The Commonwealth Association of Architects (CAA) will be marking the 50th Anniversary of its founding in 1965, with an International Conference and a General Assembly in London, hosted by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) in June 2015. The Golden Jubilee will also form part of the popular London Festival of Architecture that runs throughout the month of June.

The theme of the international conference ‘Designing City Resilience’ is significant particularly in the Commonwealth. Urban population of the world has grown rapidly since 1950, from 746 million to 3.9 billion in 2014. The population growth and urbanisation are projected to add another 2.5 billion people to the worlds’ cities by 2050, with nearly 90 per cent of this increase centered in Asia and Africa.

While urbanisation creates opportunity for many, the pace of growth places huge pressures on cities and exposes large numbers of people to an increasingly complex range of risks arising from both natural and man-made causes. Sri Lanka witnessed such calamities in the recent past. In order to manage such risks, a greater awareness is required together with policies and responses which ensure resilience, and an ability to recover from shocks and stresses.

Drawing on the most recent research by a range of experts in this area, the conference aims to equip city leaders, policymakers and practitioners with a greater awareness and understanding of the risks, together with a range of tools useful to design resilient cities. The overarching aim of the conference will be to demonstrate the need for integrated planning, taking into account, leadership, infrastructure, economy and well-being.
The Golden Jubilee is expected to be graced by The Commonwealth Secretary General, city leaders from around the Commonwealth and beyond, and several other UK based dignitaries.

The conference will attract international delegates from the Commonwealth and beyond, particularly Africa, Canada, China, India, Malaysia and the Middle East, including city leaders and government heads of department responsible for built environment policy, humanitarian NGO’s together with the private sector. In addition, the audience will comprise senior built environment practitioners including engineers, planners, economists and investment managers.

In addition to the International Conference and London Festival of Architecture, several other events have been organized to mark the Golden Jubilee. A key event is the General Assembly of CAA with all Member Organizations, CAA Student Competition- an international competition open to students from faculties of architecture around the world, RIBA International Education Forum to address the matter of standards in architectural education, ‘Balfron Tower’, an exhibition about an important building by architect Erno Goldfinger which is about to be demolished, & ‘Architecture Open’, an exhibition of RIBA members work giving an opportunity to align the theme of this exhibition with the conference and network with commonwealth practices.

To commemorate the Golden Jubilee, CAA is also publishing a commemorative book – ARCHITECTURE IN THE COMMONWEALTH. The book will contain articles on the CAA and its’ achievements as well as member profiles, and will be a collector’s item with useful source of information about the profession and organizations in the Commonwealth.

> via comarchitect.org