Leeza Soho. Image courtesy of Zaha Hadid Architects
The AIA UK Virtual Building Tour series has continued to grow in popularity, with record numbers tuning in from the UK and abroad. On 11 March the series continued with ‘Cork House’ by CSK Architects with The Bartlett UCL. This project won two of our 2020 Design Awards, in the Professional and Sustainability Small project categories. The next two Virtual Building Tours were ‘Leeza Soho’ by Zaha Hadid Architects on 08 April, and Nyp Guesthouse by Studio Bua, on 13 May.
Our 2021 Design Awards deadline was 07 May, with the virtual jury session scheduled for 08 June. We look forward to the new batch of winning projects, which will join our Virtual Building Tour series.
The AIA UK Technical Lecture series also commenced this second quarter, with a virtual ‘Workflow – Innovation and Integration’ lecture held on 14 April. Chapter sponsor Roca also had their second lunchtime webinar of the year, which was on ‘Specifying Water Efficient Design’.
The chapter has been especially busy on the Sustainability front. Thanks to the efforts of our Sustainability Chair, Dr. Mark Breeze, AIA, the chapter was able to offer three virtual talks for the AIA IR Spring Conference: Implementing Change. One was the Keynote Lecture, ‘Architecture of the Earth, Not Just on It!’ by Ed Mazria, then ‘Designing a Green New Deal’ by Billy Fleming et al., and finally ‘Navigating a Pathway to Net Zero’, by Lucy Townsend.
As the United Kingdom prepares to host the COP 26 summit in Glasgow later this year, our chapter is heavily involved and is a partner organisation in various efforts for this summit.
Dr. Mark Breeze, AIA is working with Ed Mazria to develop a communiqué which they will take to the COP26 (please read more here: https://cop26communique.org/ ).
2020 President Christopher Musangi, AIA, is working with RIBA and Architects Declare on the Built Environment Summit. Please find more information on this summit here: http://www.aiauk.org/news/2021/5/31/built-environment-summit-open-call-for-climate-action-research
And please join us for our next Virtual Building Tour on 10 June at 1830 UK Time, ‘One Fen Court’ by Eric Parry!
