Alan Jones (architect)

Alan Montgomery Jones (born 1964) is a chartered architect based in Northern Ireland, UK. In August 2018 he was elected^[1] the next President^[2] of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and will take over the two-year presidential term from Ben Derbyshire on the 1st September 2019. In 2016 his significant contribution to practice, education, and the profession were acknowledged by the Royal Institute of British Architects making him a Fellow^[3] of their institution. In March 2016 he also accepted an Honorary Fellowship^[4] from the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland.^[5] Of the projects he was worked on, seven have received RIBA awards and two were shortlisted for the Stirling Prize. In 2016 he was a runner-up in the election for President of the RIBA - he received 44% of the final vote. Alan was nationally elected to RIBA Council in 2015. In September 2015 he received unanimous approval of RIBA Council to be Vice President of Education for 2015-17 and again approved for 2017-18. Alan has been a member of the RSUA Council from 1998 to 2006 and from 2007. He has been an invited judge for RIBA, RIAS and RSUA awards and the prestigious Scottish RIAS Andrew Doolan Prize. In May 2012 he became the President of the Royal Society of Ulster Architects for 2012-14. During the recent recession Alan led architectural education (2008–16) in Queen’s University (Russell Group) from mid rankings to regularly being placed high in the Guardian League Table and first in the 2018 table for added value. He also gives advice to other leading schools of architecture through external advisor roles and external examining at parts 1 and 2 (Manchester, Dundee and University of Nottingham). In 2018 he accepted an invitation to join the executive committee of the Commonwealth Association of Architects, to guide equivalence and transferability of professional qualifications across numerous countries.

Practice

Alan Jones is the founder of Alan Jones Architects, based in Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. Having previously worked with London-based Michael Hopkins and Partners for seven years and as an associate with David Morley Architects, Jones returned to Northern Ireland in 1998 to take up private practice as principal of Alan Jones Architects and to teach at the School of Architecture, Queens University Belfast.

Through AJA he has since realised numerous projects, including the stainless steel-clad farmhouse extension at Cranfield (RIBA Award); Straidhavern School; his family home in Randalstown; and an office for a coffee importer in Belfast, which received a special mention in the Architectural Association of Ireland awards - the first N Ireland project to do so for seven years. His own Randalstown house received the RSUA Design Award for residential projects and a RIBA Award and shortlisted for the RIBA Manser Medal.

Projects led by Alan Jones also include the £4.2M Strabane Arts Centre, a joint project by Glenn Howells Architects, Birmingham and Alan Jones Architects - which gained an RSUA Award and was shortlisted for a RIBA Award. Alan also acts as an expert witness on design matters.

The work of Alan Jones / AJA has been featured in various publications - RIBA Journal, Architects Journal, Domus (Milan), Wallpaper*, Architecture Today, Blueprint, Vision (Shanghai), Hinge (Hong Kong), and the Sunday Times. The Daily Telegraph (London) listed Jones as one of the UK's "top notch architects".^[6] His work has also been included in technical publications including Birkhauser's Fibre Cement: Technology and Design (2006) and the RIBA Guide to Architectural Insitu Concrete (2007).

Education & Research

From 2018-16 Jones jointly managed and led Architecture in Queen's University.^[7] Alan Jones is a Senior Lecturer at Queen's University Belfast and became its Director of Education (Architecture) in August 2008.^[8] He has been invited to be a design critic at the schools of architecture in Delft, Robert Gordon Institute of Technology, Aberdeen, Cambridge, North London, Bath and Dublin Institute of Technology Dublin and University College Dublin.^[8] He was a member of the RIBA Education Committee (2001-2012) and the Architects Council for Europe Education Working Group (2003-2009). He was a member of the national RIBA Research and Innovation Group and Research Grants Committee for 2010-17. Through over 100 role models his "Success through Architecture" project documents the diversity of mainstream practice and the "extended profession" within other areas of business and culture. He was a member of the advisory panel, along with Robin Nicholson and others, for the 2015-17 AHRC funded research Project "The Value of Architecture and Architects".

Education

He was educated at the state-funded D H Christie Memorial Primary School (part of The Honorable The Irish Society) group of schools. This was followed by two state-funded secondary level schools Coleraine Academical Institution and Ballymena Academy and then, courtesy of an education grant at Queen's University Belfast.

Publications

• "Defining Contemporary Professionalism", co-edited with Rob Hyde, RIBA Publishing, expected late 2018.
• "Studying Architecture Well - A student guide to enhancing mental fitness, health & wellbeing and outcome when studying architecture in the UK", RIBA, expected September 2018.
• "Toward an architecture: Ulster - Building our own authenticity", with David Brett, Black Square Books, 2008.

References

External links

• Alan Jones Architects
• Success Through Architecture