As you are hopefully all aware, the SA Chapter has a new home.  We moved into 15 Leigh Street a week ago now and, while moving will never be my favourite thing, it went very smoothly thanks to careful pre-planning and a great team effort. 

While cleaning out the store room I came across the files from the relocation to 100 Flinders St, which was a much bigger undertaking than the move to Leigh St.  It was interesting to see the evolving design and read through the site minutes and other correspondence.  SA Chapter Manager Sue Avery and architects Philips Pilkington also worked hard with a team of members, contractors, and sponsors to deliver premises that have provided a commodious and much valued home for the SA Chapter for the past 15 years. 

Those who remember the previous premises on King William Rd will fully appreciate how transformative the move to 100 Flinders St was.  As we relocate once again, this is an opportunity to remember the efforts of those involved in realising that earlier project, as well as to extend thanks to the team that delivered the new premises.

So here’s a big thank you to:

• Zaf, Vanessa, Gillian, Rebecca and Amanda at the Chapter who worked hard sorting, packing and setting up the new premises while continuing to do their “day jobs”. Zaf in particular provided invaluable support in finalising services agreements for 100 Flinders St and organising new contracts for equipment and services.
• David Homburg who championed a quality outcome in his time as Chapter President.
• The Institute’s property manager Dean Katsavos who steered the project through Board approvals and provided valued support in managing the relocation.
• Hamish Price who finalised the documentation and provided contract administration services. He managed his role as architect to an architectural client with great diplomacy!
• Peter Gambranis of Leedwell Property for working with us to identify and secure the right tenancy.
• RLB for the preliminary estimate.
• BuildServ, who managed the DA.
• The team from FDC Construction and Fitout who were a pleasure to work with and achieved a great balance between reusing as much as possible of the existing fitout and providing a well finished outcome.

Thanks also to Stylecraft and SMEG who provided excellent value for the furniture and appliances respectively.

Looking forward, we are very pleased with our new home.  It has character, excellent natural light, space for all of the SA Chapter activities and a great location.  Once we’ve finalised the signage, hung the pictures and installed the workstations (trestles are providing a serviceable stopgap!) we look forward to hosting an official office warming.  In the interim please feel free to pay us a visit. 

We look forward to seeing you soon at 15 Leigh St.

I’m writing this column on my iPad overlooking the ocean on a holiday up north. An unreasonably strong plunger coffee next to me, and the day just starting to heat up as the air sits a little heavy with humidity.

I feel a bit like that guy from the TV show 800 Words.

I’ll send my insightful and engaging column over to my high flying corporate editor and get on with my life for another week. 

If I recall, he’s a single dad, and pretty heavily involved in the local community. I think in the last show I saw, he’d headed off for days with a mate to support him with a personal challenge.

That’s where things start to differ. 

I’m not a single dad, but if I was, there’s no way I could be that involved with community or friends. In fact things at work would have to change just to accommodate a carers role by itself. 

…..that’s where this column was headed. Into the world of lifestyle equality and linkages with gender equality and indeed equality in general. Not a bad article if I say so, although nothing that Sarah Paddick as your local lead for the gender equity task force has not said before.

But now, thanks to three hours in a plane seat I’m back in Adelaide, didn’t sleep well last night, and starting to think about the practice realities which face me this week. 

I’m contemplating the three unwieldy submissions we have to produce and in doing that, the client balance we seek as I reflect upon a conversation with the gold medallist Peter Elliott after his talk at FAD. 

Submissions are more and more onerous. There is a profession now in paperwork and assessment, in meetings and interviews and presentations which at the end of the day are simply an engagement tool before someone gets on with the actual project. The thing we trained for remember? To get to know a client and take our own brief, and collaborate and explore and coordinate and then progress with them a piece of architecture which enhances both their and everyone’s interaction and business with the world.

And in thinking about that I then contemplate that perhaps this ever increasing load is having influence on our ability to do other things – like attend FAD. It was a great success. Multiple events both day and night, through the weekend as well as working week. Varied and flexible so that there was a match for everyone, as well as a crossover with the non architectural content of Open State. 

But let’s be honest… so few of you came. 

