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.

Site construction begins on the temporary theatre for the RSC.
It will have 1040 seats, and be completed in Spring 2006 in time for the RSC’s ambitious festival of the complete works of Shakespeare.

At the invitation of the Building Information Centre, Istanbul, Ian Ritchie will give a lecture on 27^th April in Istanbul entitled Design and Innovation.

At the invitation of EDAS kirpichev, Moscow, Ian Ritchie will give a lecture on 11^th April in Moscow entitled ethics, Design and Innovation.

The new Network Rail station at Shepherds Bush begins construction.

Representatives of Westfield, Network Rail, Silverlink and the London Boroughs of Hammersmith & Fulham and Kensington & Chelsea along with the design team of Ian Ritchie Architects, Waterman Burrow Crocker and Rail Project managers Symonds attended a launch event at Whitecity on April 13th 2005.

Ian Ritchie appointed as Architects Council of Europe representative on the European Construction Technology Platform, High Level Group.