Over the past seven months the AIA has convened a working group, the Global Strategic Development Task Force (GSDTF) to develop a future facing 5-year strategy to enhance the AIA's global vision and to increase value for AIA members. The task force chaired by Thierry Paret, FAIA, is addressing concerns and recommendations to improve the International Region, international practice needs, and growing the participation and inclusion of our members who currently practice internationally, or wish to do so.

AIA National’s Small Firm Exchange’s (SFx) Annual Meeting was recently held in Northwest Arkansas on 2 March through 4 March 2020. Representatives from each of the AIA’s 19 national regions, 1 international region and AIA staff met at Haizlip Studio’s Amazeum to discuss issues facing small firms and to strategize our objectives for 2020. Three quarters of all firms in the United States have fewer than 10 employees meeting the small firm definition and approximately 30% of AIA members work for small firms.

On January 25, ten past AIA Japan presidents and 2020 president Yasushi Leo Nishimura gathered for the annual new-year lunch meeting. A number of exciting proposals for events and new programming were discussed, along with ideas for improved services to our members and sponsors.

The current COVID-19 pandemic has inevitably had an effect on the AIA UK Chapter's regularly scheduled programming for 2020. Chapter leadership are working to enable the digitization of events where possible, and collaborating with sponsors to offer continuing education opportunities through online platforms for the next few months.

AIA Hong Kong has been exploring different ways for our members to connect via online events. Our first webinar was successfully hosted on March 26, when WELL faculty Stephen Brown and Richard Chang shared with us ways to achieve wellness design in office environments.

Covid-19 has had a massive impact on all of us. Our first concern is, of course, for those whose health is directly affected. Beyond that, the effect on the architectural profession is enormous, and the full consequences are yet to be known. The stresses that many of us are experiencing, both professionally and personally, are challenging indeed.

For the AIA International Region, there are also challenges. However, embedded within

AIA Middle East got off to a good start and held two events in 2020. In early March, just as planning got underway for the 8th annual Year End Conference (YEC) and Design Awards to be held in Dubai this November as a joint conference and Awards program with the International Region, it became clear that the chapter’s third event, “Waltzing with Chaos” planned in Beirut Lebanon was going to need to be postponed. As many if not all of the countries represented by the Chapter went into partial or complete lockdowns due to the COVID-19 virus, it became clear that the AIAME-IR Conference would need to be postponed to 2021.

AIA Shanghai began 2020 with the theme 2020 Vision: A Focused Look Ahead with the plan to focus events on discussing the future of design and how cutting edge designers our working to improve our cities and how we live. Of course, that vision has had to change suddenly to adapt to the new constraints imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic and the hardships imposed on our community.

As 2020 comes to a new adventure, it was another busy time for our chapter!

The AIA Canada Society is the newest chapter of the American Institute of Architects. Established in 2017, the AIA Canada Society is committed to our mission of promoting and building the chapter into a resilient organization that is capable of fulfilling its mission, to advance architecture in Canada and abroad by partnering, serving, educating, informing and engaging our members.

AIA members experiencing financial hardship due to COVID-19, but wish to remain members can reach out to discuss options. This process is not exclusive to those assigned to international chapters, so members living or working abroad without chapter relationships are eligible for these discussions. Please reach out to memberservices@aia.org to start the conversation.

Annual Meeting

The 2020 Annual Meeting of the members of the AIA International Region is POSTPONED. The meeting was to have been held at the A’20 convention in Los Angeles that has also been cancelled. We will advise in due course a new date for the 2020 Annual Meeting which will either be in a physical location or an online meeting.

Call for Nominations for Secretary

The previous notification email incorrectly identified the International Region board position up for election.

It is with great sadness that we announce the untimely unexpected death of our dear friend : Ar Ahamad Djuhara : President of the Ikatan Arsitek Indonesia 🇮🇩 ( IAI ) on the 27 day of March 2020 , to the dreaded COVID - 19 .

Firstly, congratulations and welcome to the new IR Board for 2020! There is a tremendous mix of talent and energy from around the globe, and we want to channel that energy to improving your experience with the AIA! Secondly, a huge thank you to outgoing IR president Thierry Paret! We all build on the work of the work of our predecessors and I’m particular fortunate to be following in Thierry’s footsteps.

