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Architect

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Architect at his drawing board, 1893
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Architect at his drawing board, 1893

An architect is a person involved in the planning, designing and oversight of a building's construction. The word "architect" is derived from the Latin architectus or from the Greek arkhitekton. In the broadest sense, an architect is a person who translates the user's needs into the builder's requirements. An architect must thoroughly understand the building and operational codes under which his or her design must conform. That degree of knowledge is necessary so that she or he is not apt to omit any necessary requirements, or produce improper, conflicting, ambiguous, or confusing requirements. He or she must understand the various methods available to the builder for building the client's structure, so that he or she can negotiate with the client to produce a best possible compromise of the results desired within explicit cost and time boundaries.

Architects are professionals who must frequently make building design and planning decisions that affect the safety and well being of the general public. Architects are required to obtain specialized education and documented work experience to obtain professional licensure, similar to the requirements for other professionals, with requirements for practice varying greatly from place to place (see below).

The most prestigious award a living architect can receive is the Pritzker Prize, often termed the "Nobel Prize for architecture." Other awards for excellence in architecture are given by national and regional professional associations such as the American Institute of Architects and Royal Institute of British Architects.

Although architect technically refers to a licensed professional, the word is frequently used in the broader sense noted above to define someone who brings order to the built or unbuilt environment through the use of rational constructs. For example, "naval architects," "software architects," and graduates of schools of architecture working in architecture firms are often called "architects." However, in most countries unlicensed people working in the construction industry are legally prohibited from referring to themselves as "architects."

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Professional Requirements

Australia

In Australia the title architect is legally protected and architects are registered through state boards. These boards are affiliated through the [Architects Accreditation Council of Australia]. The AACA also provides accreditation for schools and assessments for architects with overseas qualifications for the purposes of migration.

There are three key requirements for registration. The first is a professional degree from a school of architecture accredited by the AACA. This is generally a Bachelor of Architecture degree of five or six years duration. The second is at least two years of practical experience and the third is the completion of the architectural practice examination.

Architects may also belong to the Royal Australian Institute of Architects which is the professional organisation and members use the suffix RAIA after their name.

Canada

In Canada, architects are required to belong to provincial architectural associations that require them to complete an accredited degree in architecture, finish a multi-year internship process, pass a series of exams, and pay an annual fee to acquire and maintain a license to practice.

The Royal Architectural Institute of Canada [link] aims to be "the voice of Architecture and its practice in Canada." Architects who are members of this organization are permitted to use the suffix MRAIC after their names. All members of the RAIC hold accredited degrees in architecture, but not all Canadian architects are members of the RAIC.

Hong Kong

In Hong Kong, to be an architect one must be a graduate of a university specified by the HKIA plus a two year internship and then take the architect registration examination. Architects from U.K. and U.S.A. with 10 years experience aren't required to take the examination, but are required to attend an interview just as a formality.

Architects in Hong Kong are not authorized to submit building plans but use it as a 'title' only, unlike in most of the western world which carries a statutory obligation. To be able to submit building plans, architects, engineers or surveyors must go through another step by passing an authorized personal interview. Contrary to popular thought, most of the famous buildings in Hong Kong are designed by well-known international 'brand' architects and local architects act only as facilitators.

United Kingdom

Architects in the UK qualify through courses and exams recognised by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and prescribed by the Architects Registration Board (ARB). Typically the sequence of education leading to full qualification and registration takes seven years consisting of:
RIBA Part 1 exam
  • One year’s professional experience
  • Further two-year course
    • RIBA Part 2 exam
  • Another year’s professional experience
    • RIBA Part 3 exam''
    Part 1 and Part 2 of the examination are based on a formal "Analytical Commentary" by the candidate including "Supporting Material", followed up with explanations to examiners. After further experience, the RIBA Part 3 exam makes an assessment of the candidates understanding of these topics: The title ‘Architect’ has legal protection in the United Kingdom; under the [Architects Act 1997] it is against the law for people who are not registered to practise or carry on business under any name, style or title that contains the word. However, draughtsmen and architectural technologists (previously architectural technicians), as well as many who have chosen not to register, may also provide architectural services.

