NSW Chapter President, Andrew Nimmo

July 2017

I hope you enjoyed our Awards presentation in the Big Top at Luna Park last Saturday as much as I did. This was a memorable night celebrating notable achievements in the things architects do best – designing buildings and spaces that contribute to making the world a better place. I particularly appreciated the skilful hosting by journalist and broadcaster Virginia Trioli.

Many thanks to the members who produced the work for the 211 entries, the jurors, the awards committee, our supporting partners – BlueScope, Dulux, Bondor, AWS, Smeg, Waste Wise, Big Ass Fans, and Bespoke – Hannah Burgess, Rosanna Scarcella, the volunteers and many others behind the scenes who helped to make this such a successful event.

Congratulations to the 27 projects awarded commendations on the night and best wishes and good luck to the 39 award winners whose projects now proceed to the national awards.

Honouring the people’s hero

This year my first President’s Prize acknowledges an individual whose impact on the fabric of this city is perhaps greater than any other. Not because of the buildings he designed, or commissioned, or built – but because of the buildings he saved.

Jack Mundey is now clearly on the right side of history, but in the 1970s there were many who saw him as a dangerous radical and “henchman”.

From the world’s first Green Ban in 1971 to save Kelly’s Bush; and subsequent Green Bans throughout the decade that saved buildings and precincts across the city, from The Rocks to Woolloomooloo and beyond, Jack Mundey, in his role as Secretary of the NSW Builders’ Labourers Federation, was the face of the Green Bans movement and a hero to many.

Along the way he was elected to Sydney City Council as an Alderman in 1984; appointed Chair of the Historic Houses Trust by Premier Bob Carr in 1995; named a National Living Treasure by the National Trust in 1997; awarded honorary doctorates from the University of Western Sydney, the University of NSW and a Master of Environment from University of Sydney and appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2000.

Jack has continued to advocate for the preservation of places steeped in history, culture and social networks. He reminds us we can never take conservation and heritage protection for granted, that we must always be prepared to fight for what we know to be important.

Jack Mundey is truly a man of the people.

He used his position in the trade union movement to support the residents of entire neighbourhoods like the Rocks, Millers Point, Victoria Street and Woolloomooloo to save their houses from demolition.

He’s also a democrat. His union invoked a green ban only after it had received a formal request from the local community AND a vote of members had agreed to the ban.

And he hasn’t given up the fight.

Last year he joined Shaun Carter and the local community in their bid to save the Sirius building, a place designed and built to house residents of the Rocks who had been displaced by a government determined to redevelop the area.

The story of that campaign for a social housing icon is not yet over.

As Jack himself said while he was Chairman of the Historic Houses Trust 20 years ago: ‘Too many of the best 20^th century buildings have been lost and others are under threat of demolition. In this period there is an opportunity to lift the level of debate about society’s responsibility to protect the best of our built environment and heritage.’

For his extraordinary contribution to the preservation of our built heritage through his activist advocacy for nearly 50 years, Jack Mundey is a worthy recipient of the 2017 President’s Prize.

Andrew Nimmo
NSW Chapter President

NSW Chapter President’s Message 22 May 2017

It was the American philosopher and reformer John Dewey who said: ‘Democracy has to be born anew every generation….’

Dewey’s maxim is particularly relevant in the light of the current prevailing attitude of the NSW Government to the protection of our built heritage. You have to go back more than 40 years to the Askin government to find another administration so in thrall to dollar values and so indifferent to protecting the public interest in the State’s built heritage, or even to the concept of public interest itself.

Thanks largely to the energetic public campaign led by my predecessor, Shaun Carter, the government-owned Sirius building has become the symbol of popular unrest against a government that neglects not only the maintenance of its own property but also its historical and architectural importance. The long-suffering community of Millers Point is being torn apart because of the government’s determination to sell properties they have inhabited for decades, despite the same government’s neglect of the houses they live in.

