Ian Ritchie Architects represent the United Kingdom at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2004 alongside eight other practices selected and curated by Peter Cook. The theme was METAMORPH, for which the practice chose to exhibit three projects: Plymouth Theatre Royal Production Centre, The Spire and Whitecity. These projects echo the theme in the way their architecture has shifted the perception of material, scale and building typology. Three walls translated these perceptions.
Five phosphor-bronze mesh panels replicating those used in the external cladding of the Plymouth Theatre Royal Production Centre covered one wall of the exhibition room. These panels invited visitors to touch and experience vicariously the tactility of the actual building. Texts were presented in the form of monographs published by Categorical Books on the Plymouth Theatre Royal Production Centre and The Spire. These books were held in stands especially designed to sway “like sunflowers” at different heights to suit both adults and children.

The Whitecity project was presented on four large seamless prints. An aerial photograph with the plan of Whitecity superimposed illustrated its urban context and immense scale. Below, the challenges and opportunities of the project were presented in a series of texts and vignettes. An image, the full height of the room gave a hint of the scale of its covered streets. A common theme throughout the British Pavilion was the architects’ audio explanation. A suspended and focused speaker played extracts from a dialogue between Ian Ritchie and the Whitecity client.
The film by Stopwatch produced by Dublin City Council and Ian Ritchie Architects documenting the story of The Spire and its fabrication was screened with headphones in front of a wall of calligraphic architectural etchings by Ian Ritchie. These etchings communicate the ethos of the practice and design concepts. . A 4.2m long shot-peened and polished stainless steel “log” allowed visitors to relax to watch the film or simply to relax.