The South Australian government has warned architects and schools that they must speed up or risk missing out on their wedge of the $42-billion stimulus package, even if that risks building sub-standard architecture.
“Anyone who thinks they can muck around trying to get some architecture award, they’ll just miss out,” premier Mike Rann said.
Under the federal package, around 190 primary school buildings need to be under construction by the end of June, with a further 500 projects underway by the end of the year.
“Those who are fastest in are fastest served,” Rann told hundreds of principals and members of schools’ governing councils at a meeting this week. “I mean it gets back to that message, which I’ve just said to all of the school principals, ‘We either spend this money or lose this money’, we’ve got to use it or lose it,” he said.
However, there could be a drop in the standard of educational design if architects are forced to rush their work, Malvern-based sole practitioner Ken Mah told Architecture & Design. “If you do things quickly the work will suffer. You many not get the ideal solution for the particular building,” he said.
But, Mah claims, architects will not be a “hindrance” to the stimulus package because many of the urgent jobs in South Australia have already been designed and deferred because of funding. “There’s no real delay,” he said.
For Mah, capturing some of the valuable work to come out of the stimulus package would make a significant difference to his business. The sole practitioner said that 50 per cent of his work comes from the public sector. “Winning some of that work would mean that we could carry on, and avoid a slow down in work,” he said.
“The extra work will absolutely support the architecture community. It will help the whole profession.”
