What is a Registered Architect?

Architecture, like other occupations including Law, Engineering, and Medicine, is a profession: an occupation requiring special education, skills, and holding public trust and respect.

Most professions, including architecture, take their public role very seriously. In order to maintain public trust, and to protect public from those who may not have the required skills, ethics or experiences, in specific situations the government decides to regulate occupations and professions.

Of course, you dont actually have to be an Architect to be involved in architecture. The protection of the title Architect relates to a very specific set of skills, used in established ways. As the world changes architecture school graduates - and others - are becoming more creative about how we can collectively solve spatial issues, we are seeing more rethinking of what it means to be a professional.

A REGULATED PROFESSION

Architecture is one of these regulated professions, and is bound by the Registered Architects Act 2005. As a flow on effect of protecting the public, regulation also protects the reputation of the architecture profession.

One of the key means of regulating the profession is restricting entry. A 'Registered Architect' is a person who has demonstrated a minimum level of competence to his/her peers, and is then admitted to the profession.

NB: My discussion of Registered Architects here is specific to New Zealand, but the principles and management strategies are similar worldwide.

The NZRAB & THE REGISTERED ARCHITECT

Authorised and guided by the Registered Architects Act 2005, a statutory entity called the New Zealand Registered Architects Board (NZRAB) oversees the regulation of the profession of Architecture. Their role includes:

registering architects who show competence for independent practice;
providing guidance including a code of ethics;
monitoring architects, and reviewing competence at 5-year intervals; and
where needed, investigating complaints and disciplining architects.

You can find out more about the NZRAB, its roles and functions, here.

'Registered Architect' is a protected title

Alongside these key functions, the NZRAB's stated purpose is to protect the title of ' Registered Architect'.

New Zealand no one except a New Zealand Registered Architect can legally:

use the title "Registered Architect"; or
describe him or herself as an "architect" when providing building design services.

It is an offence for anyone not registered as an architect to use words which might cause anyone to believe that they are an architect. But this doesn't mean that if you aren't a Registered Architects you can't design buildings - only that you legally cannot call yourself a 'Registered Architect' - or, even just an architect.

Some of the alternative titles used by un-registered member of architectural practices include: