RIBA presidents represent UK in Beijing

Sunand Prasad and Jack Pringle are to represent British design expertise in Beijing later this month.

Prasad, the president elect of the RIBA, and Pringle, the immediate past president, will speak at a trade and investment seminar and attend events at the closing stages of the Games.

The intention, according to Prasad, is to ensure that the lessons of staging the Olympics are taken on ahead of London's staging of the Games in 2012.

He said: “We have much to learn from getting first-hand experience in how the Games will go. We will see how the venues work, how the crowds flow, how the closing ceremony is handled.”

Prasad, one of the judges for the Olympic Velodrome competition, said the RIBA had lobbied the Olympic Delivery Authority in the UK to ensure that design quality is upheld on the London Games.

“When Jack was president, he was very critical of the early designs and played a part in raising the game,” said Prasad. “The RIBA has continued to play an active role in looking at how the designs might work.”

The pair will also join enterprise minister Lord Digby Jones and directors from Arup and Atkins in speaking at a UK Trade and Investment event in the Chinese capital.

Prasad said it was “extremely important” to share the knowledge of British expertise with the architects shaping the Chinese capital.

“We have matchless expertise in infrastructure and design knowledge around the world,” he said. “In a country where development is taking place at a breakneck speed, we want to say: this is what we have found - what do you think?”