The Royal Institute of British Architects is the UK body for architecture and the
architectural profession. The RIBA’s mission is to advance architecture by demonstrating benefit to society and promoting excellence in the profession with a vision for a better environment. The RIBA works with the government to improve the design quality of public buildings, new homes and new communities.
The RIBA - Bristol & Bath Branch
Bristol and Bath Branch RIBA is the local RIBA membership. The Branch Council consists of elected Chartered RIBA Members with an elected Chairperson. The Branch Council is responsible to the national RIBA Council through the Regional Council. All members are volunteers.
The Branch is affiliated to the Bristol Society of Architects (BSA). The Chairperson of the Branch also serves as the President of the Bristol Society of Architects, and members of Council as members of the BSA Committee.
The Bristol Society of Architects - BSA
In early April 1850 a group of architects gathered together at the Bristol Academy of Fine Arts and there they founded a new society – the Bristol Society of Architects (BSA). The Society’s original aim was to establish a code of practice for Bristol practitioners rather than to establish a style or philosophy. They formed a professional body that strived to establish high standards of competence and behaviour. The architects were marshalled under three heads of Fellows, Graduates and Students. In addition there was a very significant class of Associates which comprised not only engineers and surveyors, but members of all the building trades. The Society was extremely interested in architectural education and in 1864 they started preparing students for the new voluntary RIBA examinations. In 1920 G C Lawrence, a past President of the BSA, helped to create the Royal West of England Academy School of Architecture (RWA). It was agreed that the school would be a branch of the RWA, though the BSA should be responsible for it, and that the BSA members who conducted it should be elected academics. The school was formally opened in June 1921 by HRH the Prince of Wales. In 1928 the school moved to Charlotte Street and then on to 25 Great George Street. The school was closed in 1983.