Honorary Fellowships are awarded by the RIBA Council each year to individuals who have made an outstanding contribution to the quality of architecture, the achievements of the profession and the aims and objectives of the RIBA. Any person who is not an architect may be nominated by RIBA members and elected as an Honorary Fellow.
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RIBA Honorary Fellows 2013 Citations:
Professor Barry Bergdoll, 19th- and 20th-century Architectural History, Theory and Criticism, nominated by Niall McLaughlin
Barry Bergdoll is The Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art and Professor of Modern Architectural History in the Department of Art History at Columbia University. With a BA from Columbia, an MA from King’s College, Cambridge, and a PhD from Columbia, Professor Bergdoll's broad interests centre on modern architectural history, with a particular emphasis on France and Germany between 1750 and 1900.
Trained in art history, he has an approach most closely allied with cultural history and the history and sociology of professions. He has studied questions on the politics of cultural representation in architecture, the larger ideological content of nineteenth-century architectural theory, and the changing role of both architecture as a profession and architecture as a cultural product in nineteenth-century European society.
Bergdoll's interests also include the intersections of architecture and new technologies. He has worked on several film productions about architecture, and curated architectural exhibitions concerned with the history and challenges of exhibiting architecture. He has curated and written many of the catalogues for a large number of major exhibitions of 19th and 20th century architecture at MoMA on subjects including prefabrication and housing, the Bauhaus, Mies van der Rohe, the preservation of modernist architecture in the former Soviet Union, and design responses to climate change.
Philip Dilley, Chair of Arup
Philip Dilley is Chairman of the Arup Group, a trust-owned firm of consulting engineers and designers with a global reputation for the design and delivery of sustainable buildings and infrastructure projects.
Philip graduated from Imperial College as a structural engineer. Over the course of his career, he has worked on major schemes in the UK, as well as across Europe, the Middle East and Asia, where he helped launch Arup’s operations in Japan. He has built up a wealth of business experience across international markets and throughout this time has remained a keen promoter of the importance of design creativity and quality in the built environment.
Philip has worked closely with many of the world’s leading architects to help plan, design and deliver a wide range of projects and iconic buildings. Even today as Chairman of Arup, he maintains an active involvement in key projects. In the UK, these have included Arup’s recent work on London’s Olympic Park and The Shard, as well as the ongoing development of the V&A Dundee, and Arup’s contracts on HS2, which include proposed new stations in London and Birmingham.
Philip is the Chairman of London First, and sits on the Prime Minister’s Business Advisory Group.
Dr Wolfgang Feist, environmental engineer
Dr Feist studied physics at the University of Tübingen, completing his doctorate on solid state quantum mechanics. He went on to teach energy technology at Kassel and research at Darmstadt into low-energy houses and setting up the energy workspace. In 1992 he graduated in thermal building simulation at the University of Kassel.
In 1996, Feist founded the Passive House Institute in Darmstadt. Passive houses consume 90% less energy than existing ones yet there are still many myths about them which Feist is keen to dispel:
It is possible even encouraged to open a window. But the technical ventilation system brings fresh air in, so you won’t ever find any stale air in the house.
Mechanical ventilation does not cause draughts – unlike air conditioning – because this is fresh air not return air, requiring much lower airflows.
A Passive House does need a small heating installation, but the energy used is less than 10% of what existing buildings use.
Passive houses are not necessarily clumsy or even ugly – that is a matter for the architects.
The passive house is not full of kit. All that is needed is mechanical ventilation with heat recovery – this is technology that has been tried and tested for more than 50 years.
Since 2008 Wolfgang Feist has been Professor of Structural Engineering, Building Physics and Building Technology at the University of Innsbruck.
Harry Handelsman, client
In 20 years Harry Handelsman has made the Manhattan Loft Corporation an instantly recognisable brand. Manhattan Loft Corporation brought the concept of New York loft living to London, predating Tom Bloxham’s work with Urban Splash. The developer’s success is based on challenging conventions and addressing the needs of individuals rather than the market. No two Manhattan Loft Corporation projects are alike, be they residential, hotels, mixed-use or office developments, each one represents a fresh engagement with a place and the people that surround it.
2011 saw the opening of the last phase in the transformation of London’s Grade I listed St Pancras Station. After eight years of painstaking restoration, Manhattan Loft working with architects RHWL and Richard Griffiths Architects, has returned Sir George Gilbert Scott’s Grade I listed Gothic masterpiece to its original beauty. The scheme won an RIBA Award in 2012 and was a strong contender for the RIBA Stirling Prize shortlist: the jury citation stated: ‘Returning a true landmark to vibrant use is a remarkable achievement for both client and architect.’ As a result Harry was shortlisted for the 2012 RIBA Client of the Year award.
Harry’s passion for architecture has seen him work with architects including Piers Gough’s CZWG, Pringle Richards Sharratt Architects, David Adjaye Associates, Dixon Jones, Will Alsop and RHWL Architects.. Harry is now working with architects SOM to create Manhattan Loft Gardens, a staggering cantilevered 42 storey tower and reimagining of the London garden square in Stratford City next to the Olympic Park.
