Three leading peak industry bodies have come together on a new collaborative initiative to deliver better outcomes in the built environment for Australian communities.

Keeping in mind the increasing pressure on the built environment from climate change and a growing population, the Australian Institute of Architects (AIA), the Planning Institute of Australia (PIA) and the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects (AILA) will pursue a deeper collaboration that will strengthen their collective advocacy with the aim of helping to deliver more resilient, liveable cities.

Collectively, the three organisations represent over 20,000 built environment professionals working across Australia and overseas. This latest development follows last week’s announcement of the 2019 Australian Urban Design Award winners.

The CEOs of the AIA, PIA and AILA have said they plan to work even more closely into the future.

“Each of our organisations has worked collaboratively at a state level in a number of jurisdictions for many years now,” says AIA CEO Julia Cambage.

“That joining of forces has been hugely successful, enabling us to provide a compelling, united front in conversations with government as well as partnering on research to provide the evidence base for our position. 

“This public policy work done by the Institutes covers difficult and confronting areas such as tall building quality and the challenges of novation, the need to nurture the social licence for growth and renewal of our suburbs, creating a vision for what we want Australian cities and towns to look like, and the understanding of the critical role of green and blue infrastructure.”

PIA CEO David Williams says the Institute is now focused on expanding and deepening that engagement at a national level with a view to driving better outcomes in the built environment for the communities collectively served by the three bodies.

“What binds us together is pure public interest, as this lies at the core of our purpose as we work together to help shape the resilient, liveable and high-functioning cities Australians expect as our population grows.” 

AILA CEO Tim Arnold says: “We share not only serious concerns but a strong commitment, and bring a sense of urgency to act in the face of catastrophic climate change and its impacts, not least the devastating biodiversity loss we are currently witnessing.

“We believe that together we can help advocate for and inspire the action needed to address the challenges head on and implement solutions that will drive meaningful change.

“The awarded and commended projects in this year’s Australian Urban Design Awards clearly demonstrate the powerful outcomes that can be achieved from a strong alliance between architects, planners and landscape architects.”

Pictured: Howard Smith Wharves, winner of Built Projects - City and Regional Scale at the Urban Design Awards. Image: Brisbane Open House