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Architectural education requires graduates to invest heavily in the profession from an early

stage. As qualified architects we are faced with diminishing authority in the achievement of
our goals yet the liabilities that attach to our professional work remain undiminished and
disproportionate. What skills should we as architects require of our system of education that
might better equip us to respond to the challenges of practice and the role of the architect in
society in the 21st century?

Young people go to university with the aim of becoming architects, of finding out if they
have what it takes. What is the first thing we should teach them?
-

Peter Zumthor

It is a very interesting time to graduating from architecture. It is estimated that


this summer in the UK close to 3000 Part I students will be graduating along with
another 1500 Part 2 and 1000 Part 1, whilst approximately 4000 new students
will be embarking on their architectural education 1. Qualifying architects are
entering an industry dramatically changed by the economic crisis and are faced
with a loss of control within the construction process and a poor public
perception of modern architecture. With the cost of architectural education in the
UK dramatically increasing with in the past 2 years how can schools of
architecture prepare students to take on the role of the architect in the 21 st
Century.
In this essay I will compare architecture students personal investment in the
profession with their diminishing authority and will examine architectural
education in the UK and ask what architects should require of their education
system.
The title of architect comes with considerable investment. [HISTORY OF THE
ARCHITECTURAL EDUCATION] To become fully qualified, a student must gain a
place on an undergraduate Part 1 course. This typically runs for three years with
studio design projects at the core of the curriculum and lectures in subjects such
as structures and history of architecture alongside it. Once completed the
undergraduate does a years practical experience, a throwback to the pupillage
system. This is followed by a two year diploma course, again typically based
around studio projects, culminating in a thesis project of the students choice in a
real world site. After this, one must complete a minimum of one years practical
experience until they can sit the RIBA Part 3 examination and become registered
as an architect.2 With the fee increase in 2012, a student starting this summer
will have invested four years, around 27,000 in university fees and a further
12,000 in maintenance loans to by the time they have received their Part 1. At
this point they can get a graduate job as an architectural assistant with an
average starting salary of 18,641, one of the lowest average graduate starting
salaries, below Forestry and Agriculture, American Studies and History of Art. 3 By
the time they have their Part 2 their total education fees will be around [42,000
check] and they will 6 years older. Once fully qualified they will have invested a
minimum of seven years of their lives and around [45,000 check] in educational
fees; an enormous commitment. I believe this investment of time is necessary as
it is a profession that requires experience. I do not believe most architects go
into the profession driven by money but a desire to design, however this is being
made more and more difficult.
Architects are experiencing dwindling authority within the construction industry
with greater influence over projects being given to the contractor. This is most
evident within the public sector which now employs less than 9% of architects
1 RIBA Education Department, Education Statistics 2012-2013, 2012, p.12
2 Chappell and Willis, The Architect in Practice, 1992, p18
3 The Complete University Guide, Table of Average starting salaries for graduates, 2013
http://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/careers/what-do-graduates-do/what-dograduates-earn/

compared with 50% in the 1970s. 4 Design and Build contracts have become
the preferred procurement route for Public Sector building projects. Design and
Build offers a single port of call and is thus much easier to manage the risk of a
project. The client is only contractually linked with the contractor who then
appoints an architect whereas with traditional procurement the client must
appoint both architect and contractor. Compared with Traditional procurement
Design and Build is thought to offer greater cost certainty and a faster build. The
issue is that the lack of direct client architect relationship is invariably
detrimental to the design and is evident in the diminished quality in the end
product. I believe this is a large contributing factor to the public mistrust
architects. There is a common misconception that all buildings are completely of
the hand of the architect, not a contractor. With the rise of sub-quality,
contractor lead public buildings it could easily be misinterpreted that the calibre
of architects is falling.
Despite a general recognition of the importance of quality design in building,
such as the Farrell Review5 it still seems as if the success of a project is measured
on how well it photographs, its value engineering and the time taken to deliver it
with little regard of its overall effect on the built environment.
Unfortunately a large deciding factor in the way in which buildings are built is
based around transferring risk. When entering contracts architects increasingly
have to enter into a Deed rather than a Simple Contract, increasing their liability
from six to twelve years. Developers or other third parties who are not
contractually linked to the architect will increasingly put pressure on them to
provide collateral warranties6. This allows them to claim against the architect
under Contract Law rather than being restricted the duty of care they are owed
under the Law of Tort.