In the case of Sirius the amnesia is so complete that the government ignores the very reason for its design and construction as custom-built housing for local residents who would otherwise have been thrown on to the streets. The building is a celebration in physical form of the meaning of the Green Bans campaign.

But to this government it’s the $70M income from its demolition that matters, not its architectural, social or historical significance.

Fencing has recently been erected outside the Sirius building       Photo: Ben Peake

Similarly, the long-term lease of the Bridge Street sandstone buildings, so fundamental to Sydney’s understanding of itself, is symptomatic of a government that sees no value in maintaining public buildings for public purposes. Even some of the arguments used as justification – that the private sector would make a better job of the buildings’ conservation and maintenance than the government itself – betray an existential despair that devalues the very concept of public interest and the public domain.

The government is not just a group of elected lawmakers. It is a corporate entity that has a symbolic value representing the continuity of the administration and public life of the community reaching right back to the landing of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove and the thousands of years of prior Aboriginal occupation and management of the land we now know as New South Wales.

The frustration here is that, as the government operates a heritage management system for the community, it should be government itself that sets the standard for both retaining and conserving government-owned buildings – buildings that are managed on the community’s behalf. With the Sirius non-decision, it has actually achieved the opposite; it has signalled to the rest of the community, particularly the private sector, that heritage protection is of no value if it prevents the owner from reaping a financial windfall from the sale of the site.

When a government administration is so neglectful of the value and significance of its own history you begin to realise the validity of Dewey’s observation. What is the meaning of our democracy in the 21^st century? Is the conservation of our built heritage still relevant in a globally interconnected world? What is the value of retaining these elements of our collective past? How do we make their significance relevant to contemporary life?

John Dewey helps us to answer these questions. The full quotation is: ‘Democracy has to be born anew every generation – and education is its midwife’. Education right across the board. It’s not only the community that needs to rediscover the meaning and value of democracy, but also the government and the public sector. We should all be participants in this enterprise, not combatants.

Knowledge is power; it also builds cohesion, understanding and respect.

To give credit where it’s due, the government’s former Planning Minister, Rob Stokes, has proposed including the sustainable management of built and cultural heritage as one of the objectives of an amended Environmental Planning & Assessment Act. This would help to fix an anomaly that’s bedevilled heritage management for the last 40 years: heritage and planning are in two separate pieces of legislation that don’t relate well to each other. Making heritage management an objective of the planning legislation would help to knit them together more effectively.

It’s perhaps ironic that the Wran Labor government created the problem in the 1970s, but there’s a chance that the Berejiklian Coalition government will now close the gap.

Student Awards

As if we ever needed a reminder that heritage is something that we keep producing, I recently chaired the NSW Graduate & Student Awards jury along with jury members Steve Kooloos, (Marsh Cashman Kooloos), Dr Karen Burns (University of Melbourne), Deborah Hodge (Durbach Block Jaggers) and Michael Wiener (Mirvac Design).

These awards are an important measure of the design excellence exhibited within the four NSW schools of architecture. In line with the NSW Architecture Awards process, this year students had five minutes to present their work, in addition to the physical submission of drawings and models.

As expected, the standard of the award winners was very high, but it was some of the work of the first degree students that particularly stood out and really excited the jury.

These awards are precisely the reason that the Institute holds education as one of its key pillars, and with it our shared aspirations of a culture of excellence.

The work is on display at Tusculum until the end of the week.

Andrew Nimmo
NSW President

 

Last week I was inaugurated into National Council with a mentally exhausting but constructive three days in Canberra attending a series of meetings and briefings. This included a general National Councillor induction, Parliamentary breakfast, National Council meeting and Institute strategy session. The breakfast event at Parliament House and was attended by 50 Federal members and their advisers. The theme of the event was Affordable Housing and National President Ken Maher delivered a wide ranging speech on how architects need to be part of the discussion and have much to offer. The speech can be viewed here. I took the time after the breakfast to chat with John Alexander, perhaps the most vocal federal Liberal member on the issue, and I hope to catch up with him again in future to reinforce Ken’s message.

