RIBA President, Simon Allford, pays tribute to architect Chris Wilkinson who passed away on 15 December 2021.
“Chris was a great architect and an engaging, committed and generous man. He was very much a modern man, but he was also a true gentleman.
After working with Denys Lasdun, Lord Foster, Lord Rogers and Michael Hopkins in his formative years, in 1987, aged 38, Chris set up practice with long-term collaborator Jim Eyre. Chris will be remembered for the many distinguished projects produced by his highly talented, twice Stirling Prize-winning practice, Wilkinson Eyre. Their many landmark buildings and bridges rightly earnt Chris fellowships and doctorates around the world.
Not only an esteemed architect, Chris was also a writer (Supersheds 1991), Royal Academician, painter, teacher and academic.
I consider myself most fortunate to have spent time with Chris and his family and to have become a good friend. So I know how his elegant warmth, enthusiasm and thirst for knowledge and life will be sorely missed not only by his wife Diana, his children Zoe and Dominic, but by their many friends. His passing is a great loss to architecture and to all those he encountered.”
Last year, Chris took part in RIBA Journal’s ‘Hindsight’ series looking back at his career.
