Start practicing your dance moves because the awards night is here this weekend. With over 250 people attending, this event is a great opportunity to bring our community together and celebrate our people and our projects. It’s also a good chance to network with our industry partners.

Collaboration, collaboration, collaboration……

We hosted our first collaborative event with Engineers Australia last week. The 70+ people that attended left with knowledge on how the 3D printing world is likely to revolutionise our industry and our world. Whilst 3D printed materials that have the ability to heal themselves sounds like futuristic talk, it exists today. Incredibly we were informed that the United Arab Emirates have committed to having 25% of all their new buildings constructed using 3D printing by 2030. Bridges are being constructed on site and over water in northern Europe using 3D printed concrete. I will be talking with National Council at our July meeting about how we can assist in preparing architects for this extraordinary change in the construction industry.

We have been in discussions with AILA about some combined events as part of the Design Canberra festival and as fringe events to their national Landscape Architecture Festival later this year. A series of bus tours will be on offer as well as some talks, and possibly even a great debate between architects and landscape architects.

We met with ACT Government Procurement and Capital Works to discuss their upcoming industry forum on project procurement and contracts. We provided them with some feedback, tabled by our Practice committee and other interested parties, and discussed issues including appropriate remuneration for services and the value of using local architects. They were supportive of setting up monthly or bi-monthly meetings with the AIA and will also provide us with a draft of their industry forum content for our review and comment prior to the July forum. On the whole, it was a positive meeting that paved the way for future collaboration.

Don’t forget to by your CAASS tickets as they sell out quickly.

See you at the awards!

Rob Henry

ACT Chapter President