Thursday’s strategy session was a time for some high level thinking about where the Institute is heading in the next few years, as we consolidate after the recent restructure and flesh-out the three pillars of Advocacy, Education and Membership. What was clear from the general discussion was that everything we do should be about membership as that is what we are – a member organization. 

I attended the Newcastle Architecture Awards on 9th March and it was fantastic to see both a great selection of projects from a range of practices being recognized, and the buoyant mood of the profession in Newcastle. There seems to be a general feeling that Newcastle is going through a bit of a renaissance, and that architects are playing an important role in that process of change. There is so much untapped potential in the built fabric of Newcastle that we can add value to.

Thursday night was the Sydney launch of ‘Chasing The Sky: 20 Stories of Women in Architecture’ by Maven Publishing held at Tusculum and attended by eleven of the twenty featured architects. Showcasing twenty of Australia’s leading women in architecture, Chasing the Sky presents the voices and wisdom of some of Australia’s most dynamic practitioners both as acclaimed individuals and as a diverse collective.

Last Friday Past President Shaun Carter, Heritage Committee Chair Hector Abrahams, Executive Director Joshua Morrin and I met with the Shadow Minister for Heritage, Penny Sharpe MLC at her request. We spoke about the importance of meaningful protections for heritage; that heritage is more than just the physical and financial value of buildings and that we need to expand our thinking beyond the individual items to think more about precincts and place making. We of course spoke about Sirius and why it is critical that governments take the advice of the experts that they have put in place to advise them; such as the Heritage Council. The battle for Sirius is not over, with the upcoming court challenge to have the Minister’s decision annulled – supported by the Save Our Sirius Foundation and Millers Point Community Association through the Environmental Defenders Office – set for the first week in April.

 

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 11^th 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 13^th 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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Welcome to 2017. I hope all members had a safe and enjoyable holiday break.

We’d all heard the rumours, but did we really think we would have a new Premier within the first month of the year? Never has that much-quoted adage – a week’s a long time in politics – been so appropriate. I am sure that we are all pleased to see the new Premier announcing housing affordability as the key issue for her term in the top job.

This is also one of the key priorities for the Institute this year. Our national advocacy priorities have been grouped around built outcome quality, climate mitigation and adaptation, affordable housing, infrastructure planning and funding and reducing red tape.

Amendments to planning legislation 
Following the release of the government’s draft architecture and design policy and medium density design guide last year, former Planning Minister Rob Stokes hit the ground running with the release of draft amendments to the state’s planning legislation earlier this month. The key recommendation affecting our profession is the intention to make good design an objective of the Act. 

This is not just legal window-dressing. It potentially gives design considerations legislative teeth, enabling them to be used as the justification for refusing or amending development proposals.

It also creates opportunities for architects to play a much greater role in the planning system. Following the recent cabinet reshuffle, we will take this up with the new Planning Minister Anthony Roberts.

Architects in the planning system
Just think about it.

Who do developers turn to if they want to prove their good design credentials? Architects.                                          
Whose practical visualisation skills give 3D reality to strategic planning? Architects.                                
Who can best advise the community on the potential impact of development proposals? Architects.
Whose design expertise makes the greatest contribution to design review panels? Architects.                  
Who can best assess the impact of development proposals on the local context? Architects.              
Who can provide the design expertise needed by independent hearing and assessment panels and other expert development consent bodies? Architects.                                                                             
Who can fulfil the role of certifier while also understanding the design intent of the project? Architects.     
And finally, who can objectively explain the meaning of ‘good design’ in a court environment? Architects.

These are some of the opportunities that will open up to the profession once the new objective is legislated.

Awards
I’m confident this will be another great year for the NSW Architecture Awards. Make sure you get your entries in well before the deadline of 22 February. Many thanks to our Newcastle members for the 30 entries we received for this year’s Newcastle Architecture Awards.