And that makes me contemplate the letter I am about to co-sign with the Board seeking amendment to our act for the inclusion of mandatory CPD. Because maybe with mandatory CPD we will force a bit more attendance. Because as a profession, who is registered and regulated, and who hold such influence over the shape of our society, we should be continuing to learn. Which further makes me contemplate that if we learn more together maybe we will talk more together and collaborate more together and foster that culture of architecture that we see is aligned with award winning work.

And in contemplating the ability to spend the time to attend and talk, and the capacity to resource for equity, creativity and quality it brings me back around to the submissions. To the section where we set fees and programme. 

The industry is busy at the moment. We are fortunate in the face of the state’s fundamentals. So now is the time to make sure we do not forget lifestyle equity, and the time to learn and the time to invest in culture rather than just the production of content. 

These things take time and we all know that time is money.

Practicing architecture in South Australia can feel isolated at times.  Our access to debate, speakers and diversity of built work is limited by our scale and location.  Having the National Conference in Adelaide last year was a fantastic opportunity to engage outside our regular circle and to showcase what we are doing in South Australia to a wider audience.  Those who attended, locals and visitors, were impressed with our capacity to deliver a quality program of fringe events that complemented the stimulating conference theme.

The good news is that we don’t have to wait another 20 years for the next National Conference to be held in Adelaide to engage in discourse about architecture.  The Festival of Architecture and Design (FAD) is just around the corner and offers a diverse program including interstate and international speakers plus excellent local content.  With the theme of Future Cities and a focus on social exchange, FAD will explore issues that are of great relevance as we develop new planning systems and respond to increasing urbanisation and density in our city.

Highlights of the FAD program include:

David Shah – As a leading thinker in design and its future, David Shah explores design as an agent of change. His keynote speech for FAD will focus on how technology will influence the spaces in which we live and how we can use design to humanise our interaction in the face of increasing impersonal transactions and the proliferation of artificial intelligence.  Shah is also the publisher of ViewPoint magazine http://www.viewpoint-magazine.com/past-issues/  ViewPoint’s current issue focuses on city futures.

Peter Elliott – Peter Elliott is the 2017 Gold Medalist and has been recognised for building, urban and landscape projects, many of which have received awards, as well as his writing, exhibitions and teaching.   He is highly skilled at reading and understanding places and his work frequently enables renewed engagement and occupation of urban environments.  This can be seen in his work at RMIT and his collaboration with TCL in the transformation of North Terrace.  We look forward to hearing him speak about the role that design plays in fostering social engagement and the creation of meaningful urban space. 

Jordi Pardo – Architect Jordi Pardo has contributed to cultural development strategies in Spain, South America and Asia.  He will be discussing how heritage, cultural expression and cultural activity can improve the competitiveness of a city and foster the wellbeing of its inhabitants.  Pardo speaks with great passion and experience about the impact that informed design and development policy has on shaping urban environments to create vibrant, liveable cities. 

Charles Wolfe – Environmental lawyer Charles (Chuck) Wolfe uses photography as a tool for observing and analysing urban space with a view to creating better urban environments.  Wolfe proposes that to create a more vibrant, sustainable city we need first to gain a better understanding of what happens naturally when people congregate.  How do they interact with each other and their environment?  How can we learn from observing successful urban environments to shape and effectively apply urban policies and initiatives?  In addition to speaking Wolfe will also lead a tour of Adelaide that will challenge participants to observe the city in different ways using the lens of photography. 

Superdiversity – Over the last 20 years the world’s population has been increasingly mobile at a global level.  This has led to wholly new and increasingly complex social formations arising from the interplay of factors such as ethnicity, language, culture values and practice, religious tradition and legal status.  These in turn influence opportunities for integration, education and employment.  This evolution from multiculturalism to superdiversity is shaping our cities.  Hear a panel of speakers from a range of disciplines address the implications of superdiversity in relation to the future of Adelaide.

In addition to these speaker and panel events there are tours, exhibitions and interactive activities to get you out and about and to stimulate you to thinks in different ways about Adelaide.