Rod Holmes, Client, Grosvenor Estates
Rod Holmes was named RIBA Client of the Year in 2009, receiving the award on behalf of Grosvenor Estates. As Director of Development, Rod took charge of the £1 billion Liverpool One retail-led regeneration scheme on behalf of Grosvenor which is now seen as an exemplar for mixed-use urban regeneration. Rod guided all aspects of the design and consultation process, engaging and managing 26 major architects as part of the scheme. The official RIBA citation stated that the project had ‘single-handedly reversed the fortunes of the city by bringing a new social and economic vibrancy to what was 42 acres of derelict but historic buildings, resulting in an entirely revitalised city centre.’ The project won a total of 5 RIBA Awards and the BDP masterplan was also shortlisted for the RIBA Stirling Prize.
When he left Grosvenor in 2008, Rod had accumulated more than forty years international experience in construction and property development. He has since chaired the Mersey Partnership and is currently a member of the Advisory Council of the Liverpool City Region Local Enterprise Partnership
Rod is a Trustee of the Playhouse and Everyman Theatres Trust and on the Steering Board for the re-building of the Everyman, currently under construction; he isalso on the Project Management Board for the proposed Mersey Gateway Bridge. He has been an awards judge for the RIBA.
Sarah Ichioka, Director of the Architecture Foundation
Sarah brings wit and charm to the often challenging job of promoting architecture. California-born, and having taken a degree in history at Yale, she gained an MSc City Design & Social Science from the London School of Economics. Since 2008 she has been Director of The Architecture Foundation (AF), the UK’s leading independent architecture centre. Her tenure at the AF has been notable for: the establishment of a stable base for the charity in Southwark, a series of innovative public realm commissions including the Skyroom, the Union Street Urban Orchard, South Kilburn Studios and the Oikos Project salvaged theatre. She has placed a strong focus on cross disciplinary dialogue, such as the AF’s Architecture + Art and John Edwards lecture series; and an increased international profile, including the New Architects exchange programmes.
Ichioka has previously been Co-Director and Deputy Director of the London Festival of Architecture, a city-wide, biennial exploration and celebration of London’s built environment. She chaired the advisory panel for the 2010 British Pavilion at Venice and has served on juries including the European Prize for Urban Public Space, the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative, the UK Young Architect of the Year, and in 2010 was a lay assessor in the RIBA Awards.
Ichioka was Consultant Curator for the Global Cities exhibition in Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall and the Exhibition Content Co-ordinator for the 10th Venice Architecture Biennale, for which she also co-edited the catalogue. Amongst other previous roles, she has been a founding Research Associate of the Urban Age, an interdisciplinary project investigating the future of global cities, and a Community Development Fellow at New York City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development.
Professor Harry Mallgrave, Director of the International Center for Sustainable New Cities, Illinois Institute of Technology
Harry Francis Mallgrave is an architect, scholar, editor, and professor of history and theory at the Illinois Institute of Technology. After several years in architectural practice, he took his doctoral studies at the University of Pennsylvania in 1983 under the supervision of Stanford Anderson. His dissertation topic -The Idea of Style: Gottfried Semper in London -presaged his focus on German theory in his early career. This phase of his work culminated in the intellectual biography Gottfried Semper: Architect of the Nineteenth Century, which won the prestigious Alice Davis Hitchcock Award from the American Society of Architectural Historians.
He has written numerous books and articles on the history and theory of architecture including: Modern Architectural Theory: A Historical Survey, 1673-1968, and An Introduction to Architectural Theory: 1968 to the Present. In recent years Mallgrave's interests have broadened, as indicated by his book The Architect's Brain: Neuroscience, Creativity, and Architecture. He has more recently followed up on this study with Architecture and Embodiment: The Implications of the New Sciences and Humanities for Design, to be published in 2013. It appeals to the emotional process of embodied simulation, rejects overly conceptualized approaches to theory and the objectification of design (viewing buildings as objects), and argues for a return to the focus of design to where it formerly resided -the human experience of inhabiting the world
Jonathan Meades, Broadcaster and writer
According to Henry Hitchings in the Times Literary Supplement, "Jonathan Meades has been compared favourably to Rabelais and flatteringly to Swift. The truth is that he outstrips both in the gaudiness of his imagination."
Born and educated in Salisbury and the west of England, he subsequently went on to RADA. Author of several books including three works of fiction, and a number of books of essays, the latest being Museum Without Walls. He is currently working on a sort of memoir entitled An Encyclopaedia Of Myself.
He has written and performed in some sixty television shows on predominantly topographical and architectural subjects such as self-built shacks, the utopian avoidance of right angles, the lure of vertigo, the deleterious effects of garden cities, the buildings occasioned by beer, Birmingham’s appeal, megastructures, Worcestershire, and the everyday surrealism of Belgium. A series on a France which is unknown to most Britons (and many French) was transmitted early in 2012.
