ARK have received confirmation from the DfES that the Westminster City Acdemy 4 can now proceed to full design and Ian Ritchie Architects Ltd will be working closely with ARK, Arup structures (David Glover) and Arup services (Andy Sedgwick) and DL cost consultants (Rob Knight). www.arkonline.org

The Publishing Group, Faenza, Italy, has organised an International Architecture Award for design and sustainability, titled “Innovative Architectures: Design and Sustainability”. Ian Ritchie has accepted to chair the jury which will take place in Faenza 20-21^st January 2006.

The aim of the competition is to identify and reward the best architectural solutions incorporating one or several technological façade systems which suggest a holistic synthesis of design and intelligent technology. Completed projects by the competition deadline are eligible. There is also a student competition. Prizes total €10,000.

Ian Ritchie will preside over the jury for the Prix Compasso Volante international student design competition between students at the schools of architecture in China - Tsinghua University, Beijing; South Korea - Hanyang University, Seoul; Italy - Milan Polytechnic and France - Lille, and Paris La Villette schools. The Award takes place in Paris, October 1^st.

The British Association of Science Week in 2005 takes place in Dublin (3-10 September). The BA Festival of Science is one of the UK’s biggest science festivals. It attracts 400 of the best scientists and science communicators from home and abroad who reveal the latest developments in research to a general audience.

Ian Ritchie will debate the relative values of design, marketing and engineering at Trinity college on 6th September.
www.the-ba.net/the-ba

Saturday September 24th 11.30am - 12.30pm
Homeless and confused, the characters in Shakespeare’s comedies are cast into a magical exile. If Shakespeare were writing now where would he make his characters run to? Join Theatre designer, Tom Piper, Architect, Ian Ritchie, Actor, Lia Williams and Adam Sampson, Director of Shelter to ask where the new realms of exile and mystery are? Hosted by RSC associate Director Dominic Cooke.
www.rsc.org.uk

The Irish Courts Consortium, in which Ian Ritchie Architects are lead design consultant, have been selected as one of three PFI consortia to prepare proposals for Ireland’s new Criminal Courts Complex in Dublin.

George Wimpey (www.georgewimpey.co.uk) have engaged Ian Ritchie Architects Ltd to design a new residential scheme for an 800m long Thames riverside site.

The theme of this year’s exhibition is “multiples”.
3 new etchings by Ian Ritchie - RSC Courtyard Theatre, Rocket Junction, Liverpool, and France-Japan Monument are exhibited. Also on show is a specially commissioned large, illuminated model of the Leipzig Glass Hall which was designed in 1992 and completed in 1995. It is the largest glass hall in the world - it is a vault of suspended colourless glass 275m long, 80m wide and nearly 30m high. It has a few elements that are repeated thousands of times.

The 96pp colour publication (1997) by Ellipsis: The Biggest Glass Hall in the World, written by Ian Ritchie with an introduction by Ingerid Helsing Almaas will be available at Royal Academy shop during the exhibition.