10 Sep RIBA Chartered Practice

Posted at 07:18h in Architect by

As an RIBA Chartered Practice, and Association of Self Build Architects member, KR.eativ: Architects Ltd must comply with the following, as well as the Professional Codes of Conduct for both the RIBA and ARB:

  • At least one full-time principals (Director or Partner) must be a RIBA chartered member and on the ARB register.
  • All architectural work must be supervised by a RIBA chartered member who is on the ARB register.
  • At least one in eight of all staff employed in the practice must be on the ARB register, or an Associate Member of the RIBA or a CIAT member with RIBA Affiliate Membership.
  • At least one in 10 of all staff employed in the practice must be a RIBA chartered member or Associate Member.
  • The practice must have a current and appropriate Professional Indemnity Insurance policy.
  • The practice must operate an appropriate Quality Management System.
  • The practice must operate an appropriate Health and Safety Policy.
  • The practice must have a written employment policy in place which addresses the principles of the RIBA policy statement on employment.
  • The practice must have an appropriate Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Policy in place.
  • The practice must have an appropriate continuing professional development (CPD) framework in place.
  • The practice must operate an appropriate environmental management policy.
  • The practice must commit to paying at least the Living Wage (or London Living Wage where appropriate.) to architecture students working within the practice. These students must be undertaking experience which complies with the RIBA’s practical training rule, and should be completing appropriate records on the RIBA’s PEDR website as part of the accreditation criteria.
  • All practices will be required to take part in the RIBA Business Benchmarking survey.

 

No ‘architectural designer’, ‘architectural consultant’, architectural technician’, ‘architectural technologist’, ‘building consultant’, ‘surveyor’ or ‘town-planner’ etc, apart from a very few large multi-disciplinary practices, can offer the same level of professional qualification, competence or level of consumer protection in offering architectural services as an architect operating from an RIBA Chartered Practice.

There is no such thing in the UK as an unqualified architect. Anybody referring to themselves as such is a criminal under UK law. Architectural designers etc may be architects who have been struck off for fraud or incompetence, they may be partially qualified people either unable or ‘couldn’t be bothered’ to qualify. They are therefore not architects.

The Government of this nation, for irrational reasons, allows any unqualified person to design buildings unlike 70% of the rest of the World (including Europe!). To commission persons who are not architects, or other chartered professional members of the design team (town-planners, technologists and engineers etc), to design buildings as part of the team is foolish.

Until recently I assumed everyone knew what an architect was. Recent experience has proved that is not the case! Please do contact me if you would like to know more.