AIA Los Angeles’ Post

✔ Added to my reading list! #riba #buildingdesign

2024 MID-YEAR REPORT The first half of 2024 was an intensive and productive work period. One year after the Copenhagen Congress and the General Assembly, the UIA Council has defined priorities, initiated projects, formulated a vision and goals for the reorganisation of the UIA with the aim of improving its governance. It has progressed significantly in the preparation of the revision of the Union’s statues and bylaws in line with the recommendations of the 2021-2023 Task Force adopted by the Copenhagen General Assembly. The process of revisiting the Union’s structure, clarifying its mission and proposing ways in which the UIA can be further strengthened has moved forward. Concrete proposals will be presented for vote at the Kuala Lumpur Extraordinary General Assembly (EGA) in November 2024. Ahead of the EGA, Member Sections will receive the finalised revision items and will be invited to discuss them during the five regional information meetings that will be convened for this specific purpose. An invitation to the EGA will be soon sent to the Member Sections. Today, the UIA gathers 114 Member Sections representing the architects’ associations of 121 countries. Since the beginning of the 2023-2026 term, 3 Member Sections have joined or re-joined the Union and 2 are in the process of application. The following has been accomplished in the first 6 months of 2024: 1. ORGANISATION 2. COUNCIL COMMITTEES 3. THEMATIC STRUCTURE OF THE UIA 4. UIA MAJOR PROJECTS OF THE TERM 5. INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATIONS 6. UIA PARTICIPATION AT SPECIAL EVENTS IN 2024 7. 2024 UIA FORUM IN KUALA LUMPUR 8. BARCELONA 2026 WORLD CONGRESS OF ARCHITECTS AND UNESCO-UIA WORLD CAPITAL OF ARCHITECTURE Read the full report here: https://lnkd.in/gsRSE9vA The UIA Council unanimously decided to focus on exploiting the potential of the UNESCO-UIA Validation System and approved the proposal of the Validation Board to create UIA in-house validation manager from 2025 onwards and plan the transition with the RIBA. The third edition of the 2030 Guidebook elaborated by the UN17SDGs Commission was launched in March. https://lnkd.in/eVeTvMaX

I like this post, because it is reflecting that the conditions for architectural and urban design works are suffering a dramatic decrease which affects clearly the quality of works and the survival of professional offices, not only in Spain or Belgium but in Europe. From Barcelona we might say regarding this topic that: - we see a clear increase of complexity in projects including enviromental studies, cost analisys, production of alternatives, endless changes, incluson of BIM technologies, request for higher ambient standards in construction that have not been reflected properly on cost repercussion, specially at public administration tenders. - That the only existing reference for estimating project cost analisis is the ancient "Col·legi d'Arquitectes de Catalunya - COAC Baremos professionales" which were done in 2009, and does not reflect the increasing complexity of architectural works. The economical desregulation of the sector makes that the professional Union of Engineers and Architects have very limited competences to provide references. - Most public tendering places a highest emphasis on economical offers rather than in any other factor, reducing the competence on quality and reducing it to price and experience. - The increase of structural costs due to inflation, increase of social wages, increase of responsabilities is done without reflection of projects cost analisys by the administration. All these issues affect very clearly the quality of architecture, its transparency and its success as a profession to drive the necessary changes in our environment. We think all these issues are not any longer a local debate, but rather a global debate.

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THE CRISIS OF THE ARCHITECTURAL PROFESSION (PART 1) Since its inception in 2007, our office has campaigned for the dignity of the architectural profession. Why? Because of the particularities of the Belgian architecture sector: a disproportionately low ratio of fee over performed hours of work, limited profitability and almost constant cash flow problems. As a consequence of low revenues, the majority of Belgian architectural practices employ only free-lancers, as the gross/net balance of their fee is more favorable for the employer. It is widely agreed that this situation is unique for Europe and the rest of the world. On the average, in order to allow architectural practices to employ people with normal contracts and salaries, the architects' fees should be raised with a factor between 1,5 and 2. We have recently intensified our work on this vital campaign by creating a task force consisting of Tom Boogaerts (coordinator), Aaron Swartjes (he/him) and Tom Maindiaux. A first opinion in Dutch has already been published on Architectura.be and has received a lot of positive feedback. You can find it in English on our website, here: https://lnkd.in/ejMn7jai #architectsfee #deararchitects #dearclients #dearusers #dearpoliticians #professionalism #belgianarchitecture &bogdan

THE CRISIS OF THE ARCHITECTURAL PROFESSION (PART 2) Let's frame the particularities of the Belgian architectural sector. Convinced that creativity and professionalism don't exclude each other, for my graduation thesis at Vlerick Business School in 2015, I looked at architecture as a business model. For our size of practice the Belgian benchmark for profitability is 16%, while the EUR-26 is 22% and the EUR-17 is 26% (The Architects Council of Europe 2015). Characteristic to the Belgian market, the profitability, if any, is achieved mainly through the high amount of working hours per principal/partner/director of an architectural practice. The following chart shows that the average amount of weekly hours for a partner director of an architectural practice in Belgium is higher than in any other country (Netherlands: BNA Benchmark Research 2014). This high amount of working hours per principal is one of the reasons why I did not manage to update the numbers from the report of my graduation thesis at Vlerick Business School. The reality shows me that not much has changed since 2015. On the contrary. PART 3 coming soon... *************************************** We have recently intensified our work on this vital campaign by creating a task force consisting of Tom Boogaerts (coordinator), Aaron Swartjes (he/him) and Tom Maindiaux. A first opinion in Dutch has already been published on Architectura.be and has received a lot of positive feedback. You can find it in English on our website, here: https://lnkd.in/ejMn7jai #architectsfee #deararchitects #dearclients #dearusers #dearpoliticians #professionalism #belgianarchitecture &bogdan

Among other attributes, the AIA defines a Citizen Architect as someone who "seeks to advocate for the broader purposes of architecture through civic activism, by gaining appointment to boards and commissions, and through elective office at all levels of government.” AIA|DC wants to highlight a few of its own local Citizen Architects. Could that be you? Give us a chance to highlight your work in upcoming newsletters. Please respond to this post by emailing Mary Fitch (mfitch@aiadc.com) with your answers to the following questions. Please also include a high-quality headshot (with photo credit) that may be shared. Name: Firm: Role: AIA Chapter affiliation: Years of experience: Favorite local spot: 1. What boards and/or commissions do you sit on that affect local and/or national policy, and how did you get involved? 2. What is your most proud achievement on that board/commission and/or What are you most looking forward to doing? 3. How has your training and experience as an Architect been useful? 4. What advice can you give other Architects looking to get involved in boards/commissions? Check out the full Citizen Architect Handbook here 👉

And finally, here is a souvenir from my Effective Design Reviews workshop from Floripa #ISA17 (#ILA23):

this conference focuses on the importance of experience in the design process