My path to being called an 'Architect'. Chapter 1 - Why bother?!

Architecture has a curious quirk compared with many other professions. You can spend years designing buildings, running projects, dealing with councils, coordinating consultants and guiding construction, and still not legally be allowed to call yourself an architect. This blog series is for those who are LBP designers or working as Architectural Designers to a good professional standard who wonder what it's like to apply for Registration as a self-employed professional.

In New Zealand, under the Registered Architects Act 2005, the title Architect is protected. Only people formally registered through the New Zealand Registered Architects Board (NZRAB) are legally permitted to use it in a professional context. Others working in the field use titles such as architectural designer, architectural graduate, or architectural draughtsperson.

That distinction matters more than it might seem at first glance. The law isn’t trying to protect a word for the sake of it. The intention is to signal to the public that someone using the title Architect has demonstrated a recognised level of professional competence and is accountable to a regulatory body.

Registered architects are bound by professional standards, subject to disciplinary processes, and required to maintain ongoing professional development, typically at a higher level than the standards applied to Licensed Building Practitioners or architectural designers.

The interesting thing about architecture, though, is that the work itself doesn’t neatly align with titles. Buildings are designed and delivered by teams. In many parts of the industry, particularly in smaller practices, highly experienced designers can spend decades producing complex and successful projects without ever formally registering.

Many people will tell you not to bother, that your work should speak for itself. Until recently, that has largely been my story as well.

Many architects follow the well-established path of university study, graduate roles within larger firms, formal supervision under registered architects, and then registration three to five years later once a suitably complex project has been prepared for the interview process.

The pathway I’m following is somewhat different. Rather than coming through the traditional graduate route, my application is based on accumulated professional experience and documented project work.

For the past twenty-five years I’ve worked in architectural practice, seventeen of those running small and medium-sized firms and delivering residential and commercial projects across the Wellington region and beyond. Over that time I estimate I’ve accumulated somewhere in the order of fifty to sixty thousand hours of professional experience across design, documentation, consultant coordination, consent processes and construction support.

Those years of work have shaped how I approach architecture. They’ve taught me how to navigate the realities of building projects, balancing design ambition with budgets, regulations, construction methods and client expectations.

Architecture in small practice tends to be particularly broad. You’re involved in everything: early conversations with clients, sketch design, building consent documentation, coordinating engineers and specialists, responding to council RFIs, and working with builders on site. It’s a form of practice where responsibility is broad and the learning curve is steep.

Through that work I’ve always aimed to operate at a high professional standard. Good architecture, in my view, isn’t just about design ideas. It’s about producing buildings that work well, are compliant with the building code, are buildable, and serve the people who use them.

Pursuing architectural registration didn’t begin as a way to change how I practise; although the process is certainly helping raise the bar in some areas. More than anything, it is about formally recognising the level at which that work is carried out.

The registration process asks candidates to demonstrate competency across a number of areas of practice: design, documentation, procurement, construction observation, professional conduct and regulatory knowledge. In many ways it’s a structured way of examining the experience architects accumulate over time through real projects.

The first step in that process is surprisingly reflective. Before any interviews or assessments take place, candidates must submit a detailed CV and evidence of their professional experience. That documentation forms the foundation of the registration pathway.

Preparing that material over the last few months has meant stepping back and looking across nearly two decades of practice — revisiting projects, recalling decisions made along the way, and mapping that work against the professional competencies expected of a registered architect.

It’s an unusual exercise. When you’re immersed in practice, projects tend to blur together into a steady rhythm of work. The registration process asks you to pause and translate that experience into something that can be clearly understood and assessed.

Alongside the CV submission I’ve also prepared a series of project records that document specific examples of work from across my career. Each one describes the context of a project, the challenges involved, and the role I played in guiding it through the design and construction process.

Taken together, they begin to tell the story of a career spent working in architecture.

Registration itself is not the end point of that story. Architecture is a profession where learning continues throughout a lifetime of practice. Buildings are complex things, and every project teaches something new.

What I’m hoping registration provides is a formal acknowledgement within the profession, recognition that the work being carried out meets the standard expected of someone entrusted with the title Architect.

For me, that matters.

Not because the work changes overnight once a title is granted, but because architecture carries responsibility. The decisions architects make shape buildings, communities and environments that will exist long after the drawings are finished.

Being able to stand behind my work at the highest professional standard has always been important to me.

I suspect this won’t be easy. I know many people who have found the pathway I’m following too difficult to pursue, but I’m determined and well equipped to take on what comes next.