The Architects Accreditation Council of Australia (AACA) has moved into its new purpose-designed head office in Sydney.
The move is part of a renewal process for the accreditation body that started in 2014 with the appointment of Kate Doyle as CEO, the relocation to Sydney from Canberra is expected to make the AACA more accessible to the wider architectural community.
Located on Castlereagh Street, the new AACA offices have been designed by Hassell to reflect current workplace design trends and the AACA's more inclusive approach. As such, the new premises are suitable for hosting seminars and events for the profession.
AACA’s core focus is to develop, maintain and promote the National Standard of Competency for Architects, and competency based assessment programs to determine eligibility for registration as an architect in Australia. The organisation is also building strategic resources related to the profession of architecture in Australia and relevant overseas jurisdictions.
In 2015, AACA commissioned the first comprehensive profile of the architecture profession in Australia, benchmarking it within Australia's $100 billion built environment sector. The Industry Profile: the profession of architecture in Australia report brings together data and findings from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, IBISWorld Industry Research, independent local researchers and peak bodies, as well as the Commonwealth Department of Education and Training and the Department of Immigration and Border Protection. The Industry Profile Report is available online at the streamlined AACA website.
Describing the report as a complete profile of the profession compiled for the first time from independent data, CEO Kate Doyle notes that the profiling of the profession has also been critical to their current international conversations about mutual recognition agreements.
The AACA website also offers a new interactive version of the National Standard of Competency for Architects. Doyle explains that the National Standard of Competency has been developed as an editable online tool that clarifies how relevant aspects of the Standard relate to all the assessment processes on the pathway to registration as an architect in Australia.
Owned collectively by the Architects Registration Boards of Australia, the not-for-profit AACA works closely with heads of schools of architecture, government and professional industry bodies to develop and administer programs of accreditation and assessment of qualifications to practice architecture in Australia.
