Ian Ritchie (architect)

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Professor Ian Ritchie CBE is a British architect. He was born in 1947 in Sussex.
After working with Norman Foster (197276), Ritchie spent two years in France
designing and constructing projects. In 1979 he founded Chrysalis Architects and also
worked at Arups Lightweight Structures Group in London. In 1981 he created Ian
Ritchie Architects in London, and co-founded the design engineering firm Rice
Francis Ritchie (RFR) with Peter Rice and Martin Francis in Paris. Before leaving
RFR in 1989, this practice had been responsible for major projects in Paris including
the Bioclimatic Faades at la Villette Cit des Sciences, and the Louvre Pyramids and
Sculpture Courts with I M Pei. Building Design has described him as "an architect
prepared to break with convention."[1]

Contents

1 Projects
2 Raising design quality in social housing and international design exchange
3 Raising government awareness that architecture is a cultural product
4 Environmentally intelligent design
5 Exhibitions and teaching
6 Current appointments
7 Awards
8 Lectures and Publications
9 Further reading
10 References

11 External links

Projects
His practices have helped realise many internationally renowned buildings including:
UK: Wood Lane Station, London; Royal Shakespeare Company Courtyard Theatre,[2]
[3]
Stratford Upon Avon; Plymouth Theatre Royal Production Centre (TR2), Plymouth;
[4]
International Regatta Centre, London Jubilee Line Extension, Bermondsey Station,
London

France: Electricit de France High Voltage Pylons; Terrasson Cultural Greenhouse,

Dordogne; Albert Cultural and Sports Centre, Somme
Spain: Reina Sofia Museum of Modern Art, Madrid
Germany: Leipzig International Exhibition Centre Glass Hall
Ireland: The Spire, Dublin [5]

Raising design quality in social housing and

international design exchange
In 1999, Ian Ritchie Architects designed and realised with Scottish Homes and
Thenew Housing Association innovative social housing in Glasgows East End.[6] The
project was monitored by Scottish Homes for the first three years of occupation.
In 2000, as founding CABE commissioner, Ian Ritchie established and chaired a
Housing Industry Research Group which included Peabody, Guinness, Rowntree,
Nationwide, Popular Housing Forum, FPD Savills, Arup, DETR, Bellway, Westbury,
Chelsfield and London Residential Research.
In 2000, Ian Ritchie, while a CABE Commissioner, initiated a cross-cultural exchange
between CABE and La Direction de lArchitecture et du Patrimoine (DAPA) to
explore how differences in design, financing, procurement and manufacture of social
housing could be used to benefit both the UK and French supply. A protocol was
signed between the two agencies and in autumn 2002, a social housing Design, R&D
and Construction programme of projects to be constructed in Paris and Snart,
London and the South East Region was officially launched. The first constructed
project is at Whitecity, London, designed by Cartwright Pickard (London) and BCD
Architectes (Paris).
From 1997 to 2003, Ian Ritchie was president of Europan UK (a pan European urban
and social housing biennial design competition for young architects). Since 2004 this
organisation has been managed by CABE.

Raising government awareness that architecture is a

cultural product
Working as Architectural Advisor to the Lord Chancellor (19992004), Ian Ritchie
had a central role in helping to formulate procurement and design quality policy
within the Lord Chancellors Department for all new court buildings. This includes
Magistrate, County, Crown and new Civil Justice Centres, including the award
winning Manchester CJC. Supported by the Lord Chancellor, the policy aim was to
establish the Lord Chancellors Department as an exemplar of design standards that
other Ministries would recognise and emulate.
Ian Ritchie has spoken at National and International conferences on current UK
mechanisms to improve the quality of our built environment.

Ian Ritchie was CABEs first Emeritus Commissioner representing CABE at

international seminars and conferences.

Environmentally intelligent design

Well before sustainability was on any government agenda, Ian Ritchie was lecturing
on the subject using his own projects as exemplars, beginning with low-cost, self
construct, passive and active solar energy housing (Fluy 1976, Eagle Rock house
1981)and a designed zero-energy cultural greenhouse (theatre/exhibition space),
France 1993.
Ian Ritchie also chaired the launch of the first major global book on sustainability,
Seymour, Girardet and Penneys Blueprint for A Green Planet, at The Ecology Centre,
London, 1987.
He has been lobbying since 1987 in Europe (ECTP), and UK Government, English
Heritage, and advising volume house Builders (Wimpey and Berkeley Homes).
Ian Ritchie has given many international keynote lectures since the mid-90s on a wide
range of topics, regularly encompassing an environmentally intelligent and ethical
approach to design in Europe, USA and China.

Exhibitions and teaching

Ian Ritchie was Special Professor at Leeds University School of Civil Engineering
(20012004) where he taught on the 4 year Masters Civil Engineering with
Architecture course. An ambition was to have the course recognised by the RIBA as
well as the Institution of Civil Engineers and The Institution of Structural Engineers.
He sat on Cambridge Universitys Advisory Committee for the postgraduate IDBE
Masters course in Interdisciplinary Design in the Built Environment (2001-2004).
He has been a member of the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 Built
Environment Panel since 2001 which selects and grants two-year research fellowships
on current urban issues; and the Design Fellowship Panel established in 2006.
He has represented The Architects Council of Europe on the European Construction
Technology Platform High Level Group setting the 2025 agenda for Built
Environment R&D.
Ian Ritchie has been visiting Professor of Architecture to Moscow State University,
Technical University Vienna and taught at the Architectural Association. He has been
external examiner for Oxford Brookes University and is currently Honorary Visiting
Professor at the University of Liverpool.
Ian Ritchie has also designed exhibitions for the Hayward Gallery and the Royal
Academy of Arts and conceived an exhibition for Gasometer GmbH.

