Chris Williamson

Hello and welcome to Have We Got Planning News For You, our latest episode, which we're delighted to be joined by Chris Williamson, the president of RIBA, the Royal Institute of British Architects.

Chris, welcome.

Thank you very much indeed for joining us.

Now, Tora, over to you to introduce Chris and commence the interview with him.

Thank you, Charlie.

Well, I'm delighted to introduce Chris Williamson, President of the RIBA.

Chris is a registered architect with over 40 years experience in practice.

He's primarily specialised in infrastructure and urban planning projects within the UK and overseas.

And Reba said that workers would often use the factory's facilities outside of their working hours.

And Chris Williamson from Reba said the design puts people, wellbeing and their everyday experiences at its core.

And I just thought it was a really lovely story.

And there's pictures of the factory on page five of the magazine.

It needs to happen more.

And it's quite interesting, you know, our president, Chris Williamson, is kind of of the view that architects actually perhaps need to think about being more specialised and actually take a piece of our sector and actually be very expert in delivering it.

And that might be the way that some of the profession is going, which is quite an interesting sort of prospect.

which actually means that architects can be completely specialists in a building typology, which I think would probably reinforce the kind of idea about, you know, competency to the highest level.

And I'm not suggesting all the architects need to go out and find a specialist.

But for our president to have that view, it's quite an interesting thing to have a conversation about.

Yeah, I suppose it heads you towards not seeing yourselves as competitors to each other in the architectural world, but coexisting so that you can all work together in a successful way.

And I think what is interesting, and I think what's happening more and more, I can see it from my kind of viewpoint, is that architects are much more comfortable collaborating together, different practices collaborating together, and bringing their particular skill set and recognizing where the strengths are and where the weaknesses are to create sort of you know collaborative sort of architect sort of teams that can deliver really incredible quality high quality design and I think that's a

The winning development is called Lion Green Road and it's a council-commissioned housing scheme in Colston, South London.

RIBA President Chris Williamson praised the design as a new approach to higher-density development, creating a new connection between the bustling Lion Green Road and a distinctive area of Green Parkland beyond.

It was designed by Mary Duggan Architects and delivered by the practice Ruff Architects.

And I'm delighted to say Mary Duggan joins me now.