Architectural Centre

This week, NZIA has its CPD mini-conference in Auckland, and announces / awards New Zealand architecture awards.
The theme for the 2011 CPD Days is ADAPTATION AND REGENERATION
Architects aspire not just to design buildings, but to influence the design of the urban environment. Cities are increasingly complex and city-making is increasingly sophisticated.
How should architects respond?
What must they do to remain indispensable?
If practices want to be involved in remaking cities, must they also remake themselves?
Adaptation and Regeneration is the theme of the 2011. It is, of course, a topic of particular relevance as the nation embarks on the huge task of reconstructing its second-largest city.

Presenters at the CPD Days will address these questions:
How can practices configure themselves to respond to large-scale opportunities, and to manage their participation in large-scale projects?
How much of such work is the proper preserve of architects?
How does architecture get a seat at the table?
Will large practices still be architecture practices, or will they be something else?
What will be the role or territory of the small practice?
How will smaller practices get to do larger-scale work?
How do architecture practices work with others in urban regeneration projects?

Speakers and topics include:
FRIDAY 20TH MAY
SESSION 1: KNOW YOUR PLACE: ARCHITECTURE’S CULTURAL AND REGULATORY ENVIRONMENT
10.40 am – 11.25 am
Lewis Holden, Chief Executive, Ministry of Culture and Heritage
Architecture in the culture of the country and the purpose and goals of the Ministry as they relate to the built environment.

11.40 am – 12.15 pm
David Kelly, Deputy Chief Executive, Building Quality, Department of Building and Housing
The DBH and Architects: the state and future of the relationship

SESSION 2: MAKING IT (PART 1): SHAPING CITIES AND TRANSFORMING PRACTICE
1.30 pm – 2.45 pm
Robert Adams, Director of City Design, City of Melbourne
Learning from Melbourne: Urban revitalisation in Australasia’s most liveable city.

3.30 pm – 4.30 pm
John Coop, Director, Warren and Mahoney and Richard Harris, Director, Jasmax
Engaging with an increasingly complex environment: Directors of two of New Zealand’s largest firms discuss their practices’ responses to challenges and opportunities.

SATURDAY 21ST MAY
SESSION 3: MAKING IT (PART 2): SHAPING CITIES AND TRANSFORMING PRACTICE
9.30 am – 11.15 am
Chris Kelly, Director, Architecture Workshop, Christina van Bohemen, Director, Sills van Bohemen, Graeme McIndoe, Director, Graeme McIndoe Architects and Urban Designers
Smaller practices and bigger work: the Directors of three firms discuss the issues of practice scale and shape, and strategies of involvement.

SESSION 4: – CONTEMPLATING CHRISTCHURCH: RECONSTUCTION REALITIES AND OPPORTUNITIES
11.30 am – 12.30 pm
Sir Miles Warren, Peter Beaven, David Sheppard, Ian Athfield
Christchurch Architects and the ‘Architecture Ambassador’ discuss the challenges and opportunities of Christchurch reconstruction.

SESSION 5:– FINDING MEANING: THE RELEVANCE OF ARCHITECTURE
1.30 pm – 3.00 pm
Eric Cesal, Project Manager, Architecture for Humanity, Haiti and author of Down Detour Road: An Architect in Search of Practice – An American Architect’s account of his own vocational journey.