25 Facts About RIBA

The RIBA played a prominent role in the development of UK architects' registration bodies.

RIBA was historically a male-dominated body, first admitting women members in 1898, and appointing its first female president in 2009.

RIBA Visiting Boards continue to assess courses for exemption from the RIBA's examinations in architecture.

In 2019 the RIBA Council voted for the creation of the RIBA Future Architects initiative, an online platform and international network aimed at Part I, Part II and Part III architectural students and graduates.

In February 2022, the RIBA was criticised for cost-cutting proposals to merge its offices across England into three 'super regions'.

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RIBA Enterprises was the commercial arm of RIBA, with a registered office in Newcastle upon Tyne, a base at 76 Portland Place in London, and an office in Newark, later sold to allow further investment.

RIBA Enterprises included the Newcastle-based NBS, which had 130 staff and dealt with building regulations and the Construction Information Service.

The RIBA received £172 million from the sale of its stake in NBS, some of which was reinvested to provide a reliable income stream for the institute.

RIBA has been recognised as a business Superbrand since 2008.

RIBA's headquarters has been at 66 Portland Place, London, since 1934.

In September 2021, following the COVID-19 pandemic and an £8 million budget deficit in the year ending December 2020, the RIBA announced plans to sell 76 Portland Place and to reduce staff numbers.

In January 2022, the RIBA announced an architectural competition for RIBA-chartered architectural practices for a £20 million "comprehensive refurbishment" of its 66 Portland Place HQ.

British Architectural Library, sometimes referred to as the RIBA Library, was established in 1834 upon the founding of the institute with donations from members.

Overcrowded conditions of the library was one of the reasons why the RIBA moved from 9 Conduit Street to larger premises at 66 Portland Place in 1934.

Artefacts will be transferred back to the RIBA's existing collections, with some rehoused at the institute's headquarters at 66 Portland Place building, set to become a new House of Architecture following a £20 million refurbishment.

RIBA has been awarding the President's Medals annually since 1836, making them the institute's oldest awards, and possibly the oldest awards worldwide in the field of architecture.

RIBA Competitions is the Royal Institute of British Architects' unit dedicated to organising architectural and other design-related competitions.

RIBA Plan of Work, first developed in 1963, is a stage-by-stage model considered "the definitive design and process management tool for the UK construction industry".

RIBA has three parts to the education process: Part I which is generally a three-year first degree, a year-out of at least one year work experience in an architectural practice precedes the Part II which is generally a two-year post graduate diploma or masters.

In 1993 the RIBA established a special interest group, the Women Architects Group; in 1999, renamed Women In Architecture, it became independent of the RIBA, which, in 2000, set up its first equality forum, Architects For Change.

RIBA has been criticised by architects outside southeast England as a London-centric organisation which does not reach out to all members in the United Kingdom and beyond.

Days later, the RIBA announced a restriction on new members participating in the elections, a rule change described by the FAF as "an outrageous lack of transparency" and "exclusionary tactics".

Questions about RIBA transparency were raised by Alan Jones during his presidency.

In July 2021, he stepped down as a RIBA trustee, feeling unable to support a proposal to renew the contract of the RIBA chief executive, Alan Vallance, having made "serious allegations" about Vallance's conduct in February 2020.

Current RIBA president, serving from September 2021 to August 2023 is Simon Allford.

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