GIA CHAPTER REPORT: Summer 2020

Following the advent of the global pandemic, the past 3 months have seen the GIA shift its focus towards holding virtual events and online activities.

The GIA delayed its AGM by 2 months and was held on 11th June via Zoom, and saw Isabel Garriga step-down as GIA President after a two year term, and the election of Phil Zoechbauer to the role along with Shona MacVicar and Andrew Hadden as GIA Vice Presidents. The GIA Council would like to thank Isabel for her service and commitment to the institute in the role and looks forward to her continued involvement as Convenor of the institutes Education Committee.

The AGM also saw the announcement of the GIA’s ideas competition for Hamilton Mausoleum and the adjacent Keeper’s Lodge. The competition, being run in association with the Hamilton Mausoleum Trust seeks to raise awareness of the derelict buildings and invites entries that seek their creative re-use. The competition closes on 4th September. The judging panel includes John Hume OBE and Judi Keith-Brown, President of the New Zealand Institute of Architects, with an online public vote also being held. The competition will be followed by an exhibition of the entries in Hamilton Low Parks Museum.

The GIA has also announced this year’s winners of the GIA Student Awards. The awards seek to recognise the work of the best students across both Glasgow Schools of Architecture. For the first time the judging was digitally, and we would like to congratulate all the award-winning and commended students and look forward to seeing them present their work as part of the GIA’s annual ‘Behind the Prize’ event in September, which gives the students a platform to present their award winning projects as part of the Glasgow Doors Open Days series of events.

The GIA has also assisted in facilitating digital events for the Glasgow Urban Design Panel, for which the institute is the secretariat and holds a Vice Chair role. Two events have now been held which have reviewed proposals for high-profile projects in Glasgow city centre as well as a collaborative session with Professor Brian Evans, the Glasgow City Council-appointed city urbanist.

Despite having been delayed by a year, COP26 grows ever closer, and the GIA is continuing with its ‘Countdown to COP’ series of events – a now-online monthly seminar series which raises issues around sustainable design. Two events have been held in the past two months which have focused on Post-Occupancy Evaluation and on Low Embodied Carbon Materials. We are grateful to our Sustainability Committee for the organization of these valuable events.

The GIA have also continued holding a variety of other online events, ranging from formal events such as the ‘(Y)Our City’ consultation event (which was held as a consultation event as part of the Glasgow City Districts Framework) to informal ones such as our first online social , organized by our Communications Committee (where the GIA provided Zoom as a platform for anyone across the chapter area to join and chat).

The GIA have also put out a call to fill the 2no vacant RIAS Chapter Representative positions and are investigating ways for providing a more coordinated network of representation to ensure those practices outside the city of Glasgow feel equally represented by the institute.

In the months ahead, our attention will be turning to preparations for the annual GIA Design Awards which will be opening for entries shortly; the GIA CPD Series, which for the first time will be held entirely online, again commencing with events around last years GIA Design Awards winning projects; Commencing the review of the GIA’s constitution with our legal advisor and the options for incorporating the organization; Progressing plans for the GIA’s ‘Put a Cone on the COP’ events, which will seek to engage with communities in Glasgow as part of the COP26 programme of events; and commencing the digitization of the GIA’s archive, which you can follow here.

I hope this post finds everyone well, and we look forward to bringing you further updates on the activities of the GIA soon.

Phil Zoechbauer

GIA President