• Join the Scavenger Hunt for a fun and informative journey to discover the hidden gems Adelaide
• Explore aspects of Adelaide that you have never noticed before on the digitally augmented Hiding in Plain Site tour and the High Adelaide Tour.
• Tour Deepacres and delight in the elegance and modernity of Jack Hobbs McConnell’s architecture.
• Reflect on the lessons of the past at the Vernadoc (vernacular documentation) panel and Dickson Platten exhibition
• Consider alternative ways of achieving inclusive housing opportunities through Citizen Led Housing: quality housing choices for real people and The Big Idea in Realising Housing Diversity.
• Celebrate the innovation of the design sector at the Form Journal Launch and Innovation Awards 
• Attend the lively debate considering whether Adelaide is one of the world’s most liveable cities: fact or fiction?

And whether you are between events, deep in discussion or meeting up with friends head to the  Analogue Missions installation in Victoria Square – the perfect spot for social exchange!

For the full FAD program and event details go to http://fad.org.au/events/

Nicolette Di Lernia
SA Chapter Executive Director

Contextual. We all know that good architecture is contextual in some way and in some interpretation.

It may not be convincing when juxtaposed to its immediate adjacencies…

[Ok, sorry, that was just for fun. Who wouldn’t use ‘juxtaposed’ in a column like this just for a giggle at some point?]

But seriously about context, I think we would all agree that response to context is an underpinning pillar of architecture.

In an evolutionary way context leads to the vernacular, and while vernacular may not be capital ‘A’ architecture, it is of place and of people. Perhaps in a contemporary way context, or place, or people and their unique positions and perceptions can lead to the parochial…. but parochial is bad… right?

World’s best practice is the aspiration. Learning from a connected global community and educating our users and society into new and perhaps national or international ways of doing things. Evolving their practices, approaches, customs and beliefs so that they embrace more contemporary and often more digital solutions: World’s best practice with a local context. 

I bet that is some large organisation’s tag line – but it makes you think.

It makes you think about where South Australia sits in our national landscape of architecture.

I don’t think we are at the head of the table. In fact if you were to count articles in national media and presence in national awards you’d wonder if we had found the restaurant at all. So why is that?

Are we too parochial – missing the national best practice?

Are we stuck in a vernacular constrained by budget or aspiration?

Do we respond so well to our own local context that the globe doesn’t get us?

Do we care?

From correspondence and engagement with members I know that we do care. But I also know that we have different views about what we could, should or want to do with our architecture and how that may be recognised.

I know also, to be blunt, that we are not very good at doing much about it.

So I’d like to re-energise the focus which Fran Bonato brought to his presidency and talk a bit about us. What do we think about our architecture, our context, our solutions and where they should fit on the national and global stage?

We are going to start this topic with a survey to gather some information – so please take part  https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/promotingsaarchitecture

And please write comments. Easy answer surveys are a great way to validate what you thought you already knew with some statistics…it’s the comments that actually offer insight into the topic.

I look forward to hearing from you about your profession, in your state.

Mario Dreosti
SA Chapter President

I’ve got relatively young kids so my weekends are often occupied by children’s parties. As a result of the intake cut offs they tend to be clustered in a 3-6 month patch for each child – so time your births based on whether you like to have weekends away in summer or winter.

It’s pretty good actually for the one year old parties. The celebrating child is usually propped up on a rug or in a bouncer and its friends are similarly disposed. The parents on the other hand are enjoying finger food, quite often some bubbles and new parent stories.

Many years ago before my own contribution to population growth I attended a Sunday morning picnic as the only childless couple. We wondered why everyone was so happy to get stuck into a drink at 11am….now we know you need it after the night before! But I digress…

As the kids get older the parties get more adventurous. It’s actually really pleasing to see an increase in the freedom activities over the nine years I’ve been an attendee. The various centres with trampolines and Ninja Warrior style equipment are pretty much a guarantee of tears at some point in proceedings, but we are letting it happen.

There are limits of course, and I do recall an earnest conversation last summer about the potential for a pool party or a surfing party at the beach. The analysis of risk escalates when contemplating lifesaving duties for 10 or 12 other people’s children. Risk is a serious thing. Sometimes so serious it is just not worth taking on –  so there was no surfing party.

