NRI architect, elected President of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA)
(One of the most influential architectural institutions in the world with 30,000 members)

 

UK, April 08, 2007
Sunder Agnihotri

NRI Sunand Prasad, 56, architect, has been elected President of the prestigious and influential architectural institutions- Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). He is currently servimg as vice president of this institution and and will succeed the current President, Jack Pringle, on 1 September 2007.

Sunand Prasad said, “I feel honoured and privileged to be elected as the next RIBA President and keenly conscious of the responsibility now to make the changes set out in my manifesto. I want to thank warmly all those who supported me and also Valerie Owen whose own tremendous campaign ensured that the full range of issues was discussed. I look forward to supporting current President Jack Pringle over the next year and will make it a priority during this time to get closer to RIBA members, visiting as many as possible. We can only build the influential profession that we want, and society needs, by the RIBA more effectively involving its members.

“As RIBA President I will have two other priorities. One will be campaigning for design because of the enormous difference it can make to people’s lives. The other will be tackling the issue of climate change. Buildings account for almost 50% of energy use. As a body of architects, and an international organisation, the RIBA must play a key part in countering this threat to our collective futures.

Sunand Prasad

Sunand Prasad said, "At the age of four I was given a small trowel to help point the stone floor slabs of the newly built art school that my father ran in a Gandhian community in Central India. That and Meccano are partly responsible for my standing for RIBA President now."

• He was born in 1950 in Dehra Dun in the Himalyan foothills.
• He spent most of the first 12 years of his life in Mahatma Gandhi’s Ashram in Sevagram, central India.
• His family came to England in 1962 and he went to secondary modern and grammar school in north London. He studied architecture at the University of Cambridge and the Architectural Association schools of architecture.
• From 1976 to 1984 he worked with Edward Cullinan Architects, leaving to combine practice and research.
• He was one of the “40 under 40” architects in the 1985 exhibition. At the same time, he commenced a study of north Indian courtyard houses and urban form as a research fellow at the Royal College of Art, leading to a doctorate in 1988.
• Sunand Prasad lives with his wife and three sons in north London in a self-built house. He enjoys music, art, cycling and eating and would love to get back to windsurfing.

  Work:

• His architect practice first built a reputation through winning RIBA Awards in 1990 and 1991 with domestic projects.
• He became known for its healthcare designs which were exhibited in “The Art of the Process” and the “How did they do that?” exhibitions.
• Prasad have gone on to design a wide variety of building types, winning over 40 awards for their work, which has been widely published.
• He was on the RIBA Practice Committee and set up its Constructive Change Group. He was elected to RIBA Council in 2004, is a member of the RIBA Board and Vice President for Policy and Strategy.
• In 1999, Sunand Prasad was appointed as one of the first seven CABE Commissioners and launched its Enabling Programme. He has been closely involved in developing the Commission’s Corporate Strategy and has chaired a number of Project Steering Groups.
• He has been chair of the CABE Skills Programme, stepping down at the completion of his two terms as Commissioner in July 2006.
• Sunand Prasad has played a leading role in developing the Construction Industry Council’s Design Quality Indicator (DQI).
• Most of his career, Sunand Prasad has been involved in architectural teaching and has served as external examiner on a number of courses. Currently, he is a member of the Cambridge University School of Architecture Advisory Committee.

Writings:
Sunand Prasad’s published writings include essays on Le Corbusier, North Indian urbanism, culture and identity, the value of design, architects and the construction industry as well as a number of book and building reviews. He is the managing editor of a forthcoming book on hospital architecture and author of a forthcoming monograph on the work of Penoyre & Prasad. ......Source- RIBA press releases

NRI architect elected President of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA)
(One of the most influential architectural institutions in the world with 30,000 members).

• He was born in 1950 in Dehra Dun in the Himalyan foothills
• Sunand Prasad jokes that, in his professional life, he has skipped a generation by following in the footsteps of his grandfather, a "self-made businessman", rather than his father, "an unreconstructed Gandhian". But as a leading British architect with strong roots in community projects - health and social care centres, schools, flats for the homeless, older people's care units, a young people's centre, a multicultural arts complex and much else - it is clear that his father has had a strong influence on his life and values.

Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA):

The Royal Institute of British Architects, one of the most influential architectural institutions in the world, has been promoting architecture and architects since being awarded its Royal Charter in 1837. Then the RIBA's remit was 'the general advancement of architecture'. Today's mission statement continues to embody these sentiments.

The RIBA is a member organisation, with 30,000 members, headed by president Jack Pringle, and with an executive of 170 staff at the HQ in central London and in a dozen regional offices.