John Moores University

INNOVATION IN ARCHITECTURE

Ian Ritchie

13 02 2012

photo courtesy Henry Bardsley

Charles Wilson, physicist, Nobel Laureate,

who invented the cloud chamber.

Rutherford described the cloud chamber as 'the most original and wonderful instrument in scientific history.‘

A cloud chamber is a sealed container of water vapor that has been supercooled and supersaturated.

When a charged particle enters the chamber,

it ionizes the vapor, causing it to condense within the chamber leaving a visible trail.

Observation of the properties of these trails

can provide information about the type of particle that caused them.

poems + etchings RA publication 2010

A LESSON FROM A NAMESAKE

It’s late 1990,

Tim Berners-Lee,

starts telling Ian Ritchie about his proposed system

called the World Wide Web

And … he didn’t buy it.

A short story about information, connectivity and

learning from mistakes.

Ian Cleland Ritchie

CBE FREng FRSE FBCS

Ian Ritchie developed

and supported Guide –

the first ever

commercially available

hypertext browser

Shanghai’s developing skyscape

1981-85 Rice Francis Ritchie (RFR) The French Government contract with RFR asked us to innovate. La Villette City of Science, Paris RFR world patent: structural glazing that changed glass architecture

GLASS INNOVATION

1984 Ian Ritchie Architects & RFR Lintas Bridge, Paris world’s first all-glass bridge incorporating a clear glass floor

GLASS INNOVATION

1987 Ian Ritchie Architects Dubai Pearl Monument laureate (unbuilt) ‘The Phantom Fixing’ published in the AJ 1987 world’s first structural glass fixing through one leaf only of a doubly curved two- layer toughened laminated glass panel

GLASS INNOVATION

1989 Ian Ritchie Architects Natural History Museum Ecology Gallery, London first application of structurally glued glass to glass fixing in a public building first use of 6mm thick low-iron glass in architecture GLASS INNOVATION

1989 Ian Ritchie Architects Stockley Park, R&D Offices, London Double glazed Planar™ developed with Pilkington, with the ‘Stockley Pin’.

GLASS INNOVATION

First published

1969

(c) Seung snapshot 2 from his theoretical

neuroscience lab at MIT – neural networks

fibre optic – a light pipe

the most sophisticated man-made product

Water boatman

walking on the surface tension of water

Homeless man

Lying on the surface of warm air

1992 Ian Ritchie Architects with Pilkington Light Tunnel, Ingolstadt, Germany Application of photo-reactive coated glass LIGHT INNOVATION

Stepped Pyramid of Djoser and its complex in the Saqqara field. designed by Imhotep – priest, physician, engineer, architect, cBCE 2600

Concrete dome of the Pantheon, Rome, Design attributed to Apollodorus of Damascus, cAD 126

Pont du Gard France, 100+AD

Segovia Aqueduct, 150-210 AD

Abbot Sugar ‘opus modernum’ – the basilica of St Denis, Paris 1140

Peter Ellis – Oriel Chambers 1864

John Root of Burnham & Root Montauk Block 1882 and the Great Northern Hotel 1884

Kibble Palace, Glasgow,1873

Originally designed by John

Kibble for his home in 1860

Shelterspan Heathrow 1978

pvc coated polyester

Shelterspan Paddington 1981

pvc coated polyester

Shelterspan Alexandra Palace 1981

pvc coated polyester

Shelterspan 1978-82

Ray lucas, Lance Rowell, Werner Lichtenberger

Engineering design

Peter Rice, Bill Logan, Ian Ritchie

La Villette City of Science, Paris

PTFE Entrance Hall roof

1981-85 Rice Francis Ritchie (RFR)

