Last Friday Councillor Tony Giannone, Chapter Manager Nicolette DiLernia and I met with representatives from UniSA (Mads Gaardboe and Stephen Ward) and the University of Adelaide (Veronica Soebarto) to discuss how we could develop a closer relationship between the profession and the universities. Many thanks to Tectvs for hosting us.

It followed on from a President’s breakfast last month on a similar theme.

It’s something that has been on my mind for some time, and there are several reasons for this.

For one, the topic of research is not well understood in architectural practice, particularly here in South Australia. We can make better use of the capacity of the universities to work with the profession to provide an evidence base for the design decisions that we make. Much of what we do is based on gut feel and intuition – we know that something works, but we don’t quite know why. Or we know it is of benefit, but we can’t provide the data.

To have evidence that backs up our design instinct changes the design discussion – it is harder to refute evidence than it is to challenge instinct. The conversation moves from one on based aesthetics to one based on facts.

It’s about relevance. For example, we know that we bring economic value to clients in workplace design through things such as productivity gains, less absenteeism and increased staff satisfaction. But to be able to make factual statements about how we do that moves us from being optional ‘stylists’ to must have business advisors.

Research can be as simple as data collection by students. Jan Gehl employs this to great effect, partnering with a local university to gather data around how a city is functioning to inform his reports.

At the other end of the scale, it can be as complex as a full PhD on a topic.

There can also be secondments and staff exchanges – academic staff working in a professional studio and vice versa to bring value to projects and our clients. There’s lots of avenues, but they should lead to better business outcomes for the profession as well as providing targeted topics for research for academics.

There’s also a cultural aspect of improved engagement between our two groups. Simple things such as speaker series. Or getting a better understanding of a rich but somehow forgotten history of houses and other buildings from the 1950s, 60s and 70s. Just having a conversation can only be a good thing.

The Chapter Council’s Education Task group will focus on this area over the coming months, with an aim to holding a seminar sometime around the National Conference next year to look at both developing a better understanding in the profession as to what the universities can offer, and promoting a better culture and dialogue.

David Homburg, SA Chapter President