Jonathan lives in Marseille.
Jay Merrick, Journalist
Jay Merrick has been architecture critic of The Independent since 2000 and often takes a refreshing contrary view on the architectural issues of the day. He is a supportive critic of the RIBA Stirling Prize and its other awards.
He contributed a highly original and provocative essay on the 2000 Stirling Prize shortlist to Tony Chapman’s book about the history of the Stirling Prize t and the ones that got away. He has also written beautifully on art and design for The Independent, and his other writing has appeared in publications including Blueprint, The Architects’ Journal, Art Review, New Statesman, and the Cambridge Annual Register. Jay has supplied key texts for architectural books concerning Grimshaw and Partners, Arup Associates, Anthony Hudson Architects, and Schmidt Hammer Lassen, a leading Scandinavian practice. Jay wrote the main essay for the 2012 book about the transformation of King's Cross Station in London, and also acts as an editorial consultant for architectural practices. He has specific, well-travelled knowledge of environmental issues relating to timber construction and forestry.
Jay Merrick's novel, Horse Latitudes, was published by Fourth Estate in 2000. Its setting, in a fictional British colony, drew partly on the mise en scene of his own early upbringing in the Far East and California.
Piet Oudolf, Landscape and garden designer
Piet Oudolf is a hugely influential Dutch landscape and garden designer and author. With his own garden at Hummelo he developed radical ideas in planting design. He is a leading figure of the ‘New Perennial’ or ‘New Wave Planting’ movement, using bold drifts of herbaceous perennials and grasses - see-through plants that move and change with the wind and light and are chosen at least as much for their form and structure as for their flower colour.
His design projects includes the High Line in New York with landscape architects James Corner Field Operation, and architects Diller, Scofidio +Renfro City; Battery Park, New York; ABN Amro Bank and Hoogeland in the Netherlands; Pensthorpe Waterfowl Trust in Fakenham, and Scampston Hall, Yorkshire. He designed the interior garden of the 2011 Serpentine Gallery Summer Pavilion, in collaboration with the Swiss architect Peter Zumthor, where the building was created around the garden. Oudolf is also responsible for the planting design of the Olympic Legacy Park, the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
He has published five books and won numerous awards, including Best of Show at the Chelsea Flower Show and the Veitch Memorial Medal from the RHS awarded for outstanding contribution to the advancement and improvement of the science and practice of horticulture. He has taught at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.
Lady Jill Ritblat, British Architectural Trust Board member
Lady Ritblat has long been associated with many of the great cultural institutions of this country – not least the RIBA. She has been a fundraiser (for the Royal Academy of Music) and a film producer (of a film about Gilbert and George in China). Jill Ritblat has been an exemplary client of architecture: commissioning the reconstruction and reinterpretation of an historic chalet in the French Alps from Jourda et Perraudin; the RIBA award-winning high-tech thatched Poolhouse from Kathryn Findlay; and a major rebuild of a Grade I listed London house from Ken Shuttleworth complete with a 131 metre bore hole and heat exchanger.
As well as encouraging her husband Sir John Ritblat to use some great British architects on British Land schemes, Jill has also argued successfully for the placement of the work of young British artists such as Damien Hirst, Fiona Ray, Michael Craig, Antony Gormley and Langlands & Bell on their walls and within their public spaces.
Jill is a qualified barrister, and holds a BA Hons in the History of Art. She has served as an NGO representative at the United Nations, Geneva. She has served on boards or committees of the RIBA’s British Architectural Trust, the Design Museum, Tate, New Contemporaries, the Garden Museum, the Royal College of Art, and the Wallace Collection.
She has been on judging panels including the RIBA Awards, RIBA Manser Medal, Turner Prize and Arts in Business Awards.
Baroness Whitaker, of Beeston in the County of Nottinghamshire: Labour Peer since 1999
Baroness Whitaker has been a consistent champion within the House of Lords on the subject of architecture and design. She has been a member of the Associate Parliamentary Group on Architecture and Planning, a cross-party group of MPs and Peers who are interested and advocate good architecture and planning within parliament.
Baroness Whitaker has tabled amendments to a series of legislation during scrutiny in the House of Lords on good design in the areas of education, housing, planning and design policy. Of particular success was her work with fellow peers and RIBA Honorary Fellows Lord Howarth and Lord Best alongside former RIBA employee Lord Tyler to the 2008 Planning Act and the 2008 Housing & Regeneration Act. More recently, working pragmatically in the more hostile political climate than the one in which she was appointed to work, she has been actively challenging the changes to education policy and development of school buildings including Free Schools to ensure that design is taken seriously.
Baroness Whitaker takes a great interest in architecture, attending visits to schemes, RIBA exhibitions and lectures and is currently taking part in the Industry Parliament Trust fellowship which involves spending several days with architects and others to understand their work better.