GIA CHAPTER REPORT: Winter 2020
2021 is an important year for the GIA, with UN Climate Conference, COP26, hosted in Glasgow. The past few months have therefore seen the GIA Council begin to focus their attention on preparations for the year ahead, as well as continuing to progress a wide variety of other initiatives and prepare for our Annual General Meeting and annual lecture on 15th of April.
In early December of last year, we held a Special General Meeting of the membership, where the members present voted in favour of progressing with the incorporation of the organisation as a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO), facilitating a wider review of the GIA’s constitution and governance structure. Development of these proposals is now underway, with a consultation process involving the wider chapter membership opening soon.
In the absence of studio culture where students learn from their peers, our Education Committee held its very successful first series of virtual cross-school reviews, where students from various year groups of both the Mackintosh School of Architecture and the University of Strathclyde came together to discuss their work with their peers over several evening sessions. We have had excellent feedback and hope this can continue beyond the lockdown and online learning.
The GIA Council continues to seek new ways in which it can engage with its chapter area, which in geographical terms is both expansive and diverse. The GIA Council recently launched an initiative, GO-GIA, assigning its five GIA-RIAS Representatives to five geographic areas of the chapter and holding monthly meetings to discuss members questions and ideas, as well as to relay what the GIA and RIAS are doing directly to members. The first session attracted architects from across the chapter area. We look forward to continuing to engage with our members and would urge all architects in the chapter area to come along.
The lockdown announced shortly into the new year unfortunately put the brakes on our Conservation Committees exhibition of entries for the Hamilton Mausoleum and Keeper’s Lodge competition. The exhibition has now been rescheduled for around May and will take place at Hamilton Low Parks Museum. It will showcase all of the entries, as well as the history of the mausoleum through historic drawings and models, all subject to government advice and guidelines.
Our CPD series, organised by our Practice Committee, recommenced in March with the final event in our GIA Award Winners 2019 series. Numerous events are planned in the next few months which will focus on the important themes of conservation and sustainability.
The Architecture, People & Place Committee has continued to contribute to the Glasgow Urban Design Panel and has also recently provided panellists to support Helensburgh Community Council’s own design panel, Architecture and Design Helensburgh.
Looking ahead to COP26, our Sustainability Committee is progressing plans for a wide range of activities on the run-up to and during theCOP26 period which aim to raise the profile of sustainable design, Glasgow’s built environment and what architects can do to help clients achieve their net-zero targets. The activities are deliberately varied, targeting a variety of audiences and range from our Countdown to COP seminar series, which is already underway; walking and cycling routes around the city, which take in various themes such as ‘retro-fit’ and ‘sea levels’ and will be collated in a series of maps; a city-wide exhibition taking place in various shopfronts; and the GIA potentially hosting its own shopfront as a hub space that will seek to exhibit work from across the chapter area including that of the students of Glasgow’s two schools of architecture. The proposals are still at an early stage and we continue to reach out and seek the involvement of others, and I would of course encourage any interested members to get in touch with us.
With the role-out of the vaccine and lockdown restrictions beginning to be eased we are hopeful that there is light at the end of the tunnel but we realise the situation remains extremely difficult for many. I would again encourage our members to lookout for one another and remind them of the avenues of assistance – financial and otherwise – that are available through the Architects Benevolent Society and the GIA’s own WB Whitie Benevolent Fund should they require them. As we approach the one-year anniversary of the announcement of the first lockdown, I look forward to the day we can all share the same space again!
Phil Zoechbauer
President GIA