Mark Wilson Jones Announced as the New TAG Chairman

At the TAG AGM on Monday 28t June, with a good number attending in person and a few more via Zoom, members voted in the new Chairman and we are delighted to announce that this is Mark Wilson Jones who takes over the reins from Francis Terry.

Mark Wilson Jones was in Pompeii on Monday but managed to hot foot it back to the wifi connection in the site hut to attend the AGM virtually and so was able to be welcomed in there and then.

Mark is an architect and architectural historian whose research can cross over into the domain of archaeology. Having begun his architectural training at the University of Cambridge and completed it at the then Polytechnic of Central London (now University of Westminster) he was awarded the Rome Prize in Architecture at the British School at Rome.  After several years combining research with architectural practice in London and Rome, he joined the department of Architecture and Civil Engineering here in 2000, where he teaches primarily architectural history and theory.

His research interests revolve around issues of design, especially as regards the ancient period and the classical way of building. He likes to understand why and how certain forms and patterns came into being and endured. He wrote Principles of Roman Architecture (Yale UP 2000) which is the only book to have been awarded both the Banister Fletcher Prize by the RIBA and the Alice Davis Hitchcock Medallion by the Society of Architectural Historians (UK). Another book with the same press, Origins of Classical Architecture, was published in 2014, while The Pantheon in Rome from Antiquity to the Present, co-edited with Tod Marder (Cambridge University 2015) won the American PROSE for best book of that year.

Aside from miscellaneous publications (including on the design of the Parthenon in Athens), his primary current research relates to the funded three-year fellowship for the project Emulation to Replication. Shifting Modes of Architectural Design.

We are very pleased to have him as our new Chairman and carry on and build upon the good work Francis Terry has done over the past four years. At the AGM we gave a vote of thanks to Francis. During his tenure we have expanded our activities to include visits, holding exhibitions, and expanded our Awards Programme which is growing year on year. Last year we launched the TAG Talks series having been given the idea by member Georgia Christea. This was in response to last years hiatus, but will continue, as it is a great way of reaching out to our members and beyond. 

We look forward to continuing to grow and develop TAG and expand our programme of events and activities.