Over the last few weeks we have enjoyed several Chapter celebrations with our 2024 Honours Presentation, End of year drinks event and the annual Fellows, Life Fellows and Past Presidents lunch. These are great opportunities to renew conversations with colleagues and to meet new members. Congratulations to all those who received awards or elevation in their membership category at the honours evening. In addition MPavilion has launched its summer programme and the Robin Boyd Foundation has continued with its busy events calendar. I would like to thank all our Victorian members for the enormous amount of energy that is poured into our practice forums, council meetings, committees, member events and allied activities which make for a very healthy profession in which we practice and which surely contributes to our high standard of design and discourse.
Our Victorian Chapter Council has now been elected for 2025 with Bonnie Herring and Antony Martin joining Chapter Council and we look forward to their participation and expertise at Council. I would like to thank retiring Councillors, Robert Caulfield and Gumji Kang for their contribution at Chapter Council. Gumji also served on the Education and Diversity committees and former National President Robert served a couple of terms this time around, also making a significant contribution promoting Institute membership including the establishment of the Robert Caulfield Scholarship.
The National Council elections continue and I encourage all members to get involved by voting now – the election closes on 18 December.
In and amongst our general activity the Institute continues to advocate to State Government for our profession and the built environment. The Chapter was asked to contribute to the Victorian Legislative Council’s Environment and Planning Committee Inquiry into Climate Resilience with the hearing held on 6th November. In addition to practising architects James Legge and myself, our presentation included three University of Melbourne academics researching and teaching in this area: Dr Chris Jensen, Dr Xavier Cadorel and Katie Skillington. We presented a short paper and then responded to questions from the Committee consisting of MLCs from various parties, chaired by Ryan Batchelor MP. The questions ranged significantly from understanding levels of comfort within buildings in adverse and varying weather conditions, assessment methodologies of building fabric, the adaption to current code requirements of existing building fabric including heritage buildings as well as the general impact on housing. We ended the discussion by underlining that this is both an important and far reaching topic that we would be only too pleased to contribute further to. The transcript of the hearing will become publicly available.
Just over a week back, representatives of our housing committee met with Deputy Secretary Jeroen Weimar, Coordinator of the Victorian Government’s housing programme. Chair of our committee & Chapter Councillor Sarah Buckeridge, Chapter Councillor Sarah Bryant, James Legge, our State Manager Daniel Moore, Policy & Advocacy Manager Reece Agland and myself held a comprehensive conversation on topics ranging from the government’s developed strategy on the delivery of homes, the role of the public realm and infrastructure in the development of activity centres, current delays in the procurement process including the contemporary challenge of achieving a building permit, codification of residential regulations and the subject matter of the Institute’s earlier published ‘Density Done Well: Design Led Housing Solutions’. In addition, the Chapter is also currently contributing to a paper on the activity centres, prepared with fellow industry associations, PIA, AILA and UDF. The paper is intended to be presented to the Minister of Planning, the Hon. Sonya Kilkenny in the near future.
This week will see a meeting held with Department of Transport and Planning on the new improved and integrated building authority, the Victorian Building and Plumbing Commission, and next week we are meeting with the Hon. Colin Brooks, Minister of Development, Precincts and Creative Arts. Minster Brooks is one of a select group of Ministers guiding government policy on the housing programme, so this is another important opportunity to advocate for a bright future for the built environment of our cities and towns, and the part architects necessarily must play in this.
I trust you all enjoy some time with your family and friends over the summer period as well as some well-earned rest and recuperation to recharge the batteries in preparation for the year ahead. I wish all members and their families a joyful and safe Christmas and New Year and look forward to seeing everyone actively involved in 2025, advocating for and enjoying our wonderful profession of architecture.
David Wagner FRAIA
President of Victorian Chapter
