Vicky Richardson

Vicky Richardson

Vicky Richardson is an internationally respected curator, writer and educator specialising in architecture and design. In 2014 she was nominated for Debrett's 500, as one of the 20 most influential people in British architecture; in 2015 she was named a 'Woman of the Year', and received an Honorary Fellowship from the Royal Institute of British Architects.

Biography

From 2021-2024 she was Head of Architecture and Drue Heinz Curator at the Royal Academy of Arts, led the RA Architecture Programme and curated critically acclaimed exhibitions including Light Lines: the architectural photography of Hélène Binet (October 2021-January 2022); John Hejduk: London Masque (March 2022-May 2023); Herzog & de Meuron (July-October 2023), and Architecture Window (Feb 2024-present).

Prior to joining the Royal Academy she worked as an independent curator, and commissioned/curated the installation 'Right to Climb' by Kurdish artist Walid Siti (London, 2020 and Bristol 2021). She was curator of the exhibition What Where: Crossing Boundaries in the Architecture of Sala Beckett, which explored the work of Barcelona architect Flores & Prats, at the Roca London Gallery (2019).

She has held several academic and teaching roles, including Visiting Lecturer at the Royal College of Art Interior Design MA where she ran the Interior Urbanism Platform from 2019-2021. She has served as a Council member and Honorary Treasurer of the Architectural Association. From 2017-2018 she was Associate Director at the London School of Architecture and during this crucial phase of the school's development, she established a public programme and curated the exhibition Idencity at the Roca London Gallery.

Richardson was Director of Architecture, Design and Fashion at the British Council, the UK's international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations from 2010 to 2016. An important part of this role was to act as Commissioner of the British Pavilion at Venice Architecture Biennale. Exhibitions during this period included Villa Frankenstein, curated by Muf architecture/art (2010); Venice Takeaway: Ideas to change British Architecture, co-curated by Richardson and Vanessa Norwood (2012); A Clockwork Jerusalem, curated by FAT and Crimson Architectural Historians (2014), and Home Economics, curated by Shumi Bose, Jack Self and Finn Williams (2016).

Richardson has a particular interest in China, and was co-founder of the UK-China Fellowship with Lantao Design Academy in 2019, and hosted a symposium at the Royal College of Art in October 2019. She was invited to be Section Curator of the inaugural Guangzhou Design Triennial held at Guangdong Museum of Art, China from January-May 2024. She was a founding member of China Europe Design, and online platform and annual conference to stimulate dialogue and new models of co-creation between China and Europe.

She is a prolific writer of essays and articles for books and magazines, a regular public speaker and chair of events. Her writing is published in magazines and newspapers including RIBA Journal, Wallpaper*, Gagosian Magazine, Evening Standard, Dezeen and Icon. She is a regular public speaker and convenor of events, including the symposium 'Rebuilding Aleppo: memory, loss and creation' at the Freud Museum in June 2018, and 'The Successful Architect?' at the Royal Academy in July 2018.

She studied architecture at the University of Westminster after a foundation degree in art at Central St Martins. She was deputy editor at the RIBA Journal before becoming editor of leading design magazine Blueprint, a role she held from 2004 to 2010.

Richardson was a member of the Advisory panel of the V&A Dundee from 2015-2020. She was a co-director of the London Festival of Architecture and a member of the London Mayor's Cultural Strategy Group, which advised on the British capital's culture policy. She is regularly a member design juries including the RIBA Architecture Awards, the D&AD Awards and the Architect of the Year Awards.

She is a visiting critic at design and architecture schools, and writes about architecture and design for a variety of publications. Essays include "Spaces of Potential" in the Herzog & de Meuron exhibition catalogue (RA Publications, 2023), "Judgement" in Five Critical Essays on The Crit (2023), "Queen Caroline's Temple and the Origins of Experimental Design in Kensington Gardens" in the Serpentine Pavilion catalogue (2016) and "Trade Show" for Faye Toogood at London Design Festival (2017). Books include New Vernacular Architecture (Laurence King, 2002) and In Defence of the Dome (ASI, 1999). In 2015, Richardson completed an MA in Early Modern History at King's College London. Her dissertation focused on the English publication and censorship of Common Sense, the first pamphlet by Thomas Paine, in 1776.