next generation coming through. Restricting international students and early-career professionals also threatens the long-term health of the profession. Architecture thrives on openness, diversity, and the free exchange of ideas. Without that, we risk weakening both the profession and the quality of the built environment it shapes. Charlie Edmonds, Future Architects Front (FAF) Starmer's logic that we can replace international workers with greater investment in training for British nationals is, at best, naive and, at worst, intentionally furthering the managed decline of the social and physical infrastructure of the UK. The decision to massively restrict worker visas undermines Labour's promises to support the NHS and to bolter UK construction. Simultaneously, pay in these roles is notoriously low, public investment into these sectors is insufficient, and Labour seems to have to immediate intention of changing this. So the only result will be the increase of vacancies in vital sectors from care to construction. If Starmer was serious about the wellbeing of people living in the UK, regardless of nationality, the Labour party would be supporting dignified routes for immigration while simultaneously investing in UK skills and sectors — setting these outcomes in opposition to one another is not only a false dichotomy but lays the groundwork for continued destitution in the UK.