Ivana Joyce L.

Villalobos 10/12/2022
ARC- 4101
Seminar Take Away

Topic 1 Ethics and Integrity: Architecture as a Noble Profession

Speaker: Ar. Prosperidad C. Luis

• Ethics refers to the moral principles that govern a person’s behavior or the way and activity is
conducted in organizations, code of ethics is a type of principles designed to help govern its
decision making and distinguishing right and wrong, Ethics is important to assure that members
behave in a manner that is socially acceptable and respectful among others.
• Integrity refers to the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles and moral
uprightness. Integrity implies that one lives up to his own moral code. Such that there is no
difference between one’s belief. And Integrity is knowing the difference between right and wrong.
• Nobility means showing qualities of having a high level of character and morals, in the old days
nobility meant belonging to an aristocracy, to a high social class or above the common people
• Profession is a paid occupation, especially one that involves prolonged training and a formal
qualification
• There are certain characteristics that a professional should acquire, which is the Professional
appearance, Reliability, Ethical behavior, Organization, Accountability professional Language,
Professional vs. Personal Concern, Positive Attitude, Emotional Control, Time Management,
Focus, Poise, Respect to others, Strong Communication, and Lastly Soft skills
• Everything in the code of ethics follows the law, which means the highest form of standards is our
law, our conditions from the building codes and everything connected to the architecture
profession are in accordance with the law. As long as you said that is the law, no one can object
to that. As architects, we must make sure that we are not actually violating the law with regards to
what we design.
Topic 2 The Practice Environment for Architects (including Standard Contracts and Construction
Phase Roles)
Speaker: Ar. Armando N. Alli

• The Philippine Legal System is consisting of many types of law, it has the customary usage,
Roman (civil law) and Anglo- American (common law) systems, and Islamic law. Common law
stems from the use of preceding judgements or decision made by boards in order to interpret the
law or come up with a new law.
• Civil law deals with various private matters such as family relations, property, succession,
contract, and criminal law, whereas common law statutes and principles can be found in areas
such as constitutional law, procedure, corporations’ law, taxation, insurance, labor relations,
banking, and currency.
• Substantive law is that part of the law which creates, defines, and regulates rights as opposed to
objective or procedural law which prescribes the method of enforcing rights.
• There is a distinction between the term Agreement and Contract, sometimes it can use
interchangeably but the basic difference would be the matter concerning consideration or the fee
for services that are rendered for the project package that is undertaken. Its difference is the fee
or the contract price, when you have an agreement formally there is no discussion about fees but
if you have a contract then there is a provision that clause about the fees or payment of the
contract.
• There is a distinction between contract and covenant, when a contract is signed, it is usually
signed by two parties, they are constrained by a contract because they need to perform certain
task and obligations, some of which they do not want, so the contracts provide the things that
they were supposed to do. But sometimes they are contracts that is called contract of adhesion,
 which is prepared by one party, and if the other party just signed the contract, it is sometimes a
one-sided contract. Covenant is used to denote something that is voluntarily agreed upon by the
contracting parties. When you have a contract, its purpose is to join the potentially opposed
interest while in covenant, the parties are volunteering on a certain action.
• The law is defined as a rule of conduct, its how people behave as a natural person, we are all-
natural persons and the only ones that granted privileged to practice a profession. It defines on
how we should behave of comfort ourselves, Laws are considering as just an obligatory, meaning
everyone has to follow, and it is observed under the Philippine Jurisdiction.
• In the areas of architectural design and construction, there are many concepts to practice.
Detailed Architectural Design vs. Detailed architectural and Engineering Design, Project
construction management as opposed to the Construction management, Periodic construction
supervision, contrasted with Full time construction supervision, Lastly, Design build Services by
architects as opposed to Design build services as a business by all others.
• Role of the Contract is serves as a meeting of the minds and work of agreement, it is a law
between parties, it is also a document that brings together 2 or more parties with potentially
diverse interest and quite possibly diametrically opposed interest in the subject of the contract.
Verbal contracts and handshakes are just as good as written contracts.
• In the case of construction contracts, it would have to be ordered or there has to be some
hierarchy in the recognition or ranking of the contracts or document, the standard of building
design service contract includes, the contract of service which is the law between parties,
Annexes to the contract of service, which is the general conditions of contract, summitted offer to
undertake the services, bid documents relating to the procurement of the design services, Written
documents of architectural service and lastly the drawn documents or architectural service.
• There are clear professional boundaries between architecture and other professions, some are
allied profession which includes interior design, environmental planning, landscape architecture,
and master plumbing, Moreover there are also boundaries in building and site engineering which
includes the civil, electrical, electronics, mechanical, sanitary, etc., Lastly a boundary is present in
Non architectural works but related to its nature, which is geology, agriculture, forestry, etc.
Topic 3 Dispute Avoidance in Construction
Speaker: Ar. Ramon L. Abiera

