National President’s foreword: Architecture Australia, September 1996

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1 Sep 1996

This is an article from the Architecture Australia archives and may use outdated formatting

‘Perhaps never in history have the talents, skills, broad vision, and the ideals of the architecture profession been more urgently needed. The profession could be powerfully beneficial at a time when the lives of families and entire communities have grown increasingly fragmented, when cities are in an era of decline and decay rather than limitless growth, when the value of beauty in daily life if often belittled.’ Extract from the Carnegie Foundation Report, USA.

I concur with Raymond Post Jr, AIA President who says in the July issue of AIA Architect ‘I think this statement alone goes to the heart of why most of us became architects in the first place.’

What is equally evident though is the difficulty the profession has in making the services and value of the architect understood and therefore appreciated by both procurers of buildings and the broader community.

Too often the worth of the creative and innovative concept is not fully appreciated—either by the client, or by the architect. Some architects don’t emphasise the importance of the idea/concept, yet ideas are unique and should be highly valued.

The innovative idea, the creative solution, the symbolic design concept is the basis from which everything else follows. Good design is essential to a successful project and as a profession we must defend the architect’s position as the only qualified and capable provider of good design.

Frequently the profession has displayed an unwillingness to respond to changes in demand for alternative services which has meant other methods of building procurement are employed and the architect’s role is diminished to specific areas of service provision only.

The delivery component of architectural services is subject to increasing competition in the market place and as such is price sensitive. To successfully compete in this area we must be efficient, informed, and embrace new technology.

Our competitors have a weakness though and that is their lack of design capability.

In order to improve our position in the market place we must all continually demonstrate the function of the architect and point to our ability to develop a unique creative solution through the synthesis of function, context, time and place.

“Too often the worth of the creative and innovative concept is not fully appreciated…”

If we fail to demonstrate and seek rewards for our input, and even undervalue the worth of our primary contribution, how can we expect the market place to fully recognise it?

Undeniably, the long term ‘success’ and community benefits of all building projects come down to the quality of the original design. We all have a responsibility to impress upon our clients and the community at large the importance of the original ideas in the development of our built environment and the unique capability of the architect in providing the creative contribution.

In the last edition of Architecture Australia, I included a congratulatory note about Harry Seidler recently being awarded the 1996 Royal Gold Medal of the Royal Institute of British Architects. As a further tribute to one of Australia’s finest architectural ambassadors we have included on the following pages transcripts of several speeches made in honour of Harry during the medal presentation.

John Castles LFRAIA