Year of the Built Environment

peter_j

Can anyone tell me how this year of the built environment is noticeably different to any other year? I was trawling about on its website looking for juicy morsels to report and found nothing much.

There are press releases from ministers about the launch of the Year, and press releases from ministers about funding a cycle track, there is a lecture at the State Library of Victoria later in the month, and there's an event calendar containing mostly events like the awards that would have been there even if this was the Year of the Squashed Banana. Lastly I found an Exemplars Program that looks like it could be quite OK. This is all pretty low key though. Hoping others have had a better experience of it.

http://www.builtenvironment2004.org.au/ybe

Anonymous

Yes YBE has been a bit of fizzer, not through lack of trying or hobnobing, but simply funding. Money was promised by fed government. Lots of money. Programs, competitions etc planned, but no money no events.

The States of Mind student conference, is badged as a major YBE event, but even this badging does not equal money. The board that we applied for funding to would like to hand out money, but the promised money from the government has disappeared. All that SOM has is a pretty logo, and promotion on some YBE sites.

Similarly some state governments have not allocated any funding either. Tasmania zippo! Tasmania high profile public celebration education of YBE etc. tiny. Have not heard of, or seen promotion of anything of this nature.

There does not appear to be a public vocal action or follow up with Mr Kemp on this.
Surely, behind the scenes, people with vested interest in its success are trying almightly hard....with no luck! All I say is keep going, try a new tact. At least we could all buy a Christmas present if it comes through at the end of the year.

Another example of Mr Kemps departmental management, was the almighty 'cock-up' for the invites to the offical launch of the YBE late last year. Launch date was early december, rsvp late november, invite in mailbox Chirstmas Eve.

His offical respsonse, was an Australian Post error. More likely a precursor of the year to come...

Anonymous

You may be interested to know of an upcoming YBE event which to date has not recieved a great deal of publicity. The architecture faculty at the University of Sydney is hosting a student design competition open to student groups at each of the nsw architecture schools. Significant prizes and public exposure are expected. Students at the relavant schools should be getting information about this soon.

< www.superstudio.com.au > more info

Anonymous

Found a flier at a cafe the other day advertising a Favourite Place competition being done by the YBE. That was the first thing I'd ever seen though and that's almost over . Maybe the year should be seen as an unbuilt project.

peter_j

The Australian Year of the Built Environment is over! Whatever it was.

David Kemp, the federal minister responsible for the YBE, had trouble describing it in an early press release.

The Year of the Built Environment will explore buildings and the way we use them, how we travel between them and how almost every aspect of our urban lifestyle impacts on our natural environment.
http://www.deh.gov.au/minister/env/2003/mr13may1203.html

The money all went into heritage projects (to help 'define our national identity' and protect it from rampaging built environment) and sustainability projects (which focus on lessening the impact the built environment has on the unbuilt environment).

All good, but aren't there other aspects to the built environment that he could have considered? Contrast with a similar Norwegian initiative in 1992...

Government report no. 61, 1991–92, Culture for Our Time, highlighted architecture and design for the first time as a new and important field of Norwegian cultural policy. Broadly speaking, the field was described as possessing technical, economic and aesthetic aspects. It was stated that the artistic and cultural aspects of everyday buildings were often neglected in developments built in the postwar years and in the urban environments that were created in smaller communities and on the outskirts of towns. At the same time, it was emphasised that these environments are of vital importance to people’s wellbeing. The report provided a broad and knowledgeable description of the field and its problem areas – with a clear emphasis on architecture.

Architecture and design were thereby established as a new, separate field of Norwegian cultural policy... The report stressed that the field was wide and diverse, extending beyond the remit of the Ministry of Cultural Affairs. It was made clear that a number of specialist ministries should be involved in any future work on architectural policy, and an interdepartmental working group was set up within the Cabinet Office. This group currently comprises representatives of the Ministry of Cultural Affairs, the Ministry of Trade and Industry, the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development, and the Ministry of the Environment.

It was also made clear that the State, in building and managing its properties, should set an example in matters of architecture and design.
http://www.museumsnett.no/arkitekturmuseet/newpages/norwegianarchitectual.html

adeliadearchitecture

are any polies reading these messages then how about a cost benefit analysis of creating a bicycle track from marion to adeliade city connecting the isolated however beautiful freeway veloway with the city cbd. theres a green patch following the length of the noarluinga train line. any ideas like the track could be enhanced with sculptures created by an adeliade sculptor who dedicates a team to do his bidding.

adeliadearchitecture

as much as i agree i find preservation of old buildings soft minded i cant see how rebuilding were there was already a maintainable building respectable to the princioples of energy conservation and material contamination of the environment.