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.