Deputy Chairman

Jack Pringle

Jack studied at the Bristol University where he won the Professor’s Prize before qualifying as an architect. He worked for Sir Phillip Powell at Powell and Moya for eight years, working on social housing and other public sector projects. In 1981 Jack started his own practice and in 1986 this became Pringle Brandon when Chris Brandon and Melvin Starling joined him.

Since then Jack has worked for an international client base building offices, hotels and particularly, major office fit-out projects. Pringle Brandon has clients such as Rothschild, Barclays, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, Bank of America, Allen and Overy, Diageo, L’Oreal, London Underground and Customs and Excise. During this period Jack has become involved in changing the world of work through research, collaboration and practice. He is particularly interested in how new technologies drive new work practices and how smart premises design can support business objectives. Jack led Pringle Brandon’s ground breaking research in the mid 90’s, 20/20 Vision, which led to the world’s first major flat screen technology dealing room (for Barclay’s Capital) and predicted a move to simpler desks, denser occupation and more social work-settings in the workplace to support the interaction needs of an emerging generation of knowledge workers. In 2007 Jack became a principle in the Joint Venture WIRED to work on the design of schools.

Jack is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA), an honorary member of the American Institute of Architecture (AIA), a Commandeur des Arts et Lettres (a French Government cultural honour), a founder Fellow in the Institute of CPD and a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).

Jack has worked extensively for the RIBA in the area of practice and education. He has travelled widely advising governments, universities and schools of architecture on architectural education. Jack was elected President of the RIBA in September 2005 for a two year term during which he campaigned on climate change, reforming the UK public procurement through PPP and PFI, training architects to work with school children, improving the design quality of the 2012 Olympics, improving the quality of design of UK housing, reforming the planning system and developing the RIBA’s world class cultural collections.

Jack chaired the jury in 2005 and 2006 to select the architect to be awarded the Queen’s Royal Gold Medal for architecture. In 2005 he chaired the jury to award the televised Stirling Prize for the best building of the year and sat on the Architectural Review’s jury to award the architectural prizes in the Middle East. In 2006 he chaired the jury to award the first RIBA Lubetkin Prize for the best building in the world outside of Europe. In 2008 he sat on the panel to judge the first Guild Mark awards for furniture design in 2008. He is currently advising Baroness Blackstone on Greenwich University’s architectural competition for a new school of architecture where he is also a judge.

He is regularly invited to universities as a visiting design critic, to lecture and to judge competitions. He lectures internationally on education, climate change and the importance of good design in the built environment.

Jack has been a Council member of the International Union of Architects (UIA) since 2005 and is leading the RIBA role to manage the UNESCO / UIA’s worldwide academic validation system for courses in architecture. He is a vice chairman of the Construction Industry Council.

Jack is a founder trustee and chair of the increasingly successful charity Article 25 (formerly Architects for Aid).

For recreation, Jack flies airplanes and races offshore sailing boats.