Winter - Australian Institute of Architects

WA State President MessageLast year the WA Architecture DesignAwards received a record number ofentries (141) including some major publicworks that went on to receive nationalrecognition. This year we have received123 entries across 10 categories. Thiswas an expected reduction consideringthe significant slow down experiencedin the development sector over the lastfew years. Whilst the number of entriesand the scale of the projects enteredhas reduced, it is pleasing to see thatthe quality of work certainly has not.This year’s entries are evidence of ourprofession’s commitment to achievingexcellence regardless of the scale andnature of the projects we undertake, anddespite increasingly difficult economiccircumstances.Projects in this year’s awards are locatedin all corners of our vast State – fromEsperance in the south to Kununurrain the north. The proportion of entriesfrom regional WA is likely to growover time as increased private andgovernment investment bears fruit.Most of WA’s architects are locatedin Perth, yet we have become skilledat developing appropriate designs forprojects in remote locations which haveunique climatic, cultural and constructionchallenges.This year the Public Architecture categoryhas the largest number of entries (23).State and local governments continueto be critically important sponsors ofprojects that have the greatest potentialto benefit the community. Architectsare motivated by the responsibility thatcomes with public architecture and thequality of this year’s public architectureentries demonstrates a high level ofcommitment and talent.As always, this year’s ten Commercialcategory entries represent a widerange of project types and sizes, yetall are examples of how the architectshave strived to achieve excellent builtform outcomes at the same time asresponding to their clients’ commercialimperatives.The “normalisation” of sustainabledesign expectations from Clientsand incorporation by architects hasresulted, I believe, in this year’s lowernumber of entries in the sustainabilitycategory. This does not suggest anyreduced emphasis on sustainabilityby architects. In recognition of therequirement for sustainability to be anintegral factor in all design, next year theawarded projects for this category will beselected from the entire pool of awardsentries.Once again the Residential categories– single houses, multi-residential, andresidential alterations and additions,represent a large proportion of this year’sawards entries. Perhaps these projectsare considered by many to represent themost direct relationship between thework architects do and the way peoplelive, but what I think the ArchitectureDesign Awards really do is to highlightthe breadth of influence architects haveon all aspects of daily life – from hometo work, to places of learning, healing,worship and play. Architects restore ourheritage places and seek to protect ourenvironment. The work architects doranges from big picture urban design tovery small projects and interiors. Eachyear the Architecture Design Awardsprogram is an opportunity to share withthe community our pride in the workwe do, and to illustrate the breadth ofproject types and locations that we,as a profession, work in with equalendeavor. This year’s awards are noexception.As always the awards program is a hugeundertaking for the Institute. Thankyou to everyone who has participated,including all of the entrants. Inparticular, thanks to our WA staff Kim,Meino and Voula for an enormouseffort. Thanks to our jurors, ably led byPatrick Beale as chairman of juries, andto our awards committee members. Andof course, a huge thanks to our sponsorsfor continued support of the Instituteand the profession generally - we can’tdeliver without you!This year saw the first everpresentations to juries day held atUWA in March. Feedback has beenextremely positive and we already haveimprovements in mind to make theday run even more smoothly and toencourage increased participation.The release of our mid-year edition ofThe Architect magazine concurrent withthe awards announcements is also a newinitiative. I hope you all enjoy readingabout the awards whilst the news is stillcurrent. Thanks again to Andrew Murraywho has been editor for The Architectduring the transition back to hard copy,and we wish Andrew well in Melbourne.I wish you all the very best for the secondhalf of 2012.David Karotkin3THE ARCHITECT 2012 ISSUE 002