Australia Day Honours
I was delighted that John McInerney AM FRAIA was recognised last week for significant service to town planning, and to architecture, to professional organisations, to local government, and to the community. John has been a Fellow of the Institute since 2003 and a member since 1998. I have had a close working relationship with him in his role as Chair of the Millers Point, Dawes Point, The Rocks and Walsh Bay Residents Action Group. He has been a driving force behind the campaign to save the Sirius building. We owe him a great debt for the way in which he has applied his extensive planning skills and experience in the interests of heritage conservation and the long-term interests of the wider community.

Shaun Carter
NSW President

NSW Chapter President, Shaun Carter. Photo by Brett Boardman

5 December, 2016

In addition to wishing all members a safe and enjoyable holiday break, this final message for 2016 is an opportunity to review the highlights of my second year as your President.

I am particularly pleased to see further strong progress on the gender equity issue, which is one of the highest priorities during my term. The Champions of Change program was established 18 months ago and is a key factor in achieving change that is positive, real and lasting.

Our Champions are making great progress in making their workplaces and the profession more broadly gender equal. The process is a rigorous long term one, where we are addressing inherent conscious and unconscious bias woven into our language and social fabric and setting about reconstructing it to be gender neutral and balanced.

The Chapter Council on the road initiative has enabled councillors and me to connect directly with many more members. These were listening and learning tours. I am grateful to so many of you for taking this opportunity to let us know of your concerns. Your participation in these sessions reveals the widespread passion held by our members for your professional organisation. We are also looking forward to our first member forum, to be held in the new year.

Another fine group of projects received recognition in the NSW Architecture Awards ceremony held at Australian Technology Park in July. We set out to make this year’s awards not only a celebration of the collective skill and excellence of our profession, but also a celebration of our friendships, our relationships and our shared stories. I will continue to work on the NSW Awards to help elevate them to be the best in the Country. Victoria, you are in our sights!

The awards are an annual reminder of the high quality of our members’ work and its beneficial effect on the whole community.

Advocacy on two key issues – the Barangaroo casino and the Sirius building – has occupied much of my time and energy this year. We are waiting to hear the judgment from last month’s Land & Environment Court hearing on the casino. Following a very successful rally and crowd funding campaign the Sirius hearing has been scheduled for April next year. I am grateful for the support of so many members for these important campaigns.

Advocacy for and on behalf of our members, our profession and for the public interest elevates the Institute as your peak body that has a strong and principled voice. Our motto is to be the critical friend of government and business. We are uniquely qualified to understand and interpret the built environment and act as its conscience. We should never be afraid to praise a good project, and equally we should never be afraid to criticise, and even protect and lobby if we believe it is not in architects’, architecture’s or the public interest. If we continue to operate this way we win respect of our peers, our business leaders and our governments.

The Government Architect’s Office celebrated its first 200 years and completed its move to the planning cluster of agencies under Minister Stokes’s able leadership. While the office’s strategic role advising government on design excellence is welcome, this ambition can only be realised if it has the staff numbers and expertise to fulfil these demands.

I applauded the release of the government’s draft architecture and design policy and medium density design guide two months ago. They confirm the emphasis on design quality as the re-development of our urban environment gathers pace.

Although it seemed like a backward step to participants at the time, the government’s decision to reject all 13 bids to develop the 10 hectare White Bay site in the Bays Precinct was actually good news for effective urban planning. UrbanGrowth NSW is developing a master plan and designing the precinct; smaller lots will be made available for tender to the private sector. We continue to work with and also be a critical friend of this process in the quest for an exemplar of good city making.

The first appointments to the Greater Sydney Commission were made only a year ago, yet already its six district plans have been released for comment. This is a major achievement for such a new agency, particularly if, as promised, the new Transport for NSW long-term master plan to be released next year is fully aligned with the Commission’s forecasts and targets. The Institute has high hopes for the Commission. However there is still much to do, and turbulent political waters to navigate. We encourage the Government to stay the course and also to expect the highest possible standards.

