Ian Ritchie talks about research and the preoccupations that define his practice: an emphasis on the innovative use of materials, an interest in the structural and architectural possibilities of glass, the pursuit of light and lightness in the building envelope, and the potential for collaboration between the disciplines of architecture, engineering, construction, landscape design and art. Ian Ritchie taught at the AA from 1978 until 1981 when he founded Ian Ritchie Architects and co-founded Rice Francis Ritchie, design engineers, in Paris. His firm has received many national and international awards for innovative architecture. He has contributed to the design of the Louvre (pyramids and sculpture courts) and to La Villette Cit des Sciences in Paris, as well as the glass hall at Leipzig Messe, the glass towers of the Reina Sofia Museum of Modern Art in Madrid, the Ecology Gallery at the Natural History Museum in London, Bermondsey Underground Station, a Concert Platform in Crystal Palace, and the Hawking Spacetime Centre.