March 11 2005

Sebastian Tombs is to be the first chief executive at Architecture and Design Scotland. The eagerly awaited appointment was announced by Raymond Young, chair at ADS, at the RIAS/Scottish Executive Urban Design conference. Tombs appointment throws open a significant vacancy at the RIAS, the £55,000 post has already been advertised in the press. Tombs will take up his position at ADS in April on a part-time basis to allow for a handover to the incoming RIAS secretary. Tombs’ appointment may reassure architects that the new design quango will be sympathetic to the need and aspirations of the profession.

Gordon Murray, president at RIAS, said: “Since Devolution we have redefined the RIAS as the premier voice on architecture in Scotland and reinforced links with The Lighthouse, RCAHMS, RTPI and RICS. Sebastian’s appointment as ADS’s new chief executive and Raymond Young as chair provides an opportunity to further develop those friendships and presents the council of the RIAS with an opportunity to shift emphasis in strategic thinking, in the appointment of its new president and a new chief executive.”
The RIAS recently elected Doug Read as its new president. Read will take up his position in May, at the RIAS convention.

Tombs has worked at the RIAS since 1986, and has held the position of chief executive and secretary of the RIAS for the last ten years. During this time Tombs had placed the body on a sound financial footing, brokered a new charter and a partnership agreement with the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA); initiated the accreditation schemes for Building Conservation and Sustainable Building Design and supported and encouraged inter-disciplinary working through the Urban Design Alliance (UDAL).

Tombs is a chartered architect, who worked in Philadelphia before settling in Scotland, in 1975, where he has worked in private practice, a community housing association, the Housing Corporation and Edinburgh District Council Housing Department before joining the RIAS. He was founder of the Scottish Ecological Design Association, and the Association of Planning Supervisors, and has stood for the Scottish Liberal Democrat Party, in the Edinburgh North and Leith constituency.

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