What Is An Architect For? A light-hearted look at Construction’s most Misunderstood Professional.

A YouGov survey carried out between 6^th and 9^th July 2017 revealed a disturbing level of ignorance on the part of the general public about what an Architect actually does. Two thousand and thirty one adults were surveyed. Why that number? Who knows with surveys, but apparently 15% didn’t even know that an Architect designs buildings. That’s three-hundred and four-point-six-five people, which shows why percentages (and therefore surveys which sum up with percentages) often make little sense to whole people. Taking the breakdown of the survey figures further reveals that in in the lowest age group (18-24 year olds) an even more surprising 24% didn’t know this basic fact, but as they don’t tell us what proportion of the group were younger people, this still makes little sense. These younger people probably do know that an ‘architect’ designs computer operating systems and game scenarios.

So what is an Architect actually for? There are plenty of opinions out there in the worldwide aether, far too many of which are hugely inaccurate. The internet is full of lay-persons who still regard the architect as merely the one who draws initial ‘pretty pictures’ for a building project.  Others just know that architects are the ones to blame for everything that ever goes wrong with a building, from a roof that blows off in a once-in-a-hundred-years hurricane to a badly fitting door.

Wealthy individuals commissioning vanity projects suppose ‘their’ architect is a slave to their whims, who can radically alter designs at the drop of a hat, naturally without increasing the cost. Then people looking at modern spec-built houses grumble that the architect has made the porch and windows hideous, when it’s highly unlikely an architect ever went near the plans, let alone the window specification.

Computer ‘architects’ now usually earn far more than the average working Architect in the construction industry. Yet UK Architects are unprotected, unlike elsewhere in the EU, as it isn’t mandatory to actually employ an Architect on a construction project. Their resentment of the computing industry grows as, year on year, their remit and their incomes have been affected by the unqualified not merely abusing their professional name, but also using CAD to create misconceived building designs. The concept of the Architect as Master Builder is in serious decline.

Many inaccuracies are generated by the press, who also can’t tell the difference between an Architect, a spec builder and an interior decorator. To the Sun newspaper, Architects are silly elitists who don’t know what the ‘Great British Public’ wants and insist on building carbuncles, to the horror of the Royal Family, beside ‘Much Loved’ National Treasures such as The National Gallery (which the Sun never expects its readers to actually enter). The Daily Mail’s view is the same except for an expectation that their beloved readers might occasionally like to visit the place.

The Guardian concept of an Architect, if you believe their Saturday magazine, is a woman with big bracelets and bigger hair, who has just re-constructed/considered/conformed her Whitechapel loft apartment/Wiltshire water tower to resemble a cross between a Mediterranean loggia and Damien Hurst’s shark tank, with touches of Edwardian chic and an ironic green Union Jack draped over the reclaimed banister.  

The Daily Express view of an architect would be an unspeakable man in blue framed spectacles and a pink shirt, who builds dreadful modern shacks out of atrocious concrete and appalling plate glass, which look utterly out of place in ‘our beloved old town centre’. Its readership then write enraged letters (Emails? No fear, new-fangled nonsense!) to the editor, commencing their correspondence with that delightful, evergreen cliché, “It beggars belief..!” 

Apart from Sir Christopher Wren, the BBC can only imagine one architect per decade (usually the decade before this one), so today it’s Renzo Piano, designer of the Shard. Channel Four, on the other hand, demonstrates frequently on Grand Designs that the architect is usually irrelevant and can be dispensed with as a costly luxury, especially when building an off-the-wall, straw-bale and polished concrete castle with a sedum roof and views over a picturesque hillside in either Argyllshire, Amersham or Abruzzo.  ITV isn’t interested in making programmes about architecture, it would take more than sixty minutes to ‘makeover’.

The construction industry is by and large more knowledgeable and a bit kinder to the architectural profession, although there are still too many buildings produced with minimal or no input from qualified, registered Architects. In the UK an Architect has to have seven years training before being allowed to use the word, whereas anybody can call themselves Doctor. Some people do still, erroneously, regard such highly trained professionals as an expense too far. You may not need seven years training to successfully rebuild a garden wall, although you could advantageously use an experienced brikkie. However for a decent extension it’s another matter. The people who post small ads offering to design and/or get permission for your extension/loft conversion, for a small or not so small consideration, are not Architects.

Ask an Architect what they do and their response probably begins with looking at you tiredly. A qualified Architect has been intensively trained – including during two years on the job – to run a building project from start to finish, they can probably do everything except the physical labour, or they know a man/woman who can. A sensible Architect knows that delegation is essential, Engineers and Quantity Surveyors are invaluable and their presence is especially reassuring to demanding clients.

Architects themselves also know that, above all, they have to master the art/craft/science of multi-tasking. There is this great new commission which they’ve worked for six hard weeks to obtain, against prestigious competition. Whilst trying to make sense of the contract documents, noting several complex specifications and emailing the contractor and QS, they have to take frantic phone calls from anxious clients on another job, chase an engineer who’s not answered an urgent query, liaise with the building officer and jot down mobile numbers for six useful subbies. That’s before morning coffee. A nice little design job requiring only a few pretty drawings would be just lovely!