This month has continued the themes of the last couple of months with regard to developing a closer relationship with government and demonstrating the value of what we do as professionals.
 
The series of talks that we hosted in late October as part of Open State were well attended and tackled some big topics. Chapter Councillor Dino Vrynios curated the Future Forum again this year, presenting the topic of Modular Construction, and moderating a panel on the Future of Transport and how it will influence our cities. There were some great discussions, and the outcomes have already been used in some of our advocacy work on the 30 Year Plan.
 
The highlight was a talk by UK architect Indy Johar on the future of the profession. He implored us to move beyond what we traditionally do as architects, and become the ‘medics of our cities’ - in other words, develop a much deeper understanding of how we influence our built environment, together with developing an evidence base that is well beyond anything that we have in place today – the equivalent of the medical profession’s understanding of the human body.