First woman appointed to head architecture body

Published on Friday 22 January 2010 21:52

RESPECTED Glasgow architect Karen Anderson has been named the first woman chief of Scotland's architecture and planning "champion" Architecture and Design Scotland.

The appointment of an architect with a track record of quality, "not ritzy" projects to head the quango was welcomed even by A&DS critics.

"I'm heartened by her appointment," said Malcolm Fraser, the leading Scottish architect who resigned from the A&DS board soon after it was established over its approach to school design.

Ms Anderson graduated from Glasgow's Mackintosh School of Architecture in 1984 and is a founding partner of Anderson, Bell and Christie architects in Glasgow. She has a background in social housing and experience in urban and rural planning in locations as diverse as Raploch in Stirling and the Isle of Gigha.

A&DS had struggled for credibility among architects and had been "reined in" as an independent voice, Mr Fraser said, but Ms Anderson had a strong CV.