Sometimes it does seem worth taking it on, but you need to be in some way supported – like individual parents staying at the pool party to keep an eye on their own.

We assess, manage and make calculated decisions about risk regularly in daily life, and we don’t take on more risk than we need to, or accept additional risk without seeing some tangible reason for doing so.

I’m pretty sure you’re a step ahead of me as I tilt this conversation into architectural practice.

Both in personal practice and through the Institute lately I’ve dealt with what seems like an unusually high number of proposed contractual changes which significantly alter risk profiles.

Warranting, inspecting, signing off are all activities which may only take half an hour to do….but contractually position you with far greater responsibility. That’s ok, if there is far greater something else to go with it.

I suggest that architects too often respond to additional tasks or changed roles with a simplistic assessment of the work involved. Consideration must also be given to the responsibility imputed.

Our clients are usually pretty protective of their built form babies, so make sure that you are adequately resourced and rewarded for accepting more responsibility for them.

Mario Dreosti
Chapter President

Last Friday the SA Chapter held a Distinguished Members’ function.  These events provide an opportunity to present certificates to those members who have been elevated to Fellow or Life Fellow and for this section of the membership to get together.  They are always lively thanks to the animated conversation between associates and friends who share a history of professional practice, which often reaches back to university. 

They are also a valuable reminder of how much some members contribute to the profession and the broader community through practice, education, membership and community involvement.  People are motivated to contribute in these ways for many reasons – a desire to give back, to share knowledge, to improve our environment and society, to build the capacity of profession and improving public awareness.  Regardless of the reason these members really do make the world a better place through their role as architects.

This year two important avenues for architects to engage beyond their day to day practice have emerged.  This first is through the ArchiED program, which was developed last year to support architects presenting in schools.  The task group of Sally Bolton, Tracey Roughana, Anthea Perkas Chantelle Fry and Deborah Auckland have prepared resources including a flier to provide initial information, a template for the presentation and a list of suggested topics and useful facts. 

This program provides an ideal platform to extend the value of the STEM projects that many practices are engaged in or to connect with your child’s/grandchild’s/friend’s school.  If you don’t have an association with a school in some way we can make the connection for you. If you are interested in being involved please contact Zaf  – Zafiro.papanikitas@architecture.com.au – at the SA Chapter, who will be assisting with delivery of this important initiative. 

The second opportunity to broaden the reach of architectural practice and improve understanding of the value that architects provide is through the new planning system.  Council Assessment Panels are required to operate under new Planning Development and Infrastructure Act 2016 as of 1 October 2017.  Councils will be seeking accredited professionals to sit on these panels and architects, through their registrations requirements and professional practice, meet the accreditation criteria. 

The Institute strongly advocated for the inclusion of design in assessment criteria within the new planning system and is currently promoting the fact that architects are the best qualified to make design based assessments within the new system.  We are not arguing that architects should replace planners but that we should be involved with planners and other built environment specialists in the assessment process, with a specific focus on performance based design assessment.  What we need now is for practitioners to put their names forward for selection, as they have in the past for DAP and design review panels. 

ArchiED and involvement in planning assessment are both effective mechanisms for starting conversations about architecture, showcasing the profession’s expertise and making people aware of our relevance and importance in the shaping of the built environment.  We look forward to working with our members to maximise these opportunities.

Nicolette Di Lernia, SA Chapter Executive Director

Traditionally I have used this column to reflect on topics of interest or contention for our profession. I’ll grant that at just over four months its not one of the western world’s most long standing traditions, but brevity of our collective history aside, this column is different to the others.

In this column, I will use a few short words to bestow upon each and every member of our Institute the opportunity to positively change our profession forever. I’ll bestow it upon you, and I expect no thank you, no payment, no reward… I just expect you to invest in it.

Whenever the Institute engages with membership about what we ‘should’ be doing for them, one of the guaranteed inclusions is a desire to build the profile of architecture and the respect for architects in our community.  It’s a simple aim and the benefits could be profound, perhaps for architects, but more importantly for our community who would live, work, learn and recreate in a greater number of better conceived and better delivered buildings and spaces.

