Jim Antoniou.

Jim Antoniou, who died suddenly aged 66 in January, was a valued contributor to The Architectural Review, particularly on urban matters. Born in Athens, he trained as an architect and planner at the London Polytechnic and worked for Lyons Israel & Ellis before joining Constantinos Doxiadis in the Ekistiks planning team.

Setting up on his own, he developed an international consultancy and research practice, focusing principally, but not exclusively, on issues concerned with developing countries. His clients included the World Bank, UNDP, UNHCR, UNESCO, the European Commission, and the British Department for International Development, for all of whom he travelled extensively throughout the world, often in difficult conditions (he was hijacked at least once). He lectured at many professional and academic institutions world-wide. As writer and journalist, he contributed prolifically to professional and lay publications as well as the AR. Among his books were Historic Cairo and Plaka (the old village round the Acropolis rock in Athens). Both described perambulations through the urban fabric, and were extensively illustrated with his incisive and illuminating sketches and drawings. So were the most recent articles he wrote for the AR, which included urban analyses of Chandigarh (AR March 2003), Beijing (AR April 2001) and Cartagena, Colombia (AR October 1999).

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Jim's humorous, helpful, courteous, knowledgeable (but never knowing) personality is greatly missed by all who knew him. Later this year, the AR hopes to publish his last article (on Athens), on which he was working when he died. P.D.