View more than 550 collection items from one of the world’s oldest and most significant architecture collections
The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is pleased to announce a new digital collaboration with Google Arts & Culture, the leading online platform that uses technology to share the unique collections and cultural institutions with a global audience.
RIBA has one of the largest, oldest and most significant architectural collections in the world and is the first UK organisation dedicated to architecture to partner with Google Arts & Culture.
A specially curated selection of 15 online stories is now published and free to view on the Google Arts & Culture platform. They range from the creation of Central Park in New York, modernist buildings in Ghana to the Picturesque movement and from a century of Olympic buildings to a historic tour of key architectural landmarks in Venice.
Featured highlights from the RIBA’s collections will include original drawings by Ernö Goldfinger, Sir Charles Barry (Big Ben), Étienne-Louis Boullée and Toyo Ito. Featured projects include work by Walter Gropius, Pier Luigi Nervi, Kenzo Tange, Jane Drew & Maxwell Fry, Zaha Hadid and Diller Scofidio & Renfro. Early photography of New York and Venice (Carlo Ponti, Carlo Naya and Alinari Fratelli) from the 1860s onwards. A photo of the Louvre in Paris under construction in 1846 can be viewed up close, revealing extraordinary levels of detail.
The curated selection illustrates the international scope of RIBA’s collection, spanning the Renaissance to the present day. It includes some never-before-exhibited objects that showcase more unusual parts of the archive, such as landscape designer Sir Humphrey Repton’s drawings and business card, private photographs from architects, portraits, parks and garden designs. More online stories will be added to the site in the autumn.
About the RIBA collection
The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is home to one of the world’s leading architecture collection. The RIBA collection features over four million items spanning the history of architecture from the 15th century to the present day. Among them are rare illustrated texts, original drawings, architecture models, archive material and photographs, offering global scope and rich historical detail.
The RIBA collection in London is free to visit and open to all. At two main locations in London, visitors can discover and explore some of the treasures of the collection. RIBA has a dynamic programme of exhibitions and events that engage and bring the collection to life, inviting visitors to interact with architectural history within a contemporary framework.
