Guest Lecture Series: Jim Eyre
Thursday 28th October
Biography
Jim Eyre is a founding director at WilkinsonEyre where he has led the design on many of the practice’s cultural, commercial and infrastructure projects. It is the challenge of this diversity that drives him, running projects ranging from the Millennium Bridge at Gateshead, which won the RIBA Stirling Prize, to the temporary structure of the London 2012 Basketball Arena, from the RIBA Stirling Prize shortlisted Weston Library for the University of Oxford to the redevelopment of London’s iconic Battersea Power Station.
Running through all his work is Jim’s belief that architecture should combine both analysis and inspiration when being pushed beyond the limits of modernist conventions. He has a particular interest in multi-disciplinary projects where architectural creativity and engineering principles can be combined. His approach continues to evolve with his interest in the spirit of the new, and the relationship of architectural design to both urban and historical contexts and the wider physical landscape.
Jim was awarded an OBE in the 2003 Honours list for services to architecture and was made Honorary Doctor of Laws at Liverpool University in 2009. He has taught at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design and the Illinois Institute of Technology. Jim is one of few architects to be awarded the Royal Academy of Engineering President’s Medal, and is an expert panellist on the Liveable Cities initiative, which researches a method of designing and engineering UK cities with an emphasis on wellbeing and sustainability. In addition to his former role as President of the AA and a Trustee of Design Council CABE, he is currently Commissioner to the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851, Chair of Trustees at the Architectural Association Foundation and Design Council Built Environment Expert. In 2015 Jim was awarded The Bodley Medal for his contribution to the transformation of the New Bodleian into a library for special collections.