ED’s report November Newsletter
Well the decorations are up so officially we counting down to the busy period with Christmas in less than six weeks. We have five events this month with the first one being next week. We have been able to organise a members briefing with the Climate Change team to work though the Climate Change discussion paper. Sorry about the short turn around this was only just finalised please Register here as this is a breakfast event so it is imperative to know numbers so we can cater.
As mentioned last month the Emerging Architect Prize winner, for 2018, is Christina Na-heon Cho and is about to undertake her tour around Australia. Previously this was awarded one year ahead with the roadshow the next year however from this year the lag time will not be 12 months. This event is the last one for the Darwin Chapter for 2018 and merges into the Christmas function. The details for our end of year function and Emerging Architect presentation are:
30th November 2018
- AWS Emerging Architect SONA and EmAGN meet and greet 3.30pm Register here
- AWS Emerging Architect presentation – Christina Na-heon Cho from Queensland 30th 4-5pm
- Darwin 30th 5-6pm (following the Emerging architect presentation) Register here
I apologise to our Central Australian members this year the tour will not be coming to Alice Springs however next year we are working on a more comprehensive and inclusive program. There is an end of year Christmas function planned however the date is yet to be confirmed.
In October we met with Minister Lawler to discuss key issues that affect Architects. We highlighted that the Institute recommends that we introduce key changes to legislations. These are: the introduction of Compulsory Professional Development (CPD), a Code of Conduct for registered Architects and Compulsory Insurance. We also discussed the Government Architect role and that as a profession we want to work with the University to develop a Centre for Excellence in Architecture. The Minister is very supportive of our direction and we will work with her and the department to introduce the legislation changes in 2019. The Minister was very surprised that we did not have Compulsory CPD and said felt this was out of touch with community expectations of professional standards.
The National Australian Institute of Architects Awards were held in Melbourne in early November with two short listed projects the first being for Public Architecture – the Garden Cemetery Chapel – Susan Dugdale and Associates and the second for Enduring Architecture – the Bowali Visitor Centre, Kakadu – Troppo Architects in association with Glenn Murcutt and Associates. Miriam Wallace from Dugdale and Associates was also shortlisted for the Australian Emerging Architect prize. Although the NT didn’t win any National Awards this year there was a lot of talk about the high quality of Architecture here in the Territory.
The 2019 Northern Territory Awards Submissions open shortly and will close on the 13th March 2019. This is a firm date and all additional materials must also be submitted by this date. This year the awards are on earlier than normal as the original date had to be moved forward due to the National Conference. We also need to work around public and school holidays. The Jury visits start on the 8th April 2019.
On the 1st of November we held a CPD session on ‘Internal walls and ceiling solutions for high Humidity ‘. This is obviously a huge issue here in the Top End and was well attended and thank you USG Boral for sponsoring this. The venue was at the Royal Flying Doctor museum on Stokes Hill Wharf and was a lovely setting for networking. We might just have to go here again.
This month we contacted the Department about the $90 Million Youth Justice Tender. There were a lot of issues raised by AIANT members and we addressed these directly with the department. As this is a significant body of work it was a good example of how things could be done differently including reasonable response timeframes. We met with the department to discuss this and they accepted the issues we raised and, that in the future, a better approach would include reviewing timeframes as well as having comprehensive briefings for industry. We will continue to work with the department on Procurement issues so that we can improve outcomes for Territorians.
The AIA has released a ‘Buy local’ policy which raises concerns in regards to Governments across Australia supporting overseas Architects instead of locals in the procurement of Architectural services specifically related to design competitions. This response is outlined further in the newsletter and feel free to share this paper with local members or the general public. AIANT will be sending this to the Territory Government as well as local governments across the NT.
Recently we have been contacted by a couple of members about the AIANT response to the Building Confidence paper authored by Professor Peter Shergold and Ms Bronwyn Weir. As previously outlined in earlier newsletters the AIA supported the recommendations and the letter can be found on our website by clicking on this link http://www.architecture.com.au/docs/default-source/nt-documents/aiant-building-confidence-letter-from-minister-discussion-paper-2018.pdf?sfvrsn=0. Please feel free to contact me directly if you have any further queries.
All in all we had a crazy busy October which included moving office. Packing up Shepherd Street was chaos, and thanks to the members who were able to help us name some of the photos and give information on previous awards winners. We were able to work closely with the NT Library and they have taken all the AIANT records, photos and memorabilia. They will digitize these and make sure they are archivally stored. The records are now part of the public record and will be fully searchable. Each year we can add new material to the collection which is a great way to recognise and showcase NT Architecture. As part of our move we also worked closely with a local Charity – Mental Health Carers NT (MIFANT) to donate furniture and fittings for their mental health programs. They were really excited to be able to expand their programs using our donation. Another donation was to the CDU Architecture students who we donated the entire Shepherd St library collection. The library sat unused in the office and now the Architecture students have full access to the publications which are stored near the design studio on campus. Thanks again Charmain for organising this.
Well the planning for 2019 is well underway and we will start populating the calendar of events by mid-December. If you have any ideas or are looking for us to deliver something specific please feel free to contact either Karen or myself.
Cheers
Raquel