It has been a great pleasure work for and on your behalf of you all this year. It truly is the great joy of this role, and what makes the long hours worth the effort. I wish you all season’s greetings and a prosperous and productive new year.

Shaun Carter
NSW President

 

 

 

 

 

NSW Chapter President’s Message
Monday 7 November

National Awards

There was a great roll-up to the National Awards ceremony held in Sydney last week. This is the Institute’s annual opportunity to demonstrate the excellence of the work of its members to the Australian community. A big round of applause to the NSW winners:

Commercial Architecture

The Harry Seidler Award – AHL Headquarters – 478 George Street by Candalepas Associates

National Award – 5 Martin Place by JPW & TKD architects in collaboration

Educational Architecture

National Commendation – UNSW Materials Science & Engineering Building by Grimshaw

Heritage

National Award – 5 Martin Place by JPW & TKD architects in collaboration

Public Architecture

National Award – St Andrews House by Candalepas Associates

National Commendation – Kempsey Crescent Head Surf Life Saving Club by Neeson Murcutt Architects Pty Ltd

Residential Architecture – Houses (Alterations and Additions)

National Award – Darlinghurst Rooftop by CO-AP (Architects)

Residential Architecture – Houses (New)

The Robin Boyd Award – Indigo Slam by Smart Design Studio

Residential Architecture – Multiple Housing

National Award – 10 Wylde Street by SJB

Sustainable Architecture

National Award – Northern Beaches Christian School by WMK Architecture

Urban Design

National Award – Lennox Bridge Portals by Hill Thalis Architecture + Urban Projects

People’s Choice Award

Winner – Deepwater by Tobias Partners

 

Barangaroo casino court case

Many eyes will be watching proceedings in the Land & Environment Court next week as the Environmental Defenders Office challenges the Planning Assessment Commission’s decision in June to approve the Crown casino project. The basis of the case brought by Millers Point Fund Incorporated is that the Commission erred by accepting a 2013 amendment to the Casino Control Act agreeing to locate the casino on the harbour foreshore. The case rests on whether that act can take precedence over the Environmental Planning & Assessment Act, which governs the decision-making process of consent authorities such as the Commission.

 

Saving the Sirius

There’s been quite a bit of action on the Sirius front as well. Last week I spoke at a media conference with Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Cities and Regional Development Anthony Albanese, NSW Member for Sydney Alex Greenwich, NSW ALP shadow ministers Tania Mihailuk (Family & Community Services) and Penny Sharpe (Heritage) and Green Bans hero Jack Mundey announcing court action challenging the legality of the decision not to list Sirius on the State Heritage Register. The conference was preceded by articles in the Fairfax press. We are now awaiting a call-over at the Land & Environment Court to determine the hearing date, probably early next year.

The Sirius building is a fine example of Australian brutalist architecture. It’s also a highly innovative design that is sensitive to its historic context and to the needs of its social housing tenants.

On top of all that, it’s a building that owes its very existence to the Green Bans movement. That struggle challenged the Askin government’s attempts to disperse low income families from The Rocks and Millers Point and resulted in the Wran government’s introduction of heritage legislation in 1977.

How ironic that we are now fighting the same battle over the same issues more than three decades later in defence of a building that embodies that very struggle! As George Santayana said: ‘Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it’.

If the state won’t look after our cultural treasures, we will.

 

Design at the forefront of government policy

Two initiatives in recent weeks by NSW Planning Minister Rob Stokes deserve our congratulations. Better Placed, prepared by the Office of the Government Architect, is a comprehensive design policy that lays the foundation for a design-led planning strategy and guidelines supporting better architecture and urban design. It establishes a NSW State Design Advisory Panel to consider key state significant projects.