It’s about building profile and capital, and for that reason reminds me about trying to build wealth…and that reminds me about the only personal wealth book I have ever read… by Paul Clitheroe… and he said (with significant paraphrasing, possibly faulty recollection and my personal interpretation)… that the most important thing is not whether you choose shares, property, futures etc….the most important thing is actually just to save something and then invest it.

And that’s how I see us building capital in our profession. The most important thing is to do something. Not to talk about what we should, could or would do, but to actually ‘do’. And in a remarkable confluence, we have on our plate an easy, enjoyable and immensely penetrating publicity vehicle just waiting for us to do something with it. It’s called “Architects In Schools”, and thanks to a reinvigoration of our Education Committee and Subcommittee it’s coming to a school near you very soon.

I’ve done it, and I willingly inhaled.

I prepared a simple slide show comparing the human body with a building  – you know – lungs for ventilation, bones for structure, skin for facade etc. I took 3 sets of VR goggles to East Adelaide Primary and I had one of the most enjoyable and rewarding 2 hours of my life with my son, his immediate and adjacent classmates. I’ll be back there as soon as I can for some Year 5’s and 6’s.

The kids were truly inspiring and invigorating, but the compounding interest in this equation was the conversations I had with other soccer parents the following few Saturdays. They weren’t about cafes, or the Crows, or even the latest schoolyard scandal – they were about ARCHITECTURE!

Children had gone home and families had talked about ARCHITECTURE, what we do, who we can help, and what it can achieve.

Usually if someone offers you a small cap investment returning 300% on top of capital growth you are a brave day trader having a crazy dream. 

We have one here – very limited investment, huge return and there is nothing to lose!

It’s easy, its fun and if we had 900 Architects a year talking to say two class groups of 26… that’s 46,800 students going home to say…. a nuclear family of 4… which makes 187,200 people talking about ARCHITECTURE!

Wow – that’s compounding interest.

I suggest you send the Institute an email and volunteer yourself. Our subcommittee is finalising templates and guidelines making your job even easier. If you have a child, niece, nephew or other special little person at school I suggest you volunteer that school and help to arrange the contact – you will be surprised how willing they are to embrace you.

This is the investment of the century and I’m pretty sure Paul would agree.

Mario Dreosti
SA Chapter President

During my job, I get to talk with many people – architects, journalists, clients, students, members of parliament, consultants, public servants, contractor. These conversations reveal a range of preconceptions about architects, including the following:

• That architects are involved in most building projects and that architects are the primary influencer of the constructed outcome.
• That architects can deliver design excellence, code compliance, increased local industry participation and variation free projects regardless of the procurement method, scope of engagement or level of brief resolution.
• That only large practices do work for government.

These preconceptions can lead to questionable assumptions, such as:

• That reducing/removing regulation, which sections of the construction industry claim limits development, will not result in a reduction in quality as architects will ensure that best practice outcomes are achieved.
• That the government’s stated design quality agenda will be delivered without any specific reference to architects, acknowledgement of their unique expertise or requirement to involved them in key aspects of the process.
• That modifying government procurement practice to a one size fits all approach will not impact on the viability of architectural practice in SA, much of which is undertaken by small to medium sized practices.

There are also encouraging conversations, such as support from some contractors for improved fees for architects to enable production of more comprehensive documentation which will improve delivery and reduce procurement risk.  There has also been acknowledgement from sections of government that early involvement of architects will facilitate better project establishment and briefing practices, thereby reducing risk and improving the value for money and quality delivered by projects.

At a time when the SA Government is talking about the importance of design quality and reviewing its approach to issues ranging from planning to procurement, it is important that architects participate in the debate.  This is already being done by engaged members through various committees and task groups. 

With the state election approaching we will be raising a range of issues for comment by the major parties and key independents.   Members will also be encouraged to use these questions as a starting point for a discussion with their local candidates. 

If there are issues that you think should be included, please let us know.  March 2018 is not that far away!

There’s an elephant in the room.
It’s a big one…really big….with tusks.
I could feel it’s heavy, oppressive breath down the back of my neck as I stood on stage at our awards ceremony. Maybe you saw it?

I could feel it right there as Cameron Bruhn read out….

