Thank you for the donation!

Team Portview

During these difficult times, we come together as a community to help & do our part! Check out the amazing work our wonderful sponsor Portview Fitout is doing to play a part in the fight against COVID-19!

Portview Fitout recently donated £42K to Northern Island Hospice along with 1,500 PPE masks and 300 FFP3 masks to help protect the amazing front line workers looking after some of the most vulnerable in our community!

Click here to read more.

Thank you for your amazing contribution!!  #AllInThisTogether

Pandemic Poem

“And people stayed home
and read books and listened
and rested and exercised
and made art and played
and learned new ways of being
and were still
and listened more deeply
someone meditated
someone prayed
someone danced
someone met their own shadow
and people started thinking differently——
And people healed...
And in the absence of people who lived in ignorant ways
dangerous, mindless, and heartless....
The earth began to heal—-
And when the danger ended
and people found themselves...
They grieved for the dead
and they made new choices
and dreamed of new visions
and created new ways to live
and heal the earth fully
just as they had been healed.”

— Catherine O'Meara

Member News: Coming Full Circle

This article has been written as part of the AIA Newsletter’s commitment to member news.  If you are aware of UK Chapter members’ involvement in newsworthy projects, research or events, please bring them to our attention via chapterexecutive@aiauk.org and we will publish the story.  Remember we will not know what has been achieved unless someone tells us!

Elizabeth Casqueiro, AIA, was an active AIA UK member in the early 2000s, and served as the 10th Chapter President in 2003.  

Although she originally studied art and design in her native Portugal, she left her first love, re-directed towards architecture and eventually received a MArch degree in 1986.  Her 30-year career in global real estate management started with the World Bank (IBRD) in Washington DC, moved to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in London and ended back with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in the US.  Read a summary of her professional career HERE.

When she retired from her long association with the World Bank Group in 2014, Elizabeth was not quite ready to quit working and decided to pursue new directions, first, in academia – she still teaches part time for Georgetown University’s Master of Real Estate program – and, then, in art.  

Having returned full-heartedly to her early love of art, Elizabeth has been no stranger to prestigious awards, grants and exhibitions; however, the decision of the IFC/World Bank Group Art Curator to hang ‘Pieces of Me’ in the recently expanded IFC headquarters – a project she had initiated - has given her second-wind career a particularly sweet fulfilment. It is a full circle success story, bringing her art and architecture careers together again. 

The wall hanging itself is also an act of recycling, turning her old paintings into a new ensemble – a letting go of the old to make room for the new.  This reflects ‘that vital process of integration and self-realisation that immigrants all over the world must undertake’.  

More recently, Elizabeth has been juried into an exhibition in central London that will open on May 12.  (Since this was written, the exhibition has been postponed until later in the year due to the coronavirus.)  She is looking forward to seeing old friends and colleagues at the show during her stay in London. Watch for details to follow on the AIA UK Instagram account closer to the event.  In the meantime, you can see more of her artwork HERE. 

Written by: Lorraine King, AIA 

Will Coronavirus Affect Your Construction Project?

Dear AIA UK members and friends,

Please see this timely article from chapter sponsors Beale & Co, regarding the legal implications of the potential coronavirus pandemic.  

Don’t forget, if you have any legal questions, Beale & Co offers a free legal help line for AIA UK members.  Tel: +44 (0) 20 7469 0400 (please quote “AIA UK Helpline”) Email: aiauk@beale-law.com

It seems only a matter of time before COVID-19, or “Coronavirus”, is officially declared a ‘pandemic’ by the World Health Organisation. The absence of the ‘pandemic’ label so far, however, has not in any way lessened the seriousness of the disease’s impact on business around the world.

Construction could be one of the sectors hit hardest by Coronavirus and if you participate in any capacity in major construction projects, particularly if your operations cross national boundaries, the chances are that you will soon begin to feel the fallout as potential disruption to project performance produces fertile ground for disputes.

Here Antony Smith and Nadir Hasan outline the basic contractual principles that you should bear in mind and what to check in your insurances.

Click HERE to read full article.

Free Registration for 2020 AIA National Convention

New AIA members receive complimentary registration to A’20, the AIA Conference on Architecture 2020 from May 14-16, 2020 in Los Angeles.

Offer is valid for first-time architect, associate, and international associate members who join AIA June 9, 2019 through May 16, 2020 and former members whose memberships have lapsed for five years or more who rejoin AIA June 9, 2019 through May 16, 2020. 

Former members whose memberships lapsed for four years or less, local and national allied or affiliate members, and associate members who change status to architect membership are not eligible for this offer. 

This offer is not transferable and is a one-time offer. This offer is not related to any other local or state AIA component recruitment, dues, or assessment requirements. Membership dues must be active to receive free conference registration.

Vote in the 2020 USA Elections

As you know, 2020 is an election year in the USA.  Living in the UK does not affect your right to vote but may take a bit of planning.  If you are already registered to vote in your home state, you need to contact your local election board and ask for an absentee ballot.  This must be done for each year that you plan to vote. If you aren’t registered to vote, or you’re not sure, go to www.votefromabroad.org  to register and request your ballot for 2020.  As we saw from the last presidential election, every vote counts.  It is important to exercise your right to vote!