Ritchie Studio
110 Three Colt Street
London
E14 8AZ
t: +44 (0)20 7338 1100
ritchie*studio – formerly Ian Ritchie Architects – is a successful and globally respected architectural practice which has won more than 70 competitions in Europe and the UK and received over 100 major national and international awards for architecture and innovation.
This reflects a history of 40 years commitment to research, architecture, industrial and urban design, and to the talent within the practice.
ritchie*studio remains a leader in glass architecture, material-technical innovation and intelligent environmental and sustainable design.
In this book extract Ian Ritchie RA reveals the deeper meaning of his life as an architect
A career in architecture engages with so many disciplines and aspects of life it is impossible not to enjoy it. The cyclical phenomena of nature – day following night following day, the life-regenerating cycle of the seasons – provide evidence for the Taoist paradigm. Successes and failures in architecture are part of the duality of being alive – happy and sad, good and bad, life and death. I am reminded that no amount of darkness can extinguish a candle’s flame. This is why, for me, optimism always prevails.
Architecture provides a physical reference to our cultural past and, at the point of conception, both expresses and gives us confidence to imagine a better future.
Beyond utility and aesthetics, built architecture has a metaphysical role - it shapes the emotions and behaviours of those who will live with it.
A metaphysical inquiry into the nature of space, structure and light is essential to envisage architecture that will lift the human spirit.
When the elements of this trinity are in harmony, a tangible sense of wholeness and serenity imbues an architecture that is able to touch the mind through the observer’s senses.
Architecture makes the existential tangible, and our sense of place is both a response to our physical environment and a cultural creation.
110 Three Colt Street
London
E14 8AZ
t: +44 (0)20 7338 1100