The Minister has also released a new draft policy to encourage the design and construction of terraces, manor houses and other forms of medium density housing. The code will enable some forms of medium density housing – side by side dwellings, manor houses and terraces – to be assessed as complying development. The code is accompanied by a design guide that provides minimum standards for this kind of development, based on the same design quality principles as those in SEPP 65.

The Minister has also announced that the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 will be amended to include a new object promoting good design in the built environment.

 

 

Two weeks ago the NSW Minister for Heritage, Mark Speakman, issued a media release announcing he had decided not to accept the Heritage Council’s recommendation to list the Sirius Apartments building in The Rocks on the State Heritage Register.

The Heritage Act requires the Minister to make a decision on the Heritage Council’s listing recommendations within two weeks of receiving them. In the case of Sirius, Minister Speakman took seven months.

I have been chair of the Save our Sirius group since November last year. We have consistently argued that the Sirius building is:

• fit for purpose as residential accommodation for low-income residents of the Millers Point / The Rocks precinct;
• an exemplary work of brutalist architecture that has been recognised by the pre-eminent expert on Australian architecture, Professor Philip Goad of the University of Melbourne; and
• significant as a physical manifestation of the Green Bans movement that achieved the conservation of the Millers Point / The Rocks and the re-housing of long-term residents threatened with displacement from the area.

 

We also endorsed the Heritage Council’s decision to recommend the listing of Sirius on the State Heritage Register.

Sirius is listed on the Chapter’s Register of Significant Architecture and the National Trust Register. It was described in the magazine Concrete (Issue 11) as ‘a bold and exceptional experiment in low-income public housing’. It was a conscious attempt to reduce the monolithic nature of most high-rise residential developments of the time, such as those in Redfern and Waterloo. The four wooden sculptures in the public areas of the building have aesthetic and technical significance and are rare surviving works by architect Tao Gofers.

Exemplar buildings that are recommended for heritage listing need to be protected. This is a fight we have to have.

In his letter advising me of his decision Minister Speakman noted that ‘there are conflicting views as to whether as an example of Brutalist architecture it is of such merit as to be of State heritage significance’. If there is such a conflict I would be prepared to take the word of Philip Goad any day.

He also noted ‘that it is not the only example of the late Brutalist architectural style in social housing by its architect’, presumably referring to Gofers’ building in Sans Souci, which has recently been refurbished. Is this supposed to mean that a building not owned by the government takes precedence over a government-owned building in a high value precinct when heritage listings are considered? The primary consideration for listing a building is surely whether or not it meets the threshold for State heritage significance.

But the clincher is his argument that ‘whatever the heritage significance of the Building, even at its highest (including even if it reached a threshold for State heritage significance), this is outweighed by the undue financial hardship its listing would cause to its owners, by diminishing what would otherwise be its sale value (possibly by in the order of $70 million), which would potentially represent foregone funds for additional social housing’.

In making its recommendations for listing the Heritage Council must take into account whether the conservation of the item – that is, the process of looking after it – would cause undue hardship for the owner.

In this case the government has not claimed that keeping the building would cause financial hardship. Instead, it has rejected the advice of its heritage experts on the grounds that the government itself would potentially not earn as much from the sale of the building as it would like. It has looked beyond the heritage significance of Sirius to the development value of its site. In other words, it is a conflict of interest.

By this reasoning, government-owned buildings have only monetary value. Their continued existence as part of the social and architectural fabric of the city is ephemeral. It’s just as well so much of the 200 year legacy of the Colonial and Government Architects is already listed on the State Heritage Register. Let’s hope this will prevent their demolition. But perhaps this government’s arguments for de-listing them will be equally as creative as its treatment of Sirius.

 

Shaun Carter
NSW President

 

Architects are proud of the role we play in modifying our built environment so that it continues to meet the needs of present and future generations. Our annual awards ceremony celebrates the positive achievements that the profession considers our peers have made in fulfilling that role in the community.

