Fiona Hyslop, Minister for Culture and External Affairs, has announced the appointment of the new Chair of Architecture and Design Scotland.

The new Chair is Karen Anderson, an architect and a founding partner of Anderson Bell Christie Architects, Glasgow.

She graduated from Glasgow's Mackintosh School of Architecture in 1984 and has been in practice as an architect since then.

Karen has significant experience in social housing and community involvement in re-development, working on masterplanning and, urban and rural design guidance in areas as diverse as Raploch, Stirling; the Isle of Gigha; Argyll and Bute; and North Lanarkshire.

She is a former Commissioner of the Royal Fine Art Commission for Scotland and is currently a Board member of Architecture and Design Scotland. She has been a part-time lecturer in Architecture at the University of Strathclyde and was until recently Convenor of the Saltire Housing Design Awards Panel.

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Anderson Bell Christie was established in 1991 and has since built up a strong reputation for high quality design across the housing, regeneration, health and education sectors. The practice was recently shortlisted in four categories of Building Design magazine's Architect of the Year awards: masterplanning, residential (Private), residential (Public) and education.

Significant projects completed by the practice in recent years include Auchterarder Community School; Erskine Mains Care Home; a private residential development at Queen Elizabeth Square, Glasgow; and the Scottish National Epilepsy Centre.

This appointment will be for four years and will run from April 1, 2010 to March 31, 2014.

This post is part-time and attracts a remuneration of £200 per day for a time commitment of up to 4 days per month.

Karen Anderson holds no other Ministerial appointment, with the exception of her current term of office as a Board member of Architecture and Design Scotland, which will be completed when she becomes Chair of the organisation.

(GK/BMcc)