FROM THE NATIONAL PRESIDENT

This is my last ENews as National President, and I welcome Howard Tanner as the RAIA’s incoming National President. Howard is a leading Sydney architect with long-established interests in landscape design, architectural heritage and history. He is very experienced in public roles having most recently served as Vice President of the Art Gallery of NSW Art Gallery Society and Chairman of the Foundation for the Historic Houses Trust of NSW.

We welcome, too, Terroir as Creative Director for next year’s national conference in Melbourne – the first corporate entity to be appointed to the role, with each of the three directors (Gerard Reinmuth, Richard Blythe and Scott Balmforth) sharing responsibility. Is this teamwork a sign of the times for architecture? (just as we must recognise collaboration in the making of architecture)

It seems to me that architecture continues to be the discipline with the most active ‘speculative’ propositions to facilitate debate and design imagination or creativity. Last month’s sell-out national conference was a great success as both a cultural event and for continuing professional development. Congratulations to all involved, especially to the creative director, Richard Francis-Jones and the RAIA staff who have once again demonstrated excellent event design and management skills. Building our corporate knowledge and learning from our experiences has been a major theme of my time at the RAIA; the prospect of an even better conference in Melbourne next year is a true challenge.

Preparations for the Venice Biennale are in full swing under the creative direction of Kerstin Thompson, Neil Durbach, Wendy Lewin, Vince Frost and Gary Warner. Reconfigured as a luminous yellow interior, the Australian pavilion will house two installations. A display in the upper platform will present selected scenes from our architectural past. In the lower gallery, invited submissions – models from practices around the country – will be gathered together to form a delicately wavering garden of architectural artefacts. In an essay for the proposed exhibition catalogue, Conrad Hamann will provide an overview of Australia’s architectural production and patterns of settlement, interweaving the past and the present in his discussion.

Our advocacy work is really cranking up. Just when I was hoping to ‘wind down’ the work load a little, I am increasingly involved with others from the RAIA in discussions on a broad range of architecture issues with people that include the Attorney General, senior advisors of the Prime Minister and members of Parliament on the Bipartisan Commission for Indigenous Housing. The RAIA is also participating in many submissions including representation at the Joint Standing Committee of Inquiry into the National Capital Authority with the ACT Chapter President David Flannery, based on work prepared by ACT Chapter Councillor Sheila Hughes. The new federal government is engaging with the RAIA on many levels with prospect of our voice being heard and new prospect for change for the better for all the communities we serve and our profession occurring.

We have also just published two new public policies on Safe Design and Sustainability. Both are major milestones as we move towards making policy creation and review a central task of the National Council.

Finally, it has been my privilege to serve at the RAIA. It has been a year where I have learnt much from my colleagues. All at the RAIA have been fantastic to work with and I thank everyone sincerely for making my work enjoyable and rewarding. I have made many lasting new friends and look forward to my year as Immediate Past President on Executive.

I look forward to hearing your views in the months ahead.

Best regards,

Alec Tzannes
National President