Architects Host Christmas Party To Celebrate Field Technicians

The Fiji Association of Ar­chitects celebrated its 2020 Christmas party in Suva in an effort to bring the industry to­gether, and in recognition of tech­nicians of the profession.

“Without the technicians, we would be nothing,” association president,Vijay Sharma, said.

The celebration is a first in three years for the association

“Our profession is the one that got roughed up the most, because usu­ally projects are capital intensive.

“When there is uncertainty and lack of confidence, people tend to bunker down a little bit just find their way.”

“Our profession obviously is driv­en by confidence investors.”

Prior to the global impact of COV­ID-19, the architecture sector had started to feel a downturn, he said.

“COVID-19 made things a little bit worse.

“The association had drifted a lit­tle bit, because of other influences in the industry, which had distract­ed the role of architects.”

The association has begun an awareness campaign, documents, videos, advertisements in the news­paper, and he said.

“We are we just trying to correct things; we want to bring that back,” Mr Sharma said.

The association has issued a regis­tered account of architects in Fiji, which is published in today’s Fiji Sun.

“It’s just gone off track; there are multiple reasons for it,” Mr Shar­ma said.

“We just try to improve on getting the professional body a little bit more focused.

“There are instances where peo­ple profess to be an architect when they are not.

“We are addressing that.

“We are governed by architects, yet nobody seems to be taking much notice of it.

“That’s why we are raising more awareness on our governing Act.

“We are specialised professionals who know about building design and construction and management.

“It takes almost eight to 10 years of training and experience to get registered”.

The association has 50 architects and over 100 technicians.

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