It was great to see so many friends and colleagues at Australian Technology Park two weeks ago. The vibe was very positive and upbeat. We were delighted that dignitaries such as Planning Minister Rob Stokes and Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore were able to join us for our ‘night of nights’. We certainly appreciate the public statements they have both made advocating the critical role of design in the future amenity and value of our denser urban environment.

Design thinking is the key to developing great projects and great places. We can look to the very best parts of our cities and towns to see this is true.

Architects have strategic and creative thinking ability.

Architects are the great generalists. And we claim this title with pride.

Architects are boundary‐spanners. We are the people that connect disparate professional disciplines and departments into a functioning, beautiful and cohesive whole.

Creativity and design thinking should be the bedrock of any process that is involved in planning for the future, whether it be buildings, streets, footpaths, street furniture and street art, public domain or planning and public policy.

I want to encourage governments at all levels – local, state and federal – to make better use of our skills.

They need to move architects up the value chain of decision-making to inject design thinking into the discussions and decisions that decide the future of our built environment.

That is why I have presented the President’s Prize in the two years of my tenure – Helen Lochhead in 2015 and Graham Jahn and Bridget Smyth this year – in recognition of people who have made substantial and excellent contributions to public life and the built environment. They are well qualified architects in their own right – but they have given up the individual pursuit of their talents to have a greater impact on the profession and on the quality of the built environment.

These recipients of the President’s Prize have achieved all of this as generalists and boundary-spanners, both within their organisations and in their dealings with people outside it.  They have provided long-term outstanding service to the community.

 

Shaun Carter
NSW Chapter President

The presentation of this year’s awards takes place at the historic Locomotive Workshops at Australian Technology Park on Friday 1 July. This promises to be a memorable night in a wonderfully spacious venue. The seated dinner arrangement should be appealing, plus we have a star attraction in the wild and witty Judith Lucy as MC. I hope to see many NSW members at the architectural ‘night of the year.’

Bays Precinct

The Institute was an enthusiastic supporter of UrbanGrowth NSW’s approach to the re-imagining of this massive site west of the Pyrmont peninsula. They went out of their way to engage with the professions, the experts and the community in preparing for the development of the eight sites in the precinct.

But I had misgivings when late last year three parcels of land, including the White Bay power station, were offered for development proposals to convert the heritage structure into a technology hub adjacent to facilities for the health, education and creative industries.

I asked: ‘Where is the master plan for this site – and how will it connect with the rest of the precinct? How will it integrate into the adjacent suburbs?  Where is the commitment to fine grain and multiple players and many authors? How will public transport service this area?’

Ten days ago the government announced that all 13 bids to develop this massive 10 hectare site had been rejected and UrbanGrowth will instead produce a master plan, design the precinct and make smaller lots available for tender to the private sector.

Indeed, Planning Minister Rob Stokes rejected the government’s previous model of handing over public land for the private sector to both plan and develop that has been the target of criticism by the Institute for some years. He said: ‘This will not be an exercise where government hands over large areas of public land and gives away control without ensuring good outcomes for the community’ (Sydney Morning Herald 9/6/16).

This is upsetting for the teams that developed the 13 proposals – but very good news for the public interest and the rational development of public land. As I said to Cameron Jewell in a piece published by The Fifth Estate last week:

‘We’ve always known what good city making is. You make the public domain, make streets, footpaths, separations, set heights, then sell it off to private interest.

This allows diversity and maximises public benefit.

Overwhelmingly, all the cities we like to go to – London, Barcelona, New York, Paris – are fairly fine grain, or mixed grain. There is a mixture of small, medium and large buildings, and no two architects are likely to have designs side-by-side.’

I also believe that the government needs to go further by delivering the infrastructure that will add value to the entire Bays Precinct and attract the best people – things like light rail, ferry stops and public parks.

By putting an end to the bidding process the government has taken an important first step in developing the Bays Precinct in a manner that makes the public interest the first priority.

 

Shaun Carter
NSW Chapter President