Royal Institute of British Architects

RIBA redirects here. For the test, see Recombinant immunoblot assay

Royal Institute of British Architects
66 Portland Place
Abbreviation	RIBA
Formation	1834
Type	Professional body
Legal status	Private company and registered charity
Purpose/focus	The architectural profession in the United Kingdom, and knowledge dissemination
Headquarters	66 Portland Place
Location	Marylebone, W1B 1AD
Region served	UK
Membership	c. 44,000 architects
Chief Executive	Harry Rich
Main organ	RIBA Council
Staff	c.200
Website	RIBA

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally.

History

Originally named the Institute of British Architects in London, it was formed in 1834 by several prominent architects, including Philip Hardwick, Thomas Allom, William Donthorne, Thomas Leverton Donaldson, John Buonarotti Papworth, and Thomas de Grey, 2nd Earl de Grey.

Royal charter

It was awarded a Royal Charter in 1837, becoming the Royal Institute of British Architects in London, eventually dropping the reference to London in 1892. In 1934, it moved to its current headquarters on Portland Place, with the building being opened by King George V and Queen Mary.

Structure

The RIBA is a member organisation, with 44,000 members. Chartered Members are entitled to call themselves chartered architects and to append the post-nominals RIBA after their name; Student Members are not permitted to do so. Formerly, fellowships of the institute were granted, although no longer; those who continue to hold this title instead add FRIBA.

The RIBA has been recognised as a business Superbrand since 2008.

RIBA is based at 66 Portland Place, London—a 1930s Grade II* listed building designed by architect George Grey Wornum with sculptures by Edward Bainbridge Copnall and James Woodford. Parts of the London building are open to the public, including the exhibition galleries and Library. It has a large architectural bookshop, a café, restaurant and lecture theatres. Rooms are hired out for events.

Regions

The Institute also maintains a dozen regional offices around the United Kingdom, it opened its first regional office for the East of England at Cambridge in 1966.

• East – Great Shelford
• East Midlands – Art, Architecture and Design, University of Lincoln
• London – Portland Place
• North East – School of the Built Environment, Northumbria University
• North West – The Tea Factory, Liverpool
• South and South East – Building LO11, University of Reading
• South West and Wessex – Paintworks, Bristol
• West Midlands – Birmingham and Midland Institute, Birmingham
• Yorkshire – 32 The Calls, Leeds
• Wales – Royal Society of Architects in Wales, 4 Cathedral Road, Cardiff
• Northern Ireland – Royal Society of Ulster Architects
• Scotland – Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland
• RIBA USA

RIBA Enterprises

RIBA Enterprises is the commercial arm of RIBA and is based at 15 Bonhill Street in London. It includes RIBA Insight, RIBA Appointments, and RIBA Publishing. At Newcastle-upon-Tyne are RIBA Bookshops and the NBS, the National Building Specification, which itself has 130 staff and deals with the building regulations and the Construction Information Service.

Library

Interior of the RIBA Library, 66 Portland Place, London

Established in 1834 upon the founding of the Institute, the RIBA Library, otherwise known as the British Architectural Library, is one of the most important architectural libraries in the world with over four million items. As well its holdings of books and journals (including the 'Early Imprints Collection' of books dating between 1478 and 1840) it has very extensive collections of photographs that include the work of 20th century masters such as Eric de Maré, John Maltby, John Donat and Henk Snoek. The collections of drawings and manuscripts include many architectural drawings by leading British and international architects such as Andrea Palladio, Pugin, Ernő Goldfinger, Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Charles Holden and Sir Christopher Wren. The Library also has portraits and architectural models. It also holds the Goodhart-Rendel Index of 19th century church builders, a card index. The biography files on various architects are also a useful resource.

Items from the collections are on permanent display at the Victoria & Albert Museum in the Architecture Gallery. Material from the Library have been seen in museums and galleries across the world, most recently in the exhibition Palladio and His Legacy: A Transatlantic Journey at the Morgan Library and Museum, New York.

