Manchester’s Moss misses out on RIBA presidency

11 August 2020 16:27 Sarah Townsend Comments (0)

Sixtwo Architects director Nick Moss, who was a candidate for election as the next president of the Royal Institute of British Architects, has lost out to AHMM director Simon Allford, who will take up the post from 1 September 2021.

Moss, whose presidential campaign focussed on the need for a fairer procurement process for architecture firms, said he “intends to continue to push for procurement reform. It it the fundamental issue choking our industry.”

He told Place North West in an interview last month: “At the moment, the business model of architect firms is on a knife edge.

“We don’t have the control any more to ensure that projects are delivered in an adequate manner. The whole thing is a mess.”

His particular concern was over lump-sum design and build contracts, a method of procuring for work whereby the client sets a fixed price for a project, transferring the financial risk to the contractor. Architects have become increasingly “marginalised” in the building process as a result, he said.

Moss is president of the Manchester Society of Architects as well as heading up Manchester-based Sixtwo Architects.

RIBA, the national representative body for architects and architecture, has appointed London-based Allford as its next president. He will take over the two-year presidential term from Alan Jones next year, and from 1 September 2020 he will officially become RIBA president elect.

The role of RIBA president was established in 1835 and is the highest elected position in UK architecture. The president chairs the RIBA Council, which acts as the representative body for the organisation’s membership.

Allford is a founding director of AHMM, where he leads a design studio of 200 architects. He is also a frequent writer, critic and advisor in the industry, as well as a visiting professor at Harvard, former chairman of the Architecture Foundation, and a trustee of the London School of Architecture and the Chickenshed Theatres Trust in London.

Allford, said in a statement: “It is a privilege to have been elected and I look forward to working with [RIBA] members, council, board and staff to create a leaner, more open, productive, engaged and reinvigorated RIBA.

“We need an institute of ideas with architecture front and centre, hosting debates, lectures and exhibitions reflecting changing cultural and practice contexts. We need an institute that celebrates and promotes members’ work at home and worldwide.

“We need an institute that is a practice friend, enabling members to share ideas about best ways of working, using today’s technology to help advance architecture…while also helping us to address global climate change and architecture’s pivotal role in a post-pandemic world.”