4 RIBA & Building Futures,


5

Sir Terry Farrell has been asked by Culture and Creative Industries Minister Ed Vaizey to undertake a new, independent
Review of Architecture and the Built Environment examining the importance of good design -

http://www.farrellreview.co.uk/
6 Patrick Perry, article Should I sign a collateral warranty? Oct
2012http://www.bdonline.co.uk/should-i-sign-a-collateral-warranty?/5043534.article

Fig 1
Perhaps the decreasing authority of the architect and the increasing liability are
part of the reason why around half Part 1 architecture students do not continue
their education further (see fig 1). The graph also begs the question how do you
prepare students at any stage of their education to succeed in such a demanding
industry.
To gain an overview of how students are currently prepared to become architects
in the UK, I will compare The University of Bath and the Bartlett (UCL), two
schools of architecture commonly ranked in the top three in the country. Broadly
speaking architectural education can be broken down into two schools of
thought. Theory driven, as I believe the Bartlett is, or Practice driven as I believe
Bath is. This is most evident in the structure of their undergraduate courses. At
the Bartlett you spend the first three years taking part in projects with an
emphasis on training the student in architectural theory, followed by a year in
industry where the student learns about practising architecture through
practising architecture. Bath runs a sandwich course, dividing the year in
industry between the 2nd and 3rd years with the emphasis of teaching being to
teach the student to practice architecture. I do not believe that either way
imbues the student with more skills that better equip them to respond to the
challenges of practice and the role of the architect in society in the 21 st century.
However I do believe they do share a common aim that should be at the heart of
all architectural education; the development of the individual.
The challenge of architectural education lies in establishing what aspects of the
individual should be nurtured to aid them to become a good architect. The RIBA
states that all registered architects must comply to these three principles:
Integrity, Competence and Relationships. I dont think these principles are
architect should have comply to. These should be the cornerstones of
architectural education.
Relationships. It is the job of AE to practice the students ability to communicate
and form strong relationships. If the architecture student goes into any design
profession, be it architect or graphic designer, paramount to the success of their
design is the strength of the relationship between them and the client. Rarely will
the architect be in charge of all aspects of a design and more comprehensive and
complex jobs require a multi-disciplinary team. A single building may involve
collaboration between multiple architects, clients, contractors, structural
engineers, building services engineers, quantity surveyors, planners, financial
advisers and many more subcontractors and specialists in many varying
combinations. The architect must be able to communicate well and form these
relationships.
Competence. An architect must be competent in spatial organisation, human
needs and the relationship between the two. 7 As well as this the architect must
know about building and must be well versed in methods of construction and
dealing with practical building problems such as detailing connections and
waterproofing. Thirdly architects must be competent in the business of building.
Architectural educational should push students to find creative solutions to
business issues in the same way that a student would approach a design
problem. How can architects be held in high public regard if they are not
7 Ove Arup, Education of Architects 1970, p41

competent in their profession? It is therefore the job of AE to teach students


about these matters, to test them and to demand an extremely high standard.
Integrity. This is something that cannot necessarily be taught but I believe it to
be the most important principle an architect must have. It is job of AE to
emphasise its importance. It is integrity that lets good design prevail against the
demands, fluctuations and difficulty of the industry. It guides the architect and
allows them to admit when they might have made mistakes, so they can be
rectified and not harm the built environment.
I fear that a conflict exists between development of the individual and how they
are evaluated academically. Students are pushed to produce projects that will
give them high marks with the aim of achieving a First Class or 2:1 degree
instead of producing projects that reflect their attitudes and beliefs about the
built environment. It seems bizarre to me that projects are given numeric values
of worth as it not a useful form of constructive feedback. Grades in architecture
feel slightly irrelevant and a much better evaluation of the student already exists
in the form of their architectural portfolio. AE must prioritise the students
developing a portfolio that best describes them and what they do well. I do not
believe graded evaluations of the student should be made known to them.
Academic evaluation should be used as a means to ensure each student is ready
to progress to the next stage in their architectural education rather than what
the student aims for and to evaluate the education system.
Our current academic system has been created and managed by academics and
unsurprisingly has a preoccupation with academic ticking of boxes and not the
development of the individual 8. This could be down to, as Ove Arup puts it an
inferiority complex produced, perhaps, by uncertainty about the future 9. I by no
means want this to sound like a petty student attack against his teachers, who I
have the upmost respect and admiration, or against the RIBA. However I feel that
Student, Teacher and Governing Board all share a common fear over defining the
future role of the architect.
Of all the descriptions that exist of the role of the architect; master builder,
policy maker, design leader I believe one stands as most appropriate for the
present. Architect - decision maker10. It is the role of architectural education is to
nurture the development of the individual; their ability to form relationships,
their competency as a designer and their integrity so they can take decision on
the role as an architect in society in the 21 st Century.

8 Ken Livingstone, TED Talk How Schools Kill Creativity


9 Ove Arup, Education of Architects, p40
10 Alex Wright,

Private work stayed largely the same and is predicted to stay like that with
89% of small practices workload from the private sector. The main change
is in the public sector.

With changes and uncertainty in any profession comes changes and uncertainty
in defining the role of the professional guarding it. Take for example the recent
NHS reforms that have left Health Industry in a state of confusion and the role of
the professionals within it being diluted as something between business manager
and medical practitioner. The construction industry is constantly in flux and the
definition of the architect has had many permutations, from Master Builder to
policy maker, William Allen (needs footnote).

[GRAPH OF ARCHITECTURE STUDENT PASSING PART 1,2,3]


[GRAPH OF THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY SINCE 1989]

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