Simon Allford has been elected for the highest position in UK architecture, as the next President of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). Taking over the two-year presidential starting 1 September 2021, Allford, founding director of AHMM, will succeed to Alan Jones.
Simon Allford will serve as President-Elect from 1 September 2020, and will then serve as RIBA President for a two-year term beginning on 1 September 2021 followed by one year as Immediate Past President from 2023-2024. Allford, a Sheffield University and Bartlett school at University College London grad, is the co-founder of Allford Hall Monaghan Morris or AHMM. Leading a studio of 200 architects, with offices in London, Bristol, and the US, Allford’s collaborations with AHMM include the University of Amsterdam; Google and DeepMind’s HQ offices in London, Berlin and Canada; and The White Collar Factory, Hawley Wharf and Post Building in London.
A retired Chair of the Architecture Foundation, a former trustee of the Architectural Association Foundation; an Honorary Secretary and Treasurer of The Architectural Association; RIBA Vice-president for Education; member of the RIBA Awards Group and a chair of design review at CABE, Simon is also a writer, critic, advisor, and a frequent judge and visiting professor at the Bartlett and at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design.
After his election, Simon Allford stated the following: “It is a privilege to have been elected and I look forward to working with members, Council, Board and staff to create a leaner, more open, productive, engaged and reinvigorated RIBA. We need an institute of ideas with architecture front and center, hosting debates, lectures, and exhibitions reflecting changing cultural and practice contexts. We need an institute that celebrates and promotes members’ work at home and worldwide. We need an institute that is a practice friend, enabling members to share ideas about best ways of working, using today’s technology to help advance architecture for the benefit of society – our Charter obligation”.
News via RIBA.
