RIBA launches Google Arts and Culture partnership

A cathedral in Ghana in nighttime, as featured on the RIBA Google Arts and Culture channel

National Cathedral of Ghana, Adjaye Associates, as featured on Civic Architecture in Ghana

(Image credit: TBC)

last updated 18 August 2022

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has unveiled a new platform on Google Arts and Culture. The platform launches with 15 online stories free to view, from the creation of New York’s Central Park to a deep-dive into the aesthetically-pleasing Picturesque movement.

Stories take a wider look at cultural shifts, dissecting the impact of popular culture and inviting contributions from architects. The just-launched Civic Architecture in Modern Ghana topic takes six civic buildings from the Republic of Ghana as a focus, tracing their development from the time of late imperialism through to the present day through the works of Jane Drew, Maxwell Fry, Lindsey Drake and Sir Denis Lasdun. Sir David Adjaye’s designs for a new Cathedral for Accra are also included in a timely nod to Adjaye, who is the 2021 recipient of RIBA’s Royal Gold Medal. Footage from an interview between him and Lesley Lokko, who is starting an architecture school in Ghana, is included in the channel.

black and white building with stairs from civic architecture n Ghana — The Dr Easmon residence, Accra: the internal court 1959, is featured in Civic Architecture In Ghana. Photography: RIBA Collections

The rich diversity of content includes some never-before-exhibited objects, including landscape designer Sir Humphrey Repton’s drawings and business card, private photographs from architects, portraits, parks and garden designs. Other highlights include original drawings by Ernö Goldfinger, Étienne-Louis Boullée and Toyo Ito. The work of Walter Gropius, Pier Luigi Nervi, Kenzo Tange and Diller Scofidio & Renfro are just some of the featured projects from RIBA’s collection which are looked at in closer detail on the channel.

‘This new partnership with Google Arts & Culture creates a great opportunity to inspire and delight a global audience and to showcase our unique treasures. We look forward to curating more online experiences and exhibitions, to illustrate the impact and importance of design and architecture, throughout the ages and around the world,’ says RIBA CEO Alan Vallance. Adds Amit Sood, director of Google Arts & Culture: ‘RIBA has one of the world’s leading architecture collections and inspires and supports global architectural talent as we look to designing the future.’

Building in Ghana in black and white against the sky — College of Technology, Kumasi, Ashanti Region: the workshop 1956, as featured on Civic Architecture in Ghana. *Photography: Peter Pitt, Architectural Press Archive, RIBA*

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Hannah Silver is the Art, Culture, Watches & Jewellery Editor of Wallpaper*. Since joining in 2019, she has overseen offbeat art trends and conducted in-depth profiles, as well as writing and commissioning extensively across the worlds of culture and luxury. She enjoys travelling, visiting artists' studios and viewing exhibitions around the world, and has interviewed artists and designers including Maggi Hambling, William Kentridge, Jonathan Anderson, Chantal Joffe, Lubaina Himid, Tilda Swinton and Mickalene Thomas.