23 February, 2016

The past two year’s examination of governance by National Councillors has the Institute about to enter a phase of significant improvements in:

• Advocacy for high quality design and the engagement of architects;
• Active engagement in architectural education of contemporary relevance; and,
• The Institutes operations, so that member’s services are the focus.

Establishment of the number of architects in Australia is being undertaken through research of the Australian Bureau of Statistics census. It is important that the Institute knows how many architects there are in Australia, how many are members, and of those who are not members, what their needs are for support in the Australian and international building industry.

A second survey asks members and prospective members to advise key questions to be put to the major parties and independents in the 2016 Federal and ACT Government elections.

At AILA’s Living Cities Workshop on “green infrastructure industries” at Parliament House, The Honorable Anthony Albanese outlined “Our Cities, Our Future” with desire to “innovate or die in the intercity competition for people” and their abilities and called for:

• innovative financing and delivery mechanisms; and,
• appointment of a Minister for Cities with funds to spend on infrastructure.

He asked, “Where are the planners, architects and sustainable plans as existed in the 1970’s Department of Urban and Regional Development (DURD)” and contended that DURD produced results, not as asserted by others, ‘no result’! Tom Uren and Brian Howe made a difference.

There is now a marked difference with private property investments delivering living active cities. Creating green livable cities is a shared responsibility of government, private industry and the community.

Government has a responsibility to the community to encourage best practice. Currently, accountancy, spreadsheets and fee competition procurement methods lead to the lowest fee and is the cause of poor design and built outcomes.

At the end of March, Rob Henry, as incoming ACT Chapter President and the new Chapter Council including emerging architects Yuri Leong and Shoba Cole will bring great skill to the Institute. Tony Trobe, Alan Morschel and Michael Jasper will be re-joining the Chapter Council.

Congratulations to those new to Council and my sincere thanks go to continuing Chapter Councillors and Committee Chairs for your support and efforts.

Andrew Wilson