Shaun Carter officially handed over the reins of the NSW President’s role to me three weeks ago. On behalf of all NSW members, my sincere thanks once again to Shaun for the amazing job he has done arguing for the public interest in good design and heritage conservation over the last two years.
The Premier Gladys Berejiklian has said that affordable housing will be a major focus for her government. I strongly believe that the profession has the knowledge and skills to help frame a sensible discussion on this very important subject.
I was interviewed live on Sky News on Saturday 11th February specifically to discuss this issue. I emphasized that it was not sustainable for the supply of new housing to come from new fringe land releases. If we want a livable, walkable and efficient city, then new housing must come from within the existing city footprint by increasing density in strategic locations. Sydney is a low density city by world standards and the urban sprawl should not continue as a lazy solution to housing supply. This is something that I plan to advocate strongly on directly to the NSW government in the coming months.
It is awards season again. Best of luck to all those who submitted their entries last week. We held an Awards Jury briefing session at Tusculum on 13th February with the nineteen members who make up the five separate juries.
Last Wednesday we hosted GET: Flexible at Tusculum, part of a series of three talks organized by the NSW Gender Equity Taskforce to explore approaches to more equitable working practice. Misty Waters from Bespoke Careers, along with Adam Haddow (SJB), Najla Khoury (BKA) and David Melocco (Melocco and Moore) spoke about the benefits and common challenges of a flexible workspace, and then participated in a facilitated discussion and Q&A.
The Greater Sydney Commission has recently celebrated its first birthday. I attended the inaugural GSC Planning Awards last Thursday. The GSC has also issued draft district plans for comment; the Institute’s Built Environment Committee is currently preparing a detailed response. I encourage all members to familiarize themselves with the GSC website http://www.greater.sydney/ and the work they do, including the district plans.
Andrew Nimmo
NSW Chapter President