ACT Chapter President’s Message – January 2017
So you are back at work and ready to tackle another year. Over the break, you made some resolutions – get fit, spend more time with family, learn a language, keep your desk neat, wear more colour, and offer to support your industry! Ok so I might be wishful thinking with the last one, but the Institute could do with our members help.
Here at the Chapter we are planning for the year’s events and we need your ideas. The option to do the same old stuff isn’t overly appealing to me, so I am hoping that we can enliven Mugga Way with some new (cost neutral!) initiatives. Please send through your thoughts to: act@architecture.com.au
Ken Maher’s foreword in the first issue of the Architecture Australia magazine discussed the importance of improving housing quality, affordability, and density. Our Chapter has set up a ‘task group’ to directly address this issue in the ACT and will be strongly advocating to the ACT Government for change. We are planning on creating a booklet of case study projects, taking key MLA’s on a bus tour of local projects, and continuing the push for a demonstration project that would meet the objectives that we outlined in the NEAT Housing competition. If you know of an exemplar project, or would like to be part of the group, please feel free to contact me.
Last week we met with Caroline Le Couteur, greens member for Murrumbidgee. The discussion included issues around affordable housing and planning matters in the ACT. Specifically, we discussed options for more affordable and better quality housing, progressing the NEAT project and perhaps adopting some of the principles of the Nightingale project in the ACT.
Caroline informed us that the Legislative Assembly will have a number of focussed inquiries this year, including community consultation mechanisms, a review of the Statement of Planning Intent and a reviewed look at redevelopment of the suburbs and zoning requirements. We raised other issues around introducing design review panels, under-resourcing of ACTPLA and its independence as a statutory authority and unsolicited proposals and the standards required.
Overall, it was a very fruitful discussion. Caroline will be meeting with the Sustainability Committee in the coming months around issues such as the solar fence, and other energy efficiency issues of concern to our members
The Architecture Awards are quickly coming up, so please start getting yourselves prepared. Online submissions of entries are due on Friday 3rd March. This year we will be requesting to hold onto your panels so that we can curate some exhibitions throughout the year to promote your work. As usual, we will also be working with the Canberra Times to have the work featured. EmAGN and SONA have agreed to collaborate and create another beautiful display on the awards night and we are workshopping a theme for the evening.
Rob Henry
ACT Chapter President