Towards restoring trust in architecture

What are the qualifications of an architect? Article 1 of the Architects and Building Engineers Act states, "The purpose of this Act is to define the qualifications of engineers who design buildings, Construction Supervision, and other related tasks, thereby ensuring the appropriateness of their work and contributing to the improvement of the quality of buildings." Article 2-2 states, "Architects must always maintain dignity, be familiar with the laws and regulations and practices relevant to their work, and perform their work fairly and honestly so as to contribute to the improvement of the quality of buildings." To restore trust in architecture, the Building Standards Act and the Architects and Building Engineers Act have been amended and revised, and various efforts have been made, including thorough regular training for architects working in architectural firms and the establishment of a system for explaining important matters. This has required a great deal of time and energy.

This incident is not a matter of legal punishment, since the perpetrator is not a licensed architect. The Architects Act allows architects to have a "monopoly" over comprehensive Architectural Design and Construction Supervision, and this was an abuse of this right. This is a major blow to the credibility and trust in "architectural qualifications." In order to dispel this distrust, we, as those involved in architecture, must make greater efforts than ever before.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism issued a "Technical Advice on preventing impersonation of architects by using forged copies of licenses and ensuring that affiliated architects attend regular training", requesting all architectural firms to take strict measures such as checking the original licenses of their affiliated architects, encouraging them to attend regular training, and filing charges when unregistered firms are discovered.

Currently, there are approximately 1 million architects in Japan, of which approximately 300,000 are first-class architects, and it is said that only about 20% of these are actually "exclusively involved in design and Construction Supervision."

In light of this situation, the Japan Federation of Architects and Building Engineers (JFBA) and the Japan Institute of Architects (JIA) launched the "Specialized Architect System" and "Registered Architect System," respectively. After a trial period, these systems were opened up and remain in use today. Both "architectural qualification systems" aim to protect the public interest, including consumer protection, by certifying the knowledge, ability, and ethics of individuals as professionals and disclosing information related to competence. In other words, they are mechanisms for ensuring that design professionals can be trusted with work. Certification for both qualifications is based on years of work experience, track record of work focused solely on oversight of design and Construction Supervision, and CPD (Continuing Professional Development) completion, which is reviewed and registered by a certification council. While the validity period for registrations varies between three and five years, continuing professional development (CPD credits) is required for renewal, and registration cannot be renewed without passing a renewal review. Registered individuals' information is also made public by their respective organizations. In this way, Architectural Design professionals registered under this qualification system are proving that they have the knowledge, ability, and ethics to continue their studies on a daily basis. However, unfortunately, this qualification system has not yet been established or recognized in society.

Last fall (2011), the UIA (International Union of Architects) Congress was held in Tokyo. Many architects, architectural engineers, and students from overseas participated, but participation from the general public was lackluster. It was a great opportunity to let people know about architects and architectural professionals, but it also reminded us that their existence and roles are still not well known or understood.

It goes without saying that we, as people involved in Architectural Design, must make efforts to steadily promote and establish these qualification systems as a mechanism that will allow people to easily identify themselves as trustworthy Architectural Design professionals in various settings, such as Architectural Design and architectural design.