About the RTPI

RTPI Centenary 2014

Celebrating the RTPI Centenary in 2014

Welcome to the Institute's Centenary pages.

The Royal Town Planning Institute will be one hundred years old in 2014.

How the Institute started

James Taylor (pictured), our Centenary historical advisor writes:

The term town planning was first used in Britain in 1906. The statutory practice of town planning stemmed from the Housing, Town Planning, etc Act 1909, which permitted local authorities to prepare such schemes for land in course of development, or likely to be developed. On 11 July 1913 a provisional organising committee was established in London and an invitation was sent out to potential members to join a Town Planning Institute.

An inaugural dinner held on 30 January 1914 marked the public launching of the Institute, and the Articles of Association were signed on 4 September 1914, which is regarded as the official date of the Institute's founding.

A first meeting was convened and chaired by Thomas Adams on 21 November 1913. A Council was elected and met the following month. Adams was elected the first President on 13 March 1914.

How we are planning to celebrate the Centenary

Our Centenary in 2014 will provide a tremendous opportunity to raise the profile of planning, the Institute and its membership and the profession as a whole. It gives us a unique chance to look forward to the future of planning whilst at the same time celebrating our rich history and past experience. The RTPI Board of Trustees has identified three guiding principles for how we will organise our Centenary celebrations.

First, the celebrations should look forward as well as back. We want the Centenary celebrations to be as much about the future as the past.

Secondly,we should use what we have by way of annual or regular events and make these extra special for our Centenary year. The RTPI is a very active organisation and many of our normal activities and events can be used as a platform for creating special Centenary activities. For example, annual dinners can become Centenary dinners. Using what we already have for the Centenary is also important in times of constrained resources.

Thirdly, ensuring we co-ordinate our ideas. We have already had a number of excellent suggestions and are putting in place a process to properly consider new ones. We want to support these ideas and do as much as we possibly can. But we also have to make sure that we dont over commit or fail to co-ordinate activity effectively. To help do this we are setting up a Centenary Group to co-ordinate our activities and ideas.

Our initial ideas

Our initial proposals for the year includean audio history project, a Royal event, a book to mark our 100 years, special Centenary branding and an education for the future project. We are also be identifying worthwhile international aspects of the Centenary, and monitoring Centenary-related activities to which the Institute can contribute to ensure a cost-effective way of demonstrating the international reach and reputation of the Institute.

Project plans are being prepared for each strand of Centenary activity. Where an activity falls within the remit of a committee or panel it will be overseen by that committee with the relevant RTPI officer acting as project manager and the committee Chair or Vice Chair acting as project champion.

There will be a national Centenary logo developed in the coming months and we will not be authorising the use of local ones to ensure a clearly identifiable branding to the year and this will help give a distinctive branding and identity to all of the RTPIs Centenary activity.

We are also exploring options for Centenary merchandise and we are keen to hear from members if you have had recent experience of producing merchandise which has sold well. Email us at: centenary2014@rtpi.org.uk

We are already receiving large numbers of ideas about what we might do for the Centenary. In order to cope with these if you have an idea that you want to submit you can advise us by completing this form so that we can quickly assess and respond to ideas.

RTPI Regions and Nations

The RTPI Regions and Nations are a vital part of the organisation and the one that most members relate to directly. The Centenary activities need to reflect the RTPI across all of the constituent parts and we need to have key national and regional events themed around the Centenary. Regions & Nations have begun to think about their own plans for the year and about opportunities for the Centenary. Members will want to find out what plans their regions and nations will be developing.