“There is no award given for this category”

I hadn’t actually read the full running sheet, so this was as much a surprise to me as it was to you, and my mind was flooded with many thoughts. Initially, I thought we had done something wrong. What is the message we are sending with no award?

I was still thinking about it a lot the following week as conversations ensued and people regularly used the words ‘won’ or ‘winning’. ‘Won’, ‘winning’, ‘prize’, ‘award’….this is when it started to settle for me.

The truth is that no one ‘won’ that night.

Well maybe the on stage threesome group hug was close to a win… but at its core, the programme is not a competition with a winner and a series of place getters: it is an awards process – and that is very different.

In the spirit of a media friendly promotional tool it would be easier to have a competition. Every category gets a prize and there’s a simple publicity bite of who’s the best in town, but in line with the professionalism of which I spoke on the night, it is underpinned by a requirement to excel in assessment against the awards criteria.

An award is ‘awarded’ to an outcome and an architectural process of excellence. Every entry could receive an award…or none. There is not a first, second and third. It is measured by the jury of peers and must be moderated across juries for the whole programme. As a profession, not an industry body, I think it is appropriate that we run an awards programme and not a competition.

I find that a difficult message in the snap chat, re-tweet world of publicity and promotion, but I think it’s a necessary message in the spirit of professionalism. 

Whether certain projects should or should not have received awards and who volunteers and is accepted for a role as juror is a specific debate, but I think the programme needs to support the fact that no award may be given.

Next year I will bring a message of greater inclusion to our awards process. It troubles me that certain sectors of work are never entered. That either means that all projects in those sectors are not of sufficient calibre, or that there is a perception they do not fit the awards process. I believe great architecture and great architectural process should be awarded wherever it exists and in many different guises. I do not believe that all examples of great architecture make for glossy images.

I also believe that commendations exist to commend good work and encourage the role and contribution of architecture. I believe we should commend a great many good projects. I believe that if a project is tangibly better for the willingness of a client to engage with architecture and the ability of the architect to deliver an outcome which reflects that faith… then it is commendable.

I believe that as a profession of architecture we challenge, collaborate on, encourage and hold accountable our contributions.  I want us to commend our hard work and positive outcomes and to award our exceptional results.

I accept that sometimes, in some years, our member’s projects may be constrained for many reasons and in those years we may have the commendable, but no award.
I hope those years are very few.

Mario Dreosti
SA Chapter President

The 2017 SA Awards presentation dinner was held on Saturday.  It was great to be able to celebrate the high standard of work being produced in South Australia with friends and colleagues.  We congratulate all those involved in commended and awarded projects and extend our thanks to all those who contribute to making the program a great success – entrants, jurors, students, sponsors, staff and clients.

And while the Awards presentation dinner is an industry focused occasion, the Institute also uses the Awards program as a vehicle to promote the profession to the public.  Extensive social media on the night was followed up with coverage in the weekend papers, with more to come in  July edition of The Adelaide Review.  The Institute also produced a printed Awards publication this year.  They are available at the Chapter office to collect and will also be distributed to selected venues around Adelaide.

Opportunities for some of the awarded projects to be included in TV programs are also being pursued.  Client consent tends to be the main challenge when arranging media coverage, but we continue to work with members to provide opportunities to reach a wider public audience.

On June 23 the Awards Lightning Talk will showcase a selection of awarded projects.  Last year this event proved to be highly entertaining and provided insight into what factors enable a project to be an award winner.  It is open to the public, so extend an invitation to people who are interested in quality design.  In addition to this we have arranged an Awards exhibition at Adelaide Airport.  If your friends/relations/colleagues are there over the next six weeks let them know so that they can take the opportunity to peruse the entries on display.

And now to awards of a different kind.  The Architects’ Award has been updated and will come into effect as of 1 July 2017.  Employers and employees should ensure that they are aware of the new salary rates and the conditions.  The other document I would like to draw attention to is the Institute’s Work Experience and Internship Policy. This has been updated and provides a clear structure for engaging with students and graduates seeking work experience without contravening the Fair Work Act.  A+ members can seek additional advice from the HR+ portal on the Institute website.

Nicolette Di Lernia
SA Chapter Executive Director