After the widely acclaimed AIA UK + RIBA Keynote Lecture by Francis Kéré, and the final 2020 virtual building tour in December, the AIA UK kicked off 2021 still in high gear. The 6th of January new board orientation virtual meeting reviewed our events of the past year, and outlined the Chapter’s goals for the year ahead.
Our virtual programming commenced the following week, with Chapter sponsor Beale & Co’s first of two January lunchtime webinar series. This was followed by the first of our well received virtual building tours, which was ‘The Zayed Centre’ by Stanton Williams. A series of two NCARB ‘Practicing Architecture in a U.S. Jurisdiction’ seminars were hosted by the Chapter in January, as well as our first virtual AGM. Mark Catchlove from long-time Chapter sponsor Herman Miller, the usual hosts of the AGM, provided a virtual lecture entitled ‘Fundamental Human Needs at Work,’ which was followed by a virtual building tour of their new showroom, given by Tim Wykeham. The ‘2020 Year-in-Review’ was then given by 2020 president, Christopher Musangi, AIA, followed by the approval of the accounts & election of the 2021 Board of Directors. 2021 president Katharine Storr, AIA, then closed the meeting with a preview of the Chapter’s plans for 2021. We are hopeful that lockdown will be eased come summer, so that we can resume our usual in-person programming.
We rolled into February with Chapter sponsor Roca’s ‘Shaping the Bathroom Space of the Future’ lunchtime webinar, and ‘The English National Ballet’ by Glenn Howells Architects virtual building tour.
Please stay tuned for our 2021 Excellence in Design Awards ‘Call for Entries’, and do join us for the next virtual building tour: ‘Cork House’ by CSK Architects with The Bartlett UCL, on 11 March 2021 at 18:30 GMT.
Cork House. image by Oliver Wilton