    Earnings in the United Kingdom

    In the United Kingdom a newly qualified architect with CAD experience can expect to earn around £20,000, an associate in a private practice about £33,000 and a partner around £40,000. As usual, salaries in London are higher.

    Many architects set up their own practices and can earn even more, while others choose to move into project management.

    United States of America

    In the United States, people wishing to become licensed architects are required to have a professional degree from a school accredited by the NAAB and pass a series of exams administered by the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB), referred to as the Architect Registration Examination (ARE). In addition, such people must have a minimum of 3 years of documented, practical work experience working under a licensed architect before they are eligible to take the ARE. Although the ARE is a national exam, each state has specific requirements and issues their own licenses due to varying environmental conditions in each region. Other states have reciprocity agreements, so licenses may be easily transferred between certain states. In some states with older licensure law (New York and California for example) schooling is technically not required for licensure - 10 years of documented work experience under an accredited architect is sufficient; however, these states will soon upgrade to the NCARB accreditation standards that most states now have which require a professional degree. Virtually all employment channels require formal education. All architects licensed by their respective states have professional status as Registered Architects (RA).

    There are three types of professional degrees in architecture in the United States: the Bachelor of Architecture, Master of Architecture, and Doctor of Architecture degrees, respectively abbreviated as "B.Arch," "M.Arch," and "D.Arch." Non-professional degrees include the Bachelor of Arts in Architecture (BA), Bachelor of Science in Architecture (BS), Bachelor of Fine Arts in Architecture (BFA Arch), and "Bachelor of Environmental Design" (B.Envd). A non-professional degree typically takes four years to complete (as opposed to five years for a Bachelor of Architecture) and may be part of the later completion of professional degree (A "4+2" plan is comprised of a 4-year BA and a 2-year Master of Architecture). The 5-year BArch and 6-year MArch are regarded as virtual equals in the registration and accreditation processes.

    Depending on the policies of the registration board for the state in question, it is sometimes possible to become licensed as an Architect in other ways: reciprocal licensure for over-seas architects and working under an architect as an intern for an extended period of time.

    The American Institute of Architects [link] is a professional organization which offers a network of services to architects in the United States, including continuing education programs, standard contracts and other practice-related documents, and design award programs. Contrary to popular belief, the AIA is not directly involved with the professional licensing of architects. As such, there is no such thing as an "AIA-licensed" or "AIA-certified" architect, although AIA members sometimes place the suffix "AIA" after their names.

    The Society of American Registered Architects [link] or SARA was founded in 1956 and is another professional organization for registered architects in the United States. Its activities and services include conventions, continuing education programs, standard contracts and other practice-related documents, and design award programs. Members of this organization may have the suffix "SARA" after their name.

    US Earnings Outlook

    Per the 2006-2007 Occupation Outlook Handbook published by the US Department of Labor, the median salary of architects was $60,300 with the middle 50% earning between $46,690 and $79,230. This was slightly above accountants (median income $50,770), college professors (median income $51,800) and on par with most branches of engineering (median income of roughly $60K). Senior architects and partners in mid to large size firms in many urban areas typically have earnings that exceed $100K annually. Principals in the larger national firms may have an income 2 to 3 times that figure, comparable to many executive management positions. Many architects elect to move into corporate planning, project management and other specialized roles which can earn significantly higher income than the industry median.

    Entry level positions in architecture have been historically very low paying and have deterred many potential candidates from entering the field; however, competition with other industries have forced many firms to raise starting salaries. In competitive urban markets entry level salaries are in the $40K range for well qualified individuals.

    Famous architects

    The architects in the list of famous architects are in chronological order of when they did their most important work (or emerged), and alphabetized within each time period.

    Schools of Architecture

    Professionals engaged in the design and supervision of construction projects in before the 20th century were not trained in a separate architecture program in an academic setting but usually carried the title of "master builder" or "surveyor", after serving a number of years as an apprentice (such as Sir Christopher Wren). The formal study of architecture in academic institutions played a pivotal role in the development of the profession as a whole, serving as a focal point for advances in architectural technology and theory.

    The most significant schools in the history of architecture include:

    See also

    Master builders from the illustrated [fr] (1856) by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc
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    Master builders from the illustrated [fr] (1856) by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc

    External links

     

    From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
    All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.

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