Nicholas Grimshaw tells Dezeen his future plans as he steps aside as chair of his eponymous firm, to be replaced by principal architect Andrew Whalley.
The 79-year-old architect, who won the RIBA Royal Gold Medal 2019, will remain in an advisory role and will devote much of his time to the new Grimshaw Arts and Architecture Foundation.
In an exclusive interview with Dezeen Grimshaw said he wanted to use his 50 years of experience to help young people enter the industry, and promote diversity and sustainability.
"It's going to be one of my chief interests," he said.
"I've seen the lack of support, and the lack of acknowledgement for what architects can do. The government has decided that the creative industries are a major way of supporting this country, but there isn't the training across the whole field." Andrew Whalley has been elected as the next chair of Grimshaw Architects
Whalley, who joined Grimshaw just a few years after it was founded in 1980, will mobilise the practice's global network of offices to support the foundation's work, which will be funded by an endowment.
"We had an event in New York with [secretary of state for international trade] Liam Fox, and he was extolling the importance of the creative industries have for the UK internationally, and in particular architecture," said Whalley.

"But [there is] a lack of support in education, particularly in schools. Time given for art and creative pursuits, music, drama, all t...