Last week Glen Murcutt attended a president’s lunch at the chapter and in the evening went on to feature in a ‘Michael Parkinson’ style interview with our own Annabelle Pegrum as part of the contemporary speaker series at the National Gallery. This was a sell-out. Given this success it makes it clear that given the right exposure the public have a significant appetite for architecture and design. We, as a profession just need to continue to provide it.

We seem to be claiming a toehold within key media outlets including: the Canberra Times Relax magazine on Sundays, a weekly president’s column on Saturdays and biweekly ABC interviews with Alex Sloan on 666; it would be great to be able to build on these.

To keep the momentum with these initiatives however we do need the active involvement of chapter members so I would greatly encourage all members to think about potentially becoming involved. The Canberra Times Relax represents incredible value for the promotion of practices; particularly for anybody working in the domestic sphere. It is surprising to me that we struggle to find suitable candidates to participate.

I personally am always searching for contributors to the weekly column in the paper; all that is required here is that for ‘guest of the week’ to come up with 450 words on a topic that they are passionate about in ‘question-and-answer’ format. This is a very simple process and an easy vehicle pass comment on a wide variety of design issues. It is also very visible platform for us as a profession to keep architecture at the vanguard of the news cycle.

This is a plea for more members to step forward.

Tony Trobe
ACT Chapter Manager