Professor Ian Ritchie CBE RA HonFREng   

Royal Academician, Royal Academy of Arts

Professor Ian Ritchie leads Ritchie*studio, recognised as one of the world’s most innovative and influential architectural practices. He co-founded Rice Francis Ritchie (RFR) in Paris, design engineers who created the discipline of façade engineering while contributing to several of President Mitterrand’s ‘Grands Projets’, including Louvre Pyramids and Sculpture Courts and Parc de la Villette Cité des Sciences. Ian is Royal Academician; member of the Akademie der Künste; visiting professor at the University of Liverpool and formerly visiting professor at TU Vienna and the University of Leeds; Milan Polytechnic academic board member; Royal Fine Art Commissioner; and a member of EU and UK government construction technology panels and the Steel Construction Institute. He has received honorary doctorates from UK and EU universities. 

He has been adviser to: the Sustainability Leadership for the Built Environment course at the University of Cambridge; the Centre for Urban Science and Progress NYU; President of Columbia University; The Ove Arup Foundation; The Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851; Royal Shakespeare Company; Lord Chancellor; British Museum; and Natural History Museum. 

He is a Fellow of the Society of Façade Engineering, and Honorary Fellow of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland, American Institute of Architects and Royal Academy of Music. He has chaired international juries including the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Stirling Prize, Czech Architecture Grand Prix and the Berlin Art Prize, and has been RIBA External Examiner at several UK universities. He is also a writer of 15 books published on architecture, neuroscience, light and poetry, and his art is held in several international galleries and museums.