There are a number of key issues that I would like the IR to address. These include, but aren’t limited to:

2019 AIA IR Design Awards

The AIA International Region (AIA IR) 2019 Design Awards recognize global excellence in design. The 2019 AIA IR Design Awards were announced to a packed house reception preceding the gala dinner of the annual AIA IR conference held in Shanghai from November 14-17. All award winners, except one (who was getting married!), were in attendance, and they briefly presented their projects to an appreciative audience.

In the final quarter of 2019, AIA Hong Kong held numerous events catering for our Young Architects Group   (YAG). The YAG programs kicked-off with a Smart City Design Competition co-organized with the two other architectural institutes in Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Institute of Architects (HKIA) and the Royal Institute of
British Architects, Hong Kong Chapter (RIBA HK). 

Despite the ongoing situation and the challenges Lebanon is passing through, AIA ME succeeded in organizing its 7th Middle Eastern big conference event in Lebanon at AUB between November 23 and November 24.

It is the first time AIA ME organizes such big event (Year End Conference) in Lebanon: during previous years, this event was conducted in Bahrain, Sharjah, Cairo, Dubai, etc.

AIA International Region and AIA Shanghai jointly held the AIA IR Annual Conference in Shanghai from November 14 through 17. The conference topic was “China: New Realities” – an exposition on the culmination of 20+ years of extraordinary growth which has brought China’s architecture to the forefront of architectural practice. With over 200 attendees and 20 speakers, we had a fantastic conference that shared some of the outstanding work developed in Shanghai.

The opening reception welcomed delegates in style at Shanghai’s classic art-deco landmark, the Fairmont Peace Hotel on the Bund. In the elegant top-floor hall, we celebrated with cocktails and enjoyed a relaxed evening meeting new friends and making connections.

We would like to use this letter to recognize outgoing board members and those coming in. Past IR President James Wright FAIA for all his significant contributions to our region.  James is one of the founders of the International Region and was instrumental in creating the framework that has led to its success over the years. 

We thank outgoing Treasurer Loay Quota AIA for his contributions over the past 4 years.  Other outgoing board members we wish to recognize the IR’s second President Christine Bruckner FAIA.

The outgoing board members are listed below:

• James Wright, FAIA – Immediate Past President (2018-2019)

• Loay Quota, AIA – Treasurer (2016-2019)

• Alex Miller, AIA – AIA United Kingdom Chapter Representative & Director (2019)

• Carsten Hanssen, AIA Int. Assoc. – AIA Continental Europe Chapter Representative & Director (2019)

• Christine Bruckner, FAIA – AIA Hong Kong Chapter Representative & Director (2019

• Barak Mizrachi, AIA Int. Assoc. – Unassigned Member Director (2018-2019)

• Jason Briscoe, AIA – AIA Shanghai Chapter Representative & Director (2019)

• Som Bose, AIA – AIA Canada Chapter Representative & Director (2019)

AIA Canada Society held their inaugural Annual General Meeting of members on Nov 22nd. The board officers filed reports of the chapter progress as required by BC Societies Act. under which AIA Canada Society is registered.

Working relationship with RAIC

President Som Bose AIA and Treasurer Stuart Howard AIA of the AIA Canada Society Chapter held consultations with Giovanni Boniface from RAIC to explore hosting events jointly. The early discussions were encouraging and the Board is supportive of hosting events with RAIC provided it meets the members’ requirements to achieve continuing education and chapter visibility. The incoming board has agreed to build upon this relationship and perhaps host a conference jointly with RAIC.

2019 was a tremendous year for AIA Japan.  We have increased our membership from 85 to 93: we have achieved member count increase of 35% in the past 5-years. This year, we have made a decision to make this chapter be more event & networking oriented.  While fulfilling the accreditation requirements, we have focused on one major agenda which is “member benefit = providing places for networking.” In 2019, we had 23 events in total, and provided total of 22 CE credits (14 HSW + 8 LU).