Club Review | Michael Stiff - Club Chairman
Tuesday 6 December 2022
As our Centenary year draws to a close and we look back on the events of the past twelve months or so, the covid years seem like a dim and distant memory. Whilst we have been ‘back to normal’ with in-person Club events and parties, the world around feels anything but normal. 2022 has shifted the axis of our anxieties from Covid to European war, food shortages, mortgage hikes and global inflation. It is a year that has seen the death of our Queen and one in which we have been governed by three Prime Ministers. Despite this turmoil our lives carry on, and I am pleased to report that our Club has had a busy Centenary year. The centre piece was the Summer Party which was held at Cecil Sharpe House, where over 200 members and their guests gathered for an evening of great music, food, wine and conversation. We used the party as a platform to invite a cohort of younger non-members to sample the atmosphere and conviviality of our events. I must thank Neil Pinder Paul Monaghan and Hugh Pearman for helping to put the list together, and I am pleased to say that many of our guests have taken up the offer of membership. Our membership is at around 355, which is very healthy, we are always interested in bringing new members on board, in particular we are keen to bolster the roster of non-architects. In the spring we had a lively debate around the subject of activism, this was suggested and organised by Committee member Celeste Bolte who co-leads on our up-and-coming members. It has been heartening to see Celeste and her team step up to organise a number of Club events this year including the debate plus visits to Battersea Power Station and 21 Moorfields (the Deutsche Bank HQ) both by Wilkinson Eyre and The Standard Hotel by ORMS. A visit to the Design District in Greenwich was another popular highlight, all these and past events have been reviewed and can be read on the Events page on the website. Earlier in the year we announced that there would be a lecture in honour of past member Prof. Robert Maxwell, this in fact will now be happening next year and we hope, to make it an annual or bi-annual event going forward. I am pleased to report that the Club’s finances continue too be on a sound footing, big thanks to our Treasurer Kim Britten for all her hard work on that front. We do not intend to raise our subscription rates this year, and we are planning a full programme of events for 2023, including, we hope an overseas club trip. This has been a memorable year for The Architecture Club, and my thanks and gratitude go to our President Sir John Tusa and the rest of our hard-working committee, without them and of course our administrator Rowena none of this would happen. Thanks as well to you all for your continued support, I look forward to seeing you at some of our events next year, starting with the Winter Party on the 23rd of January at Upstairs, The Department Store in Brixton. Have a relaxing Christmas break and good luck in 2023, something tells me we are going to need it! With best wishes, Mike