The Library is located on the third floor of the RIBA headquarters and is open to the public without charge. It retains the original Art Deco interior designed by the building's architect, George Grey Wornum.

V&A + RIBA Architecture Partnership

File:Architectural Aspiration – Edward Bainbridge Copnall.jpg

Architectural Aspiration above the main entrance

Since 2004, through the V&A + RIBA Architecture Partnership, the RIBA and V&A have worked together to promote the understanding and enjoyment of architecture.

In 2004, the two institutions created the Architecture Gallery (Room 128) at the V&A showing artefacts from the collections of both institutions, this was the first permanent gallery devoted to architecture in the UK. The adjacent Architecture Exhibition Space (Room 128a) is used for temporary displays related to architecture. Both spaces were designed by Gareth Hoskins Architects. At the same time the RIBA Library Drawing and Archives Collections moved from 21 Portman Place to new facilities in the Henry Cole Wing at the V&A. Under the Partnership new study rooms were opened where members of the public could view items from the RIBA and V&A architectural collections under the supervision of curatorial staff. These and the nearby education room were designed by Wright & Wright Architects.

As well as at the V&A, the RIBA lends material to other museums and galleries across the world, and also stages temporary public exhibitions at its headquarters in London and regional offices across the UK.

RIBA Awards

Main article: Stirling Prize

Main article: Royal Gold Medal

RIBA runs many awards including the Stirling Prize for the best new building of the year, the Royal Gold Medal (first awarded in 1848), which honours a distinguished body of work, and the Stephen Lawrence Prize for projects with a construction budget of less than £500,000. The RIBA also awards the President's Medals for student work, and these are regarded as the most prestigious awards in architectural education. The RIBA European Award was inaugurated in 2005 for work in the European Union, outside the UK. The RIBA National Award and the RIBA International Award were established in 2007.

RIBA Competitions

RIBA Competitions is the Royal Institute of British Architects' unit dedicated to organising architectural design competitions. Design competitions enable a variety of approaches to be explored in response to a brief and can be a proving ground for emerging as well as more established design talent. Ideas competitions can be run to generate blue-sky thinking and generally involve the anonymous appraisal of design submissions. Competitions leading to a commission commonly involve a pre-qualification phase, with a shortlist invited to develop design proposals and present their schemes to a jury panel at final interview.

Education

See also: Bachelor of Architecture

In addition to the Architects Registration Board, the RIBA provides accreditation to architecture schools in the UK under a course validation procedure. It also provides validation to international courses without input from the ARB.

The RIBA has three parts to the education process: Part I which is generally a three-year first degree, a year-out of at least one year work experience in an architectural practice precedes the Part II which is generally a two-year post graduate diploma or masters. A further year out must be taken before the RIBA Part III professional exams can be taken. Overall it takes a minimum of seven years before an architecture student can seek chartered status.

RIBA in the news

Royal Institute of British Architects building, Portland Place, London.

In July 2007, RIBA called for minimum space standards in newly built British houses after research was published suggesting that British houses were falling behind other European countries. "The average new home sold to people today is significantly smaller than that built in the 1920s... We're way behind the rest of Europe—even densely populated Holland has better proportioned houses than are being built in the country. So let's see minimum space standards for all new homes," said RIBA president Jack Pringle.

