Initial routes to education and training

Well I did not know I needed to read a chapter 4 before doing the quick survey...

I believe that architects operate in different fields need different skillsets thus to have a qualification that is in effectively a driving licence for all vehicles now seems inappropriate.

I graduated from Kingston upon Thames in 1984 with a Diploma and spent the following summer travelling the USA. I was rather taken aback by being repeated asked on that trip what my specialism was. I thought that I was a generalist, but the USA at that time lead the way by having specialists within the overall umbrella of Architecture. I think that we have now arrived at this specialist agenda and perhaps we ned to enable architects to have limited scopes of services with matching professional indemnity insurance. For example some professional insurance schemes prohibit tall building or basement work from their cover. Perhaps the slice and dice of the generalist workload needs to be fashioned in training to match the professional indemnity insurance available to cover it.

Gaping holes in my own university experience and professional competence examination were evident by lack of teaching and knowledge on subjects such as
Law, Town Planning and all the associated fields such as tree preservation orders, contamination, bio-diversity etc...

Of course on a day to day basis we all continue to work and learn.

Future challenges such as insulation our existing dwelling stock without generating significant failure via cold bridge appreciation and the relationship between air-tightness ventilation and interstitial condensation as well as surface condensation. Before long gas prices will match electric prices as part of or de-carbonising agenda and fuel poverty will be rife. Is this something that architects can do anything about.?

Currently there are many excellent architectural designers that never qualified as architects - these skillsets should be given appropriate licences to trade within a specialism of architecture. This is likely to swell your registrant numbers and give the discerning public more than the RIBA as a badge to rely upon.

The old parts are not the only valid way...

Architects need to know what they don`t know how to to do; so that they can always seek appropriate assistance or give recommendation of assistance to their clients.

All participants in the design venture including Architects, Clients, Other Consultants and Constructors need to know how to behave. In my experience it is difficult predict where these failing are likely to occur and why.
Recently it is my experience that young clients do not copy in their architect as they progress their project out-of-sequence and in consequence get into a tangle by not seeking advice.

Best and Worst Practice tips and case studies - to be read by Clients and Architects etc... would be of value.

For instance I recall reading part of a dentist training manual (45 yrs ago) that advised it was not a good idea to look inside someone mouth and exclaim "Oh My God!", but this di actually happen to me only last year...