Dear Members,
We are almost three quarters through 2010, and for most of us in the community, it has continued to be a year of transitions and challenges. In our own practices and workplaces, we continue to accelerate business development efforts, to produce relevant work, to respond to the challenges of doing more with less, to adopt new technologies as quickly as feasible, to find new ways to stay informed of innovations and changes in our profession, and to continue volunteering our efforts for our communities and causes close to our hearts.
At the beginning of 2010, the Knowledge Communities faced the additional challenges of a new terrain caused by the reduced support and a more autonomous relationship with the AIA.
As part of this structural shift, the Interior Architecture Committee spent the first part of this year learning to propel ourselves in this new landscape with several initiatives:
- Launched the inaugural Annual Membership Survey.
- 481 of you responded to these questions:
- What interior architecture related information are you interested in?
- How would you like to access the information?
- What is Interior Architecture?
- What specialized knowledge have you gained in your practice?
- What are your needs and challenges?
- What consistent principles and emerging trends define our discipline?
- What are your expectations and aspirations?
- We posted the initial results on Knowledge Net, and are continuing to organize and summarize the many pages of your thoughtful written responses.
- We are aiming to collect the type of information high on your lists such as best practices / green building innovation and to provide them through the access format you favored such as this Knowledge Net site / webinars and face-to-face opportunities.
- We are planning : posts to the resource archives, links, webinars, book reviews, events announcements, a white paper on qualitative programming techniques for workplace design, interviews with notable individuals associated with our discipline.
- Organized to expand the five member advisory group into eight or more. Currently the eight members represent the core of the committee and the entire workforce. We have diversified our group both geographically, and by areas of expertise and experiences. We are continuing to seek members who are interested in contributing to this community effort. We hope to expand the entire committee into a deeper and broader sub-committee structure so that we can achieve more with our numbers.
- Organized the second year of the Members Roundtable discussion event at the national convention.
Many of you joined in the discussion at Miami and expressed an interest to be part of the Committee. Please contact Annie Chu annie@cg-arch.com or Mary Burke b.design@verizon.net We welcome your involvement and input.
- Outreach to content providers and allied organizations such as IIDA to be able to re-post and link pertinent articles on our Knowledge Net site. See an uplifting article on perseverance through these hard times from the summer issue of IIDA’s publication Perspective, linked from our site.
- We encourage you to post any documents of interest or to start a discussion on Knowledge Net. A great change this year is the open format of Knowledge Net, any member can post to the site. Give it a try and share some of your gems of wisdom as well as your wish lists!!
- We are currently seeking a webmaster and content reporters/editors who can help keep Knowledge Net robust and relevant for you. Please pass the word onto any potential candidate who may want to help.
- Collaborate with the Committee on Design to produce the 2010 Houston Conference November 4–7.
Don't miss the many world-class architectural gems in Houston, and the schedule of inspirational events posted on Knowledge Net. Please give us an early indication of your interest to attend by contacting tom@howortharch.com ASAP. We do not have the typical conference logistical support from AIA and really need to get a handle on the size of the conference for booking and reservation of venue and events.
We wish you a prosperous and bright September and we look forward to your input.
On behalf of our committee members,
Annie Chu, Chair of the Interior Architecture Committee, 2010
2010.08.20