The Planning Minister, Brad Hazzard, introduced revised planning bills into the NSW Parliament two weeks ago. This followed a confidential briefing in which Department officers explained to me how some of the Institute’s key concerns with the previous version of the legislation had been addressed.

One of the improvements is a balance between economic growth and sustainable development in the objects of the Act; there is also now a specific commitment to ‘promote health, amenity and quality (my emphasis) in the design and planning of the built environment’.

In the previous bill the Heritage Council’s approval powers had been taken over by the Director-General of Planning; in the new bill the ‘one stop shop’ remains but the Director-General is required to follow the advice of the Heritage Council except where there is unreasonable delay or conflicting advice with another agency.

While these are encouraging signs of responsiveness to the Institute’s concerns we are under no illusions that vigilance will be required when the details of how the legislation will work are developed as the regulation is drafted by the Department. We expect to be fully involved in this important process.

I have already written to the Minister supporting his changes, while emphasising our need to be engaged in the next stage. The Coalition for NSW Planning Reform, of which the Institute is a member, is also writing to MPs advocating their support for the revised bills.

The Institute has long been an advocate for community-based strategic planning. This legislation is our best opportunity yet to realise that goal.

Watch this space!

Joe Agius, NSW Chapter President

This week attention turns to the annual Country Division conference which will explore a diverse range of experiences, relationships, methodologies and built forms from the processes we often engage in through our architectural endeavours. The sequence of the speaker topics is based around the stages of an architectural project, from first enquiry to completion.

Speakers including Drew Heath, Stuart Vokes, Aaron Peters, Thierry Lacoste, James Stockwell and Elizabeth Farrelly who will cover stages such from the brief, the site, the client, right through to the design process, and documentation and finish with presentations on marketing the built form.  Renown chef Tony Bilson will be joining everyone for dinner to talk about food and design.

You can register online as an individual for the conference.   It is recommended that if you are registering families or part day registrations you will need to complete the registration form and return with payment.

Click here for more detail. 

Upcoming Architecture on Show (AOS) events in August

This week’s T@T – Urban Impacts
6pm for 6.30pm Tue 13 Aug

Emma Wiliamson CODA Architects, Freemantle Brought to you by KNAUF Plasterboard.

Book now or payable at the door.  Tusculum, 3 Manning Street, Potts Point. $15 for Institute members, $20 for non-members.

Women in Architecture – Equitable practices: making architecture work for you

9am – 12.30pm Thu 15 Aug
Research has demonstrated that despite graduating in roughly equal numbers for at least the past two decades the proportion of women active in the profession does not reflect this, particularly at the senior levels.

Chaired by Professor Sandra Kaji-O’Grady, Natalie Lane, Rose Bates Smart , Lee Hillam, Architect Dunn & Hillam Architects, Yvonne Haber Architect Yvonne Haber Architects, Callantha Brigham Architect Government Architects Office

Tusculum, 3 Manning Street, Potts Point.
$65 for Institute members and $130 for non-members
3 formal CPD points
Click here to register online.

Planning Appeals at the NSW Land & Environment Court
9am – 12.30pm Thursday 29 August

What are the Court’s policies and procedures for resolving planning appeals? What should you expect and how should you prepare for court? What is the architect’s role? How far can you ‘push it’? What are some strategies that may help your client avoid going to court in the first place? What are some of the implications of the new planning system for architects?

Susan O’Neill Architect & Commissioner, Land and Environment Court; James Phillips Heritage Consultant, Weir Phillips Architects; Gabrielle Morish Architect & Urban Designer, GM Urban Design & Architecture

Tusculum 3 Manning Street, Potts Point
$75 members & students and $110 non-members
3 formal CPD points

PROTO: capital

A Sydney Design Festival event in collaboration with the Powerhouse Museum
3-18 August
See the exhibition PROTO: capital – a project which considers how Australia needs to adapt in its second century under a hypothetical future timeline.
Tusculum, 3 Manning Street, Potts Point.
More info.

EVENTS

Zero Carbon Building Australia Plans

14 August 2013

You are invited to join BZE at one of their premiere launch events across the country, where Research Director Trent Hawkins will partner with leading environmental building experts to unveil this key report.  Numbers are strictly limited.

Sydney Design 2013 presented by Powerhouse Museum

3-18 August 2013

International keynote lecture on Tuesday  6 August from Eko Prawoto – an Indonesian architect from Java who combines traditional aspects of Javanese architecture in a contemporary context along with David Sheppard,  the President of the New Zealand Institute of Architects who lives in Christchurch and was the convenor in developing the blue print for the reconstruction of the city.  

Malcolm Carver – Hill End & Beyond

6-31 August 2013

Exhibition launch with the artist to be opened by Ken Woolley AM Architect 5-7pm Saturday 17 August.  Artist Talk and Drawing Demonstration 2-3pm Saturday 24 August.

Time for Drawing – Riversdale

23 -25 August 2013

This drawing weekend is an opportunity to live and draw at Riversdale while immersed in an environment co-created by Glenn Murcutt. How the building is placed on site, how it touches the earth, how it frames our daily activities, will become our questions. Living on site and early morning movement sessions will relax our bodies, engage our senses, and develop what philosopher Merleau-Ponty calls incarnated perception. 

REFORM – AILA 2013 National Conference – People Power Landscape are central to our survival.
22-24 August 2013

REFORM reflects the urgency of actions required by all built environment design professions in addressing the present and pending environmental, economic, cultural and social issues confronting our cities, towns, regional and rural places.  The conference will be a conversation ‘beyond transformation’ – to actively advocate ‘reform’ and to set The REFORM Agenda.  

6th International Urban Design Conference

9-11 September 2013

The conference program includes 60 session presentations, 20 posters, 3 study tours, a Q&A forum and 10 keynote presenters.  Early Bird Registrations close next Wednesday 17th July.  Click here to register.

MEDIA RELEASE

WB Griffin Society – the Griffins’ Canberra half day symposium

15 – 17 August 2013

The Walter Burley Griffin Society’s will celebrate the Centenary of Canberra and the arrival of WBG in Australia in August 1913. The centrepiece event is a half-day symposium with international speakers.  Also the Marion Mahony Griffin Lecture 2013 will be held in the stunning lecture theatre of The Shine Dome of the Australian Academy of Science.

SEMINARS

2013 ACSE Annual Seminar – “The White Bay Passenger Terminal”

27th August 2013

The Association of Consulting Structural Engineers Annual Seminar for 2013 takes a closer look at one of the latest transport infrastructure projects to be completed in NSW.

Safety in Design

12-13 September

Consult Australia is the key player for Safety in Design training. This course was the first of its kind to be developed in Australia and remains unmatched.  Click here for more information.

Project Management

10-11 October 2013

Consult Australia’s Project Management CPD will equip your design based consultants with the essential knowledge to successfully transition into coordination roles.   Click here for more information

FutureNet Business Leaders Course

The FutureNet Business Leaders course is run by Consult Australia’s young professional’s leadership forum, FutureNet.  It offers leadership development and enhanced industry networks to enable future leaders to thrive in the changing built and natural environment.  Expressions of interest are now open click here for further information.

TOURS

September 2013 Japan Architecture Tour

19 – 28 September 2013

This 10-day Japan Architecture Tour will spend 6 nights in Tokyo and 4 nights Kyoto. The tour will visit some remarkable contemporary buildings, historic temples and shrines see great art and architecture exhibitions, meet with Japanese architects, visit historic towns and see the works of Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright. The tour is conducted and guided by Architect, former Tokyo resident and Japan expert, Robert Day. For information contact robert@rdayarch.com.au