CHAPTER NEWS

Chapter Manager’s report

This is my first Chapter report since taking the helm of the NSW Chapter. It has been a busy number of weeks for me, observing, absorbing and learning. I am looking forward to working with the dedicated Chapter committees and their members, continuing to drive excellent initiatives and programs to the membership.

The Gender Equity Taskforce (GET) is at the forefront working hard to formulate initiatives around gender equality in the architecture industry. The Champions of Change program, an initiative of the NSW Chapter, is now is now well underway. The program is facilitated by Dr Jess Murphy and involves nine representatives or Champions, both men and women from medium to large size practices.

PALS has also been going exceptionally well. The program is often over-subscribed showing its popularity as a learning forum. Three PALS sessions have already been completed with another four to go in this series. The success of PALS is demonstrated by the number of graduates sitting their exams and their high pass rates.

The 2015 Sydney Architecture Festival will be held from 2-5 October. Organised in collaboration with the Architect’s Registration Board, the festival will continue to enable Sydney’s community to participate in and enjoy the architecture of Sydney – past, present and future. Working with Lucy Humphrey and Claire McCaughan of Archrival and John O’Callaghan as the event’s first ever event director team, we are developing an exciting public program – details of which will be announced very soon!

We are taking Chapter Council on the road again. Our next excursion will be to Bathurst in September in conjunction with the Country Division Conference We’ve Come So Far, So Far, 22-25 September. This is part of bringing the Chapter Council closer to members – other meetings have been held with the Inner West Architects Network and at Hassell in August.

On behalf of the NSW Chapter, I would also like to congratulate and thank everyone involved in this year’s highly successful NSW Architecture Awards. With over 500 guests, the Chapter staged its most successful awards ceremony to date at the Sydney Town Hall. Thank you to all the members who submitted projects, the awards committee, the people who attended and created a wonderful energy in the Town Hall on the presentation night. A special thank you to Chapter staff, Hannah Burgess, Noni, Ela and Dominique for their hard work in making the evening a success.

Audrey Braun
Chapter Manager, NSW Division

Newcastle Division

The Newcastle Division has welcomed four new committee members who are proving to be a great asset to our leadership: Rebecca Whan (Jackson Teece), Joel Chamberlain (dwp | Suters), Shane Smede (EJE), and Matthew Travis (Schreiber Hamilton). The University of Newcastle SONA representative, Mr Jiri Loew has also joined our committee which will allow us to better support our student members. We thank Bob Young, Glen Spicer and Sarah Manners for their years of dedicated service to the committee.

The Newcastle Division has been active in the preparations for the Lower Hunter Urban Design Awards, 40th Anniversary Awards. This year, as a special anniversary celebration, the awards will be a reflection upon the past four decades of winners. The jury has now completed the assessments, and we look forward to the announcement of the winners at a gala event to be held later this year.

This year, our committee is actively looking to strengthen our relationship with the University of Newcastle (UON). The new Head of School of Architecture, Ms Sue-Ann Ware is an enthusiastic supporter of the Institute and we look forward to working with her. As part of our commitment to UON, the Institute has again sponsored the 5th Year Masters of Architecture Exhibition.

Our committee is also striving to secure funding for a sequel to the successful 2009 book written by our member, Mr Les Reedman. His book, Early Architects of the Hunter Region, a hundred years to 1940, was funded by the Newcastle Division and is now in its second reprint. If you wish to contribute to the production or the content of the book please contact our office staff.

Debra McKendry-Hunt
Chair, Newcastle Division

NSW Country Division:

Country Division awards will be presented at the annual conference in Bathurst in September after a record number of entries this year. The conference ‘We’ve come so far, so far’ investigates how architectural history informs the future through a program of speakers, events and workshops. The 2015 events program culminates in a celebration of iconic wool sheds with an exhibition and seminar in the Deeargee Woolshed near Armidale.

Sarah Aldridge
Chair, Country Division

DARCH

Over the past couple of months EmAGN DARCH has hosted a series of Tuesdays@Tusculum talks. Following the June announcement of the NSW Student and Graduate Awards recipients for 2015, we invited students from across all four schools of architecture to present their work to the profession. This was an excellent opportunity to hear firsthand about the thinking that went into some of this year’s successful projects and to chat to the award recipients. The projects presented ranged from an archive for the work of JØrn Utzon – this year’s Design Medal winning project – to a habitable bridge on the south coast and several schemes that focused on addressing Australia’s affordable housing crisis.

In July we invited David Neustein of Other Architects to co-curate and moderate a Tuesdays@Tusculum panel discussion on the idea of success in architecture. Joining David was Kerry Clare of Clare Designs, Timothy Moore of Sibling, Cristina Goberna of FAKE Industries Architectural Agonism and Tim Horton the NSW Registrar. The talk was structured into three categories, project, practice and career, with the speakers taking turns to discuss each. What was notable was the diversity of approaches and positions taken by the panellists, with each allowing for a different perspective on what constitutes success. Ultimately, the message was clear for the audience: that despite this diversity there was a common thread of engagement, commitment and passion for the profession and that success in architecture can be achieved in many different ways.

To keep informed about future events please join the EmAGN DARCH mailing list or find us on Facebook.

Ksenia Totoeva
Co-Chair, DARCH

Patrons news

AJ+C

In July, Allen Jack +Cottier’s (AJ+C) CEO and principal Michael Heenan spoke to a full house as part of the London Festival of Architecture, focusing on Sydney’s future as a world city by the year 2030. AJ+C’s shortlisted projects in the education and residential categories for the 2015 World Architecture Festival Awards were also on display in London, with winners to be announced in Singapore in November. Back home, AJ+C’s Residential Care Facility at Quaker’s Hill has been shortlisted for the UDIA Awards for Excellence.

Other recently completed projects include a new multipurpose sports and assembly hall for Abbotsleigh School for girls; a converted inner city warehouse which is attracting a lot of attention with the insertion of a very unusual, insulated and sound proof sleeping pod; and a floating bar atop of Sydney Tower which is the highest event space in the southern hemisphere. AJ+C also continues to work on a number of transformational urban renewal, multi-residential, public and commercial projects in Sydney, Parramatta, Perth and regional NSW.