The British Museum has appointed Ian Ritchie from Ian Ritchie Architects to act as an advisor on its space planning operations.

Ian Ritchie Architects ‘works outing’ this year is over the weekend of May 8/9^th in Dublin to see the Spire, and to enjoy Ireland’s revitalised capital city which has just hosted its first European event having taken over the Presidency of Europe.

A Public Inquiry will take place from April 29th to assess the planning application for the development of disused land adjacent to Potters Fields.

Ian Ritchie will give a talk in Chania, Crete on Saturday 25^th April during the conference organised by the Centre for Mediterranean Architecture. Other speakers include Alexandros Tambiazis, Michael Hopkins, Herve Descottes (US) and Professor David Lowe. The conference is sponsored by leading lighting companies including Artemide and Erco.

A statement regarding the British Museum will be issued within the next few weeks.

On Friday 30 January 2004, Ian Ritchie presided over the Jury for the New International Albums for Young Architects in Paris. Following an address by the Minister for Culture, Jean-Jacques Aillagon, Ian Ritchie announced the 13 winning teams selected by the jury for the quality of their projects, the pertinence of their architectural proposals, both urban and landscape, and their capacity for innovation.

The 13 teams selected were: Jérôme de Alzua Architecture, Colboc-Franzen : Benjamin Colboc et Manuela Franzen, Colomer-Dumont : Maria Colomer-Betoret et Adrien Dumont, Atelier Fernandez-Serres : Ivry Serres et Stéphane Fernandez, Karine Herman, Lan Architecture : Benoit Jallon et Umberto Napolitano, Llamata+Berthier/LLB Architecture : David Llamata et Charles Berthier, Pangalos Dugasse : Agissilaos Pangalos et Sylvie Dugasse, Jean-Christophe Quinton, Rathle & Duron : Julien Rathle et Sébastien Duron, Tomorrow : Florent Rougemont et Matthieu Brutsaert, Clément Vergély, Wonderland.productions : Sébastien Chabbert, Frédéric Guillierme, Jean-Marie Pouliquen, Alexander Sachse, Arnaud Vialla

CABE have produced a guide entitled: ‘Creating Excellent Buildings: a guide for clients’. To obtain a copy, contact CABE at: enquiries@cabe.org.uk. Alternatively, a PDF version of the guide can be downloaded from: www.cabe.org.uk/publications.

In conjunction with the publication of the guide, CABE are running six free events from November 2003 to March 2004. Please see www.cabe.org.uk for further details.

Ian Ritchie is one of six architect members of the jury for the Ile Seguin "Façade-enveloppe" Design Competition taking place this year in Boulogne-Billancourt, France. The other architects are Tadao Ando, Xavier de Geyter, François Grether, Michel Desvignes and Jean Nouvel.

CABE will be administering the UK’s participation in the next Europan competition (No 8), and appointing a new chairman. Ian Ritchie chaired Europan UK from 1997 having succeeded Richard Rogers.