Speaker - Caine King CKDS Architecture

Caine King

Senior Principal / Partner CKDS

As Founding Director and Principal Architect of CKDS Architecture, Caine King leads the team at its Central Coast based practice. Caine spoke to us about the challenges of working through lockdowns, keeping the team on track and managing clients through that period all presented complex

challenges.

CKDS is a leading architectural design practice in our region. Their Newcastle and Central Coast offices have worked on some of the regions most exciting projects. CKDS aim for a balance between innovative design, commercial considerations and sustainability. Caine spoke about his commitment to the local and global environment, his desire to maintain green space and protect the fragile environment of the Central Coast region.

We discussed the need for higher density living, whilst maintaining quality of life for residents of the development and surrounding communities. It is a balance CKDS works to achieve in all that they do. Australia currently a deficit of around 200,000 residential homes. It is essential that governments at all levels work to address this issue and that will require compromise, good planning and funding.

Caine briefed the group on the challenge facing Central Coast Council due to the depletion of staff in their planning and assessments team. Central Coast Council currently has a large number of Development Applications awaiting assessment and the current timeframes have blown out

considerably due to a lack of staff.

This compounds the challenges for local builders who are already struggling with disrupted supply chains and massive price rises due to the pandemic. These factors all combine to create a difficult building and development environment for the Central Coast.

Caine is active in supporting and promoting the architectural services sector through his role as Chair of Urban Development Institute Australia (UDIA) – Central Coast Chapter, Chair of Central Coast Architectural Network (CCAN), Current committee member of the AIA Newcastle Chapter and as former Chair of the Australian Institute Architects (AIA) Awards – Newcastle Chapter.

CKDS has worked on many significant projects on the Central Coast. More recently these include the Tuggerah Regional Sporting and Recreation Complex (Wyong), Marina (Point Frederick), Rockpool (Terrigal), and the Waterside and Bonython Tower developments (Mann Street, Gosford).

We thank Caine and CKDS for their contribution to the coast and our community.