Designation

• ARIBA: Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (no longer granted to new members)
• FRIBA: Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (now an honorary designation)
• RIBA: Chartered member of the Royal Institute of British Architects
• The Institute's president is designated PRIBA, past presidents use PPRIBA

Recent presidents

• 2011–2013 Angela Brady
• 2009–2011 Ruth Reed
• 2007–2009 Sunand Prasad
• 2005–2007 Jack Pringle
• 2003–2005 George Ferguson
• 2001–2003 Paul Hyett

Past presidents

• 1999–2001 Marco Goldschmied
• 1997–1999 David Rock
• 1995–1997 Owen Luder
• 1993–1995 Frank Duffy
• 1991–1993 Richard MacCormac
• 1989–1991 Maxwell Hutchinson
• 1987–1989 Roderick Peter Hackney
• 1985–1987 Larry Rolland
• 1983–1985 Michael Manser
• 1981–1983 Owen Luder
• 1979–1981 John Brian Jefferson
• 1977–1979 Gordon Graham
• 1975–1977 Eric Lyons
• 1973–1975 Fred Pooley
• 1971–1973 Alexander Gordon
• 1969–1971 Peter Faulkner Shepheard
• 1967–1969 Hugh Wilson
• 1965–1967 Lionel Gordon Baliol Brett
• 1964–1965 Donald Evelyn Edward Gibson
• 1962–1964 Robert Hogg Matthew
• 1960–1962 William Holford
• 1958–1960 Basil Spence
• 1956–1958 Kenneth Cross
• 1954–1956 Charles Herbert Aslin
• 1952–1954 Howard Robertson
• 1950–1952 Andrew Graham Henderson
• 1948–1950 Michael T. Waterhouse
• 1946–1948 Lancelot Keay
• 1940–1943 William Henry Ansell
• 1937–1939 Harry Stuart Goodhart-Rendel
• 1935–1937 Percy Edward Thomas
• 1933–1935 Giles Gilbert Scott
• 1931–1933 Raymond Unwin
• 1929–1931 Banister Flight Fletcher
• 1925–1927 Edward Guy Dawber
• 1923–1925 John Alfred Gotch
• 1922–1923
• 1919–1921 John William Simpson
• 1917–1919 Henry Thomas Hare
• 1914–1917 Ernest Newton
• 1912–1914 Reginald Blomfield
• 1910–1912 Leonard Stokes
• 1908–1910 Ernest George
• 1906–1908 Thomas Edward Collcutt
• 1904–1906 John Belcher
• 1902–1904 Aston Webb
• 1899–1902 William Emerson
• 1896–1899 George Aitchison
• 1894–1896 Francis Cranmer Penrose
• 1891–1894 John Macvicar Anderson
• 1888–1890 Alfred Waterhouse
• 1886–1887 Edward I'Anson
• 1884–1886 Ewan Christian
• 1882–1884 Horace Jones
• 1881–1881 George Edmund Street (died in office)
• 1879–1881 John Whichcord Jr.
• 1876–1879 Charles Barry, Jr.
• 1873–1876 George Gilbert Scott
• 1870–1873 Thomas Henry Wyatt
• 1867–1870 William Tite
• 1865–1867 Alexander James Beresford-Hope
• 1863–1865 Thomas Leverton Donaldson
• 1861–1863 William Tite
• 1860–1861 Charles Robert Cockerell
• 1835–1859 Thomas Philip Earl de Grey

See also

• Architects Registration Board
• Chartered Institute of Architectural Technologists
• Chartered Institute of Building
• Construction Industry Council
• Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland
• Royal Society of Ulster Architects
• RIBA Knowledge Communities

Bibliography

• H.M. Colvin, A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects, 1600–1840 (1997) ISBN 0-300-07207-4
• Charles Read, "Earl de Grey" (2007)
• Angela Mace; Robert Thorne (1986). The Royal Institute of British Architects: a guide to its archive and history. Mansell Pub.. ISBN 0720117739. 
• Margaret Richardson (1984). 66 Portland Place: the London headquarters of the Royal Institute of British Architects. RIBA Publications. 

External links

• RIBA official website
• RIBA official architecture bookshop
• RIBA Library Books, photographs, drawings and archives
• RIBA President's Medals Student Awards
• RIBApix Images from the RIBA Library collections
• RIBA Competitions

Video clips

• RIBA Architecture YouTube channel
• RIBA International Dialogues: Architecture and Climate Change Talk series Video archive of the lectures
• NBS TV