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BaA PodcastAuthor: Samik Waiz
Podcasts from Bangladeshi Architects in Australia Language: en-au Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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Do we really want the NEW NORMAL?
Episode 5
Wednesday, 19 August, 2020
- A call for for a paradigm shift in thoughts for Architects in post-COVID World. This talk is taken from the keynote Farhad Reza has given at the symposium 'Towards a New Normal' jointly organised by BaA (Bangladeshi Architects in Australia) and CONTEXT.BD on 27 June 2020. Farhad Reza is an architect, planner and a social activist. To complement his architectural and planning 'genre', his work focus is at the nexus of human capital development, community capacity building, impact investment and affordable housing. Farhad Reza is the founding President of ‘Build Bangladesh’. The key focus for Build Bangladesh is to capitalise on the collective strength of Bangladeshis to ensure social entrepreneurship, economic empowerment and environmental sustainability by investing in human capital growth among Bangladeshis all over the world. Farhad has been working for the government and corporate sectors nationally and internationally over the last 30 years. As a senior executive for the Australian Government, he led the team ensuring $120 billion worth of welfare payments being delivered to the eligible recipients. He also led the team at Infrastructure Australia to deliver the first-ever strategic policy for infrastructure in remote Indigenous communities in Australia. He was also the senior advisor to the Coordinator-General for the Remote indigenous Services involving high-level policy development and program delivery (in excess of $100 million per year) focusing on remote Indigenous communities. Farhad also led a number of planning reforms in Australia including the Canberra Spatial Plan, Electronic service delivery for the Australian Capital Territory Government (Canberra Connect), Regional Cultural Policy for the Victorian Government, Infrastructure delivery and funding policy for remote Indigenous communities through impact investment, social impact bonds and social business. He is currently joined as one of the honorary advisors of UNSIF (UNDP SDG Impact Finance) to advice on the most important challenges, opportunities and decisions in the Asia Pacific regions. In his book, "21st-Century-Kunta-Kinte" Farhad talks about the struggles in his early life after moving to Australia. His talk in this keynote touches on - How do we define the NEW NORMAL? What changes in the new normal? What are the characteristics of this new paradigm for our daily life? How do we develop the capacity to adapt to the new paradigm? How can we establish a minimum hygienic accommodation Act for migrant workers Details of his talk, ideas can be found in this link and also an online publication on the recent ‘Compendium on Affordable Housing’ can be found here. The podcast is in Bangla. Podcast Music score - 'Nothing Else Matters'- piano cover by William Joseph and mix of "waves-on-pebbles-beach" by Arnaud Coutancier from Freesounds.org with Creative Commons licences.
