ECIA General Assembly 2016 in Switzerland

The annual General Assembly of European Council of Interior Architects hosted by VSI.ASAI took place 2545 meters above the sea level in Swiss Alpes Chäserrugg (by Herzog & De Meuron). GA re-elected Anja Dirks from Holland to continue her job as the president of ECIA. The boardmembers for the next period are: Marianne Daepp from Switzerland (treasurer), Elke Kaiser from Germany (secretary in general), Tüüne-Kristin Vaikla from Estonia (communication), Jan Geysen was re-elected as a vice-president and Teresa Casas from Spain as a new boardmember of ECIA.

The topic of ECIA Round Table 2016: Regulation – Hated or Loved? opened the different situation about the regulation of the title, different working fields, responsibility of interior projects and also regulation of building process through laws and acts by national governments and EU, but also in self-regulation in European member countries. Regulation constrains a right, creates or limits a duty, or allocates a responsibility. BDIA presented the regulation system or the profession in Germany. Significant data was collected about ongoing situation of regulations system by our national organizations: Austria, Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Great Britain, Holland, Ireland, Italy, Norway and Switzerland and fresh educational member from Ireland.

Thomas Wachter, the president of VSI.ASAI gave the welcoming dinner in his creative rural home. To sum it up on the last day the guests visited Kunsthochschule in Zyrich (ZHdK) – Tony Areal (by EM2N Architects) – which is located in a former industrial building of milkproducts and got a great overview with an outstanding Swiss design collection and innovative material archive. The participants enjoyed the well organized GA with hospitality of the hosts and refreshing collaboration between each other. Thank you for the great job and looking forward to meet you all at the next ECIA General Assembly in Estonia, Sept 2017.