ACA - SA August Update

John Held , 19 August 2016

The joint Institute/ACA talk given by James Legge on the Melbourne Nightingale Housing movement on 29 July sold out within days. James gave an excellent outline of both the social and environmental aspirations and the finance and economics of this architect-led movement to produce affordable, well-designed and socially responsible housing. Our recent series “Where to from here?” has inspired a number of architects to think about the future of practice, and Nightingale is one of many models to the survival of our profession. If you are interested to contribute to this series please contact Justine Clark, ACA editor.

David Holland has resigned from the ACA – SA Committee due to other commitments. We thank him for his contribution to the ACA in SA.

ACA – SA was invited by DECD to assist with new forms of master planning for schools – resulting in a paper suggesting the establishment of a Learning Environment Planning Study format, which would precede a full feasibility study or master planning, at an agreed fee dependent on the size of the school. Ian Hore and David Kilpatrick are currently working on the outline of the plan that will then be trialled and offered to schools.

ACA– SA worked closely with DPTI prior to the tender call for planning studies for the work with regards to expectations, timing and content of the report. We also hope to have further input when discussions resume regarding the procurement options for the construction work. We have given DPTI access to the ACA Time/Cost Calculation Guide and would like to further discuss how hours should be assessed for a project.

You will have seen the survey sent recently regarding proposed changes to Prequalification. We wish to gather as much information as possible regarding this and in particular suggestions for improvement in Performance Reporting. We will report on this survey in the near future.

ACA and the Institute have also obtained legal opinions regarding the proposed amendments to contract conditions accompanying the new AS4122-2010 contract.  There are concerns regarding uninsurable clauses such as fitness for purpose and deletion of proportionate liability. We will work with the Institute and Consult Australia to frame responses and discuss these with DPTI.

Representatives of architects and builders have been meeting regularly.  The first task has been to update the ACA/ Institute /MBA tendering guidelines, last issued in 2004. Changes will address issues such as electronic issuing of documents and probity issues related to electronic lodgement of tenders.  This should be issued shortly.

A number of builders have noted actions by architects contrary to the code, particularly regarding behaviours after tenders close. We ask all members reacquaint themselves with the relevant provisions.

John Schmidt of GHD Woodhead has drafted Roof Safety Guidelines for Architects. These are now available here.

A new group of graduates studying for their registration has commenced this successful program initiated by the ACA in SA and supported by Chris Tan Consulting.

This group, coordinated by ACA – SA EO Sascha Byrne, met again recently. Often administrators working in architectural practice don’t have ready access to others in similar roles in other firms, so this group plays a valuable role in supporting and connecting administrators and sharing information about issues such as accounting, HR and software issues. Ensure your administrator knows about this group!