2,400m2 roof consisting of

2 skins PTFE + fibair white insulation and

Tedlar® PVF film vapour barrier

The first thermally insulated light

transmitting permanent glass fabric roof

meeting 1982 insulation regulations

GLASS FABRIC INNOVATION

Trifluoroethylene film + glass mat cold

pressure laminated,1984

RFR + PTL + Brochier Aerospatial, France

Beijing Olympic Aquatics Centre 2008

ETFE

Allianz Arena 2005

ETFE

Eden Project 2000

ETFE

Arnhem Zoo Aligator Park roof 1978

ETFE

Blue Gold Exhibition, Oberhausen, 2000 Ian Ritchie Architects + Per Lindstrand

Kevlar cone 50m high

Alba di Milano Light Monument 1998, laureate

Ian Ritchie Architects, Litech + Wilbey

New woven fractured optic fibres (warp)

and stainless steel wire (weft) WOVEN METAL + FIBRE OPTIC LIGHT SKIN

1997 Ian Ritchie Architects + Locker Wire Weavers; Adrian Billingsley Plymouth Theatre Royal Production Centre, TR2 woven fabric 0.4mm warp + 0.3mm weft phosphor bronze wire ‘SOFT’ WOVEN METAL SKIN

1985

J-L Lhermitte, Ian Ritchie + Francois Bastien (physicist)

Creation of 3D Light forms of ‘controlled’ ionised plasma

from 20,000V in a vacuum of 0.5millibars

at EDF Laboratories, Clamart, France

LIGHT INNOVATION

Zebede 2009 Ian Ritchie Architects, Ulrike Brandi Licht & Hamburg Licht

high performance task light with variable colour temperature and

delivering maximum 1500 lux over an A1 area @ only 10watts

LIGHT INNOVATION

Albert Sport & Cultural Centre France 1993 Roy Square Housing, Limehouse, 1987

1991 Ian Ritchie Architects + Arup + Pilkington

Reina Sofia Museum of Modern Art, Madrid

world’s first glass installation which transfers wind load

at the corner of the building through the glass edges GLASS INNOVATION

Leipzig Glass Hall, Germany 1994 Ian Ritchie Architects + gmp + IPP + mero + seele The world’s largest glass hall covering 2.5 hectares using low-iron laminated glass The first single side application of extruded silicone/liquid silicone glass to glass joints: externally cleaned by robots GLASS INNOVATION

Eladio Dieste: Montivideo shopping centre 1988 Church of Christ the Worker Atlantida 1960

1998 Ian Ritchie Architects + Arup Scotland’s Home Of Tomorrow , Glasgow introducing the outdoor room in high rise DOMESTIC SPACE

Research: molecular doping of Na glass to limit

crack propagation: Ian Ritchie Architects with

Neville Greaves, 1993-1999

Research: blue surface patination of copper

Otoukompou Copper (now Luvata)

Ian Ritchie Architects 2002-4

synthetic thinking

1992 Ian Ritchie Architects Terrasson, France – laureate ‘The Phantom Fixing’ developed for the Pearl of Dubai applied to fix the glass roof ‘lake’ on the Terrasson Cultural Greenhouse

GLASS INNOVATION

1992 Ian Ritchie Architects and landscape artist Kathryn Gustafson Terrasson Cultural Greenhouse, France – laureate world’s first architectural gabion building, vertical cantilever 7m STONE R&D

1987 Ian Ritchie, Olivier Auber, J-L L’hermitte, Guilhem Pratz, Peter Rice Poiesis Generator ‘France – Japan’ Monument - laureate (unbuilt) shell structure of woven titanium wire and carbon fibre WOVEN METAL SKIN

1994-2000 Ian Ritchie Architects, Kathryn Gustafson, RFR EdF 400,000V Pylons, France STEEL SHELL STRUCTURES

1997 Ian Ritchie Architects, Atelier One and Paul Gillieron Acoustic Design Crystal Palace Concert Platform, London world’s first outdoor application of an ‘active acoustic system’ SHELL ACOUSTICS

2006 Ian Ritchie Architects, WSP, Paul Gillieron Acoustics, King Shaw Associates Royal Shakespeare Company Courtyard Theatre, Stratford/Avon 1050 seats, less that £6m and designed and built in less than 12months.

1/2 RECENT WORKS

1998 Ian Ritchie Architects, Arup The Spire, Dublin, Ireland the world’s tallest sculpture and single shell structure STEEL SHELL STRUCTURES

S Seat Ian Ritchie 2007

END