Archinect - News

RIBA’s President-elect Chris Williamson pens defense of architectural competitions

2024-11-04T13:36:00-05:00

I find that competitions are stimulating, exciting and keep up the momentum of thinking and exploring. [...] I have often had difficulty convincing my Partners who are much less supportive of the competition process and much more prone to the disappointment of not winning. For me not winning is not taking part. Losing is learning. And I’ve learnt a lot.

Competitions are an essential part of professional practice and academia, dating to antiquity and counting even the Acropolis in Athens as one of their numerous contributions to at least Western culture and society. Williamson mentions his participation with the Norman Foster Foundation on the new Rebuild Kharkiv competition, saying it was a valuable learning opportunity. The post nonetheless garnered a considerable amount of backlash online—including a comment from popular UK architect Sarah Wigglesworth—who criticized their role in perpetuating a bad architectural culture and usury relationship with clients.

Chris Williamson elected as RIBA President

2024-07-02T13:39:00-04:00

Chris Williamson has been elected as the next RIBA President. The co-founder of London-based practice Weston Williamson + Partners prevailed over fellow presidential candidates Funmbi Adeagbo and Duncan Baker-Brown.

From a total of 4,462 votes from RIBA members, Williamson received 1,760 votes in the first round of the election, while Baker-Brown secured 1,502 and Adeagbo 1,200 votes. With Adeagbo eliminated and her votes redistributed in the second round, Williamson edged out a small advantage with 2,008 votes over Baker-Brown, who gathered 1,898 votes.

When asked about his top three priorities by The RIBA Journal during the election campaign, Williamson outlined: "Communications: Our members represent many of the world’s best architects. Increase influence, positioning the profession’s knowledge centre stage; Advocacy: Better support for all practices -helping all Members in their businesses; Education: Make the letters R I B A mean something: provide a real competitive advantage ...