The practices work has been exhibited extensively. UK venues include: Hayward
Gallery, Royal Academy of Arts, Tate Gallery; and internationally: Tokyo, New York,
Moscow, Germany, Paris Biennale, Venice Biennale.
Ritchies personal art work is in public collections at the Royal Academy of Arts,
National Museum Centro de Arte Reina Sofa; MAG Lodz and private collections.

Current appointments
Professor of Architecture, Royal Academy of Arts; Chairman, Royal Academy of Arts
Collections & Library Committee; Governor, Royal Shakespeare Company; Emeritus
Commissioner, CABE the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment;
Advisor to The Ove Arup Foundation; Advisor to the President of Columbia
University.
Ian Ritchie is frequently asked to chair national and international juries, including the
French Government Nouveaux Jeunes Albums (2004), France, the RIBA Stirling
Awards (2006), and the RIAS Doolan Awards (2009).[7]

Awards
International and national architectural awards: Ian Ritchie Architects have won
more than 50 national and international awards. These include the Iritecna Prize for
Europe (1991); Eric Lyons European Housing Award (1991); Commonwealth
Association of Architects Award for Innovation and the Advancement of
Contemporary Architecture (1994); Millennium Product Awards (2 in 1999); many
RIBA Awards, and shortlisted four times for the RIBA Stirling Prize, and for the
European Mies Van Der Rohe Architecture Award (2005).
Personal awards include: CBE (2000); French Acadmie dArchitecture Silver
Medal for Innovation which has significantly influenced architectural expression
(2000), becoming the first foreign architect to join a small but illustrious list including
Jean Prouv, Felix Candela, Frei Otto, Buckminster Fuller and Peter Rice; Honorary
Doctor of Letters, University of Westminster (2000). In 2010 Ritchie was awarded
Honorary Fellowship of the American Institute of Architects.[8]

Lectures and Publications

He lectures internationally on art, urbanism, regeneration, light, structures, glass
technology and innovation. Prestigious venues include The Pompidou Centre, Tate
Gallery, Royal Academy of Arts, Royal Society of Arts, RIBA, New York
Architecture Centre, ICA, Hayward Gallery, European Commission and on behalf of
the British Council, CABE, the Lord Chancellor, and the British Association of
Science.

Further reading

Publications include:(well) Connected Architecture, Ian Ritchie, Berlin/London 1994;

The biggest glass palace in the world, Ian Ritchie & Ingerid Helsing Almaas, New
York 1997; Alessandro Rocca: Ian Ritchie, Technoecologia, Milano 1998; Plymouth
Theatre Royal Production Centre, London 2003; The Spire, London 2004; The RSC
Courtyard Theatre, London 2006; The Leipzig Book of Drawings, RA, London 2007.

References
1. ^ "Interview Ian Ritchie". BDonline.co.uk, Amanda Baillieu. 2008-11-28.
2. ^ "408 years after The Globe, the Royal Shakespeare Company finds its a
pretty good template for its new theatres. What took them so long?". Gabion
(Hugh Pearman). 18 June 2006. First published in The Sunday Times, June 18,
2006, as RSC puts its house in order.
3. ^ "Courting success James Fenton on sense and sensibility at the RSC". The
Guardian. 3 February 2007.
4. ^ "Theatre as factory: Ian Ritchie's TR2 for the Theatre Royal in Plymouth".
Gabion (Hugh Pearman). October 2003.
5. ^ "Mystic monument: Ian Ritchie's Spire of Dublin". Gabion (Hugh Pearman).
February 2003. The complete version of the article published in The Sunday
Times, 16 February 2003, as "So what's the point?").
6. ^ "Ian Ritchie Architects, UK, Buildings, London".
Glasgowarchitecture.co.uk.
7. ^ "RIAS Awards". Rias.org.uk. 2009.
8. ^ "The American Institute of Architects - 2010 AIA Honorary Fellows - Ian
Ritchie, Hon. FAIA, Awards". Aia.org. 2010.

External links

Ian Ritchie Architects Official website

Royal Academy Profile
Debrett's Distinguished People of Today 1988

12/12
Visiting Professor, Ian Ritchie, is at Liverpool University on 14th December
attending final crits of 3rd year students.

12/12
Ian Ritchie gave a keynote talk on the future of glass at the GLA City Hall,
London, 7th December. to an invited international audience of leading glass
manufacturers, processors, engineers and architects. The talk was entitled:
Looking at Glass through the eyes of Vitruvius and themed on glass entropy
resisting times impact on physical systems and the ephemeral qualities of
architecture.

12/12
Ian Ritchie Architects submitted a design to Argent for a new canopy in the
proposed Cubitt Square, part of their Kings Cross regeneration. A further six
teams were invited: Amanda Levete Architects, Asif Khan, Carmody Groarke
Duggan Morris Architects, Jamie Fobert, and Niall McLaughlin.

12/12
Ian Ritchie Architects have been shortlisted for the final phase of the Bristol
Old Vics theatre transformation being led by Tom Morris and Emma
Stenning.

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