• Relationships are the source of disputes. There are many ways to learn to avoid Dispute
avoidance, for example, if you practice due diligence, you hire the right people you motivate them
and provide them the right tools and give them training, dispute avoidance is not necessary or
you should not have dispute avoidance. If you hire the right skilled people and train them with
various innovations and treat them well and able to have the right management skills for client
management or contractor management you will also have no problem with disputes. However
even though you take all the due diligence and all the necessary steps in order to avoid disputes
in the future, the problem is you are not the only player (client suppliers, contractor etc.)
• There are many causes of disputes, there are variations in accordance to the owner, contractor,
design, contract, human behavior, project, and external factors
• Conflict avoidance rangers from simpler and more straightforward to more complex depend on
the type and complexity of the project. It ranges from simplistic but straight forward approach of
care and management in the preparation of documentation in order to avoid ambiguity in the
adoption of partnering and alliancing.
• There are many issues that we can do in order to avoid conflict one of them is Good
management. We should take the project as an ordinary business. Since the building and
contracting is a business rather than architecture, perhaps it might be a wise thing for builders to
take in good management lessons. We need to have an essential skill in to be able to manage
the project well as a whole, this will prevent any rising any issues so that your team will have
confidence to analyze, manage and solve the problem.
• In some cases of documenting the contract, when contracts are presented, some of the data and
provisions are missing, that’s when thing gets messy, this will start a debate and problem, the
 contract need to be taken seriously by the builder and contractor meaning we need to pay
attention and know the important details.
• In the profession we partner along certain entities in order to execute the project, in some cases,
the partners are half hazard which means nothing much was discussed, the considerations on
who will take the risk etc. are not clear, it is an issue later on, In this case, In partnering and
alliancing, the relationship of each entities should be a team working together complete project
and help solving the problems as soon as possible.
• Partnering is intended to increase cooperation among project team members. The emphasis is on
people management, not just within a business but also between businesses. It has nothing to do
with contractual relationships. It is about fostering collaborative relationships in order to reduce
conflict and promote a more open communication system, which results in a greater practical
benefit to the project.
• In Good project management, the architect handling the project should be technically savvy and
have a good skills and right training. Because in Good project management, all aspects of time,
money, and risk factors associated with the project This frequently entails dealing with some of
the most difficult issues; simply delegating responsibility for any and all items to others is never
sufficient.
• In Good Client Management, when we have a client, it is not just a client, for instance, there is
successful architects that are very good at managing clients, they have plenty of clients and many
of it are returned clients. Good client management is a big factor in helping the prevention of
disputes, you might also prevent it if you have a good relationship with your various clients and
you have good client management skills, you must need to understand the client’s objectives and
approach to risk is also extremely valuable as it will be maintaining good lines of communication
with the client.
• In Good Constructor Management, the term conflict avoidance refers to having an objective
understanding of the project, the contract and the program of works, this goes beyond
communication with the builder, that requires regular objective assessments of progress and
proactively dealing with issues arising during the project. Problems and delay need to be dealt
with at the time in a positive and objective manner. Primary responsibility will fall to the project
manager, architect, contract administrator of employer’s agent.