TR2 was awarded the Abercrombie Design Award for Best New Building and was also the Overall Winner Abercrombie Architectural Design Award at The Abercrombie Awards in November. The Awards were designed to celebrate design excellence and, in a period of exciting change in Plymouth with the Mackay Vision for Plymouth capturing the public’s imagination, it is hoped that they will play an important role in raising the standard of design in Plymouth and contribute to the regeneration of the city.

In the context of the Franco-British Initiative jointly promoted by the “direction de l’architecture et du patrimoine” (DAPA) of the French cultural ministry and the “Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment”(CABE), the French part of this affordable/social housing competition has been launched, the “Atelier de Definition”.

Ian Ritchie took part in the final jury session for the Ile Seguin competition on 5 October. The final 4 were:

• Equipe Dominique Perrault - Daniel Buren - Coyne & Bellier - Claude Ripault - Jean Claude Lamoureux
• Equipe Nicolas Michelin - Jan Kopp - Bertrand Segers - Antonio Gallego - Patrick Rimoux - BATISERF - Michel Forgue
• Equipe Mathieu Poitevin - Pascal Reynaud - Stéphane Maupin - Jérôme Sans - Daniel Vaniche
• Equipe Bernard Tschumi - Michel Crespin - TECHNIP TPS - Hugh Dutton - PROGRAMME

The winner was: Equipe Mathieu Poitevin - Pascal Reynaud

On 25 October, Ian Ritchie was on the judging panel for the AMC / Le Moniteur Awards, French architecture’s equivalent of the British RIBA Stirling Prize.
The winner was: was the National Dance Centre, Pantin Paris, by Antoinette Robain and Claire Guieysse.

The Spire was shortlisted for the Stirling Prize 2004 (bookies second favourite) together with the Kunsthaus, Graz by Peter Cook and Colin Fournier, Imperial War Museum North, Manchester by Studio Daniel Libeskind, Phoenix Initiative, Coventry by MacCormac Jamieson Prichard, Business Academy Bexley by Foster and Partners, and 30 St Mary Axe by Foster and Partners. The winner was 30 St Mary Axe and was announced at an award ceremony at the Old Billingsgate Market, London and was televised live on Channel 4 at 8pm, Saturday 16 October.

Ian Ritchie Architects have been commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company to help design the RSC’s 1000 seat thrust stage auditorium which will be used during the transition period while the existing main theatre is reconstructed. A planning application will be made before the end of this year and will be in use from 2006.

Four architects from our practice took part in an architectural design project for children organised by Crossrail London Rail Links. A series of workshops to design a “gateway” to Crossrail at the Isle of Dogs for gifted and talented children at Canary Wharf’s offices started on 29 September.
The four architects led discussions on the topic “what is design”. The following workshop involved visits to places of architectural interest with one architect from each participating practice taking a group of children to a place of interest of their choice. The workshops will culminate in a presentation of the chidren’s work on 1 December.

The RIBA have put TR2 Plymouth Theatre Royal Production Centre and The Spire forward for consideration for the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture: Mies Van Der Rohe Award 2005. The primary objective of this official prize of the European Union is to recognise and commend works of contemporary architecture that are characterised by their conceptual, aesthetical and technical solutions. The works are nominated by a group of independent experts as well as the European national architects associations. For each biennial edition, the jury chooses from these nominations a single work to be granted the prize and a single work by emerging architects that will be given the special mention. In addition, the jury makes a selection of works to be published in the award catalogue and presented in a touring exhibition.

The practice’s participation in the 9^th Venice Biennale of Architecture provided the opportunity for the second office trip of the year on 30-31 October.

The winner of the Premio Lecco Prize (a competition between Diploma students from Beijing University, Hanyang University, Milan Polytechnic, and the Paris La Villette Schools of Architecture), was a team from Hanyang University in Seoul.