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23 December 2020

Architects for Peace President's report 2020


AFP was cited in this international conference as belonging in the lower, right quadrant - highly ethical, yet not influential. The Post COVID challenge for AFP is how to rise to the top, right quadrant - ethical and influential. 

Architects for Peace President's report 2020

 

Beatriz Maturana Cossio.  Founder and President
 
This time last year, bushfires raged across most of the Eastern seaboard of Australia as evidence of the ecological crisis while the economic success stories of  Paris, Hongkong and Santiago were each in their own form of social crisis. Then a global pandemic.
 
It’s been a year of suspended normality and we don’t yet know what the new normal will look like. We do now that the world’s population is now poorer than it was before 2020 and that the professions of the built environment and the urban planet face new challenges with the possibility of a new and better normality.

The twin challenges of human crisis and the human-caused natural crisis are summed up in the global response to the pandemic.

The accelerated use of digital and virtual technology has exposed access to interconnectivity and information as a basic human right. The commandeering of private health for the public good has demonstrated a different model of delivering essential public health services. Online education has shown that we can collapse distance, reduce energy consumption and save travel time.  The global cooperation on finding and distributing a vaccine has shown the world, forced by our interdependency as terrestrial beings and part of the ecology, as re-thinking the biggest changes in health, education, environment and the economy. For the culture of cities and people as global citizens, this has been perhaps the most important year in living memory. The magnitude of the tragic loss of life will not be known for some time to come.
 
In 2020 Architects for Peace marked 17 years as a not for profit organization whose ambition was to be a global network for the professions of the built environment. 17 years is a long time to be a voluntary organization and the achievements have been tremendous. We would like to thank the previous committee for their work of involving many new, young members.
 
One of our committee members, Eva was at a conference where our organization appeared alongside significant institutions as part of an analysis of ethics and effectiveness. The speaker placed Architects for Peace in the quadrant of highly ethical yet with the least influence. This is the challenge we faced in 2020 before the world changed.
 
The current committee which includes me as the founder of the organization in 2003, two founding members (Eva and Anthony) and a previous President (Targol), nominated when we became aware that the organization was likely to fold at the end of 2019.
 
With a skeleton Committee and a minimum number of financial members, we decided to operate on a minimum model until Anthony and I could return to Australia in early 2020 to help rebuilt the organisation’s base.
 
Then the pandemic.
 
In a curious way, these circumstances have forced the organization to re-think its original intention and ambition – to be an international organization that networks and opens up the perception and reality of an urban planet through the professions of the built environment and the questions of sustainability – social, economic and environmental – as the basis of social and environmental justice. This, in part, has happened through the fact that we are now a wholly online organization in content, communication and campaign, where ever the committee or membership are in the world.
 
On this theme, the committee's modest work over the last twelve months has focused on three main areas:

1.     Activities to profile the organization, engage members and promote the principles of the organization

a.      A-Public Space Projection. With the remaining funds that the previous committee had obtained from the City of Yarra, we initiated a project that could operate globally in a time of pandemic. This virtual public space projection project involved

i.      a Zoomshop tutorial recorded for future reference involving people in Australia and Chile,
ii.      a competition posted and circulated through our online networks
iii.      The awarding of a prize as an editorial and the use a beautiful graphic image generated by the project. 

Thanks to Anthony McInneny for driving this.

b.     Conference support

i.      
SEMINARIO VIRTUAL: GIROS ÉTICOS: CIUDAD Y SOSTENIBILIDAD POST-COVID19 – Santiago, Chile
The Ethical Turn, The City and Sustainablity Post COVID 19. AFP was a conference sponsor of this international event hosted by Faculty of Business and Economy at the University of Chile and supported by APRU (Association of Pacific Rim Universities). The President of AFP was a panel host and presenter

ii.      Eva Rodriguez Presentation at various conferences on behalf of AFP

iii.      Targol Khorram has continually promoted AFP in her lectures and tutorial at Melbourne University

c.      Editorial

i.      The Beirut Tragedy – Condolences for the disastrous explosion

ii.      How Might the COVID-19 Change Architecture and Urban Design? A re-published article with interview by our Editorial Committee member Ashraf Salama

iii.      La ciudad: ¿escenario de convivencia ciudadana o moneda de cambio para la extorsión? The City: a scene of conviviality or extortion. Re-published article in Spanish written by Beatriz Maturana

d.     Assistance

i.      DESIGN BRIEF
    Project Title:  Community Migrant Resource Centre – Multipurpose Community Hub
We have assisted the Northern Region Migrant Resource Centre in Sydney, Australia in their successful search for a pro-bono architect by drafting the brief.

2.     Organisation

a.      Membership

i.      We have clarified our financial membership base and begun an easier system of subscription that will accompany the future website. There are very few financial members and no current business members of the organization. This is a question for the future planning of the structure, membership and activities of the organization, particularly in relation to international, organizational, student and profession membership strategies, fee structures, services and interfaces with the organisation

b.     Website

i.      The committee of 2017 raised significant funds for a new website. This has been in perpetual discussion with subsequent committees who have not been able to resolve the difference between the cost of a new website and the funds available. The current committee has rethought this problem in terms of our global financial situation (see the financial report) and the funds raised in 2017. We believe that an accessible archiving of the current website material and the development of a “what is possible” website – in terms of the structure and activity of the organization and a website -  can  be designed and delivered within a defined budget. This forces us to rethink the engagement strategies and redefine the organization in terms of the plausible and effective activities centred on a  communication strategy as a primary function, platform and activity. This brings us back to the questions the pandemic had raised and our key purpose.

3.     Future Proofing AFP

a.      Rethinking a membership based organization.
We have to rethink the relationship between membership, finances and activities

b.     Balancing the ethics (intention) with impact.
Following Eva’s observation of AFP’s public image (highly ethical but ineffectual) and comparing with other organisation’s who are working in a similar field – e.g. Architects Without Frontiers and Engineers Without Borders in Australia – we see a singular focus that delivers the impact. AFP has to re-think what it is we want to achieve in terms of having an influence or impact, on whom and why? We believe our greatest asset is the intellectual and network capacity, based on the experience, knowledge and capacities of our current and potential membership. The impact we want to have on the professions of the built environment needs to be re-thought – in what way? Public Policy? Professional development? Professional Practice?

c.      Rethinking organisational purpose (as distinct from Vision and Mission).
With a clear purpose, we can develop our organisational structure and our activities as a web-based organization.
 

I would like to thank our current committee members for stepping into the breach for the last twelve months – Eva, Targol and Anthony and encourage you to nominate for committee positions for the coming year and the new, and hopefully better, normality. 
Beatriz Maturana, Dec. 2020




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