Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Group 5A
plans,
consultations,
specifications,
conferences,
evaluations,
investigations,
contract documents and
oral advice and directions
regardless of whether the persons engaged in such practice are
residents of the Philippines or have their principal office or place
of business in this country or another territory, and regardless of
whether such persons are performing one or all these duties, or
whether such duties are performed in person or as the directing
head of an office or organization performing them;
"Scope of the Practice of Architecture" encompasses the
provision of professional services in connection with site,
physical and planning and the design, construction, enlargement,
conservation, renovation, remodeling, restoration or alteration of
a building or group of buildings.
Services may include, but are not limited to:
(a) Planning, architectural designing and structural conceptualization;
(b) consultation, consultancy, giving oral or written advice and
directions, conferences, evaluations, investigations, quality surveys,
appraisals and adjustments, architectural and operational planning, site
analysis and other pre-design services;
(c) schematic design, design development, contract documents and
construction phases including professional consultancies;
(d) preparation of preliminary, technical, economic and financial
feasibility studies of plans, models and project promotional services;
(e) preparation of architectural plans, specifications, bill of materials,
cost estimates, general conditions and bidding documents;
(f) construction and project management, giving general
management, administration, supervision, coordination and
responsible direction or the planning, architectural designing,
construction, reconstruction, erection, enlargement or demolition,
renovation, repair, orderly removal, remodeling, alteration,
preservation or restoration of buildings or structures or complex
buildings, including all their components, sites and environs, intended
for private or public use;
(g) the planning, architectural lay-outing and utilization of spaces
within and surrounding such buildings or structures, housing design
and community architecture, architectural interiors and space
planning, architectural detailing, architectural lighting, acoustics,
architectural lay-outing of mechanical, electrical, electronic, sanitary,
plumbing, communications and other utility systems, equipment and
fixtures;
(h) building programming, building administration, construction
arbitration and architectural conservation and restoration;
(i) all works which relate to the scientific, aesthetic and orderly
coordination of all works and branches of the work, systems and
processes necessary for the production of a complete building or
structure, whether for public or private use, in order to enhance
and safeguard life, health and property and the promotion and
enrichment of the quality of life, the architectural design of
engineering structures or any part thereof; and
(j) all other works, projects and activities which require the
professional competence of an architect, including teaching of
architectural subjects and architectural computer-aided design
ISSUES OF THE
PRACTICES IN THE
GLOBAL CONTEXT
The practice of these professions here is threatened to extinction by the
continued bias of clients against them, the threat of illegal Filipino
practitioners, the invasion of foreign consultants and the exodus of
Filipino designers to better-paying jobs overseas.
The bias against local practitioner s apparently stems from the public’s
misunderstanding of what architects and related design professionals do.
Architecture is the art and science of designing buildings and building
complexes to house and support the functions of clients and the public.
As a service, it is like medicine and law where problems or needs are
addressed in a timely and direct manner but with the additional facet of
elegance, aesthetics and good taste.
Many Filipino architects are treated like suppliers or contractors,
valued only if fees charged are cheap and if they are willing to be
constantly on call (unlike doctors or lawyers, clients refuse to pay
architects based on time spent at endless meetings).
It’s a matter of respect, which makes it all the more aggravating
for many locals practitioners as they witness a whole different
attitude given by clients to foreign-schooled but unregistered or
licensed practitioners or foreign consultants.
Of late, a number of Filipino or Fil-American designers schooled
or who have worked overseas have set up practices without the
necessary licenses.
Their success has been the product of good marketing skills,
individual packaging (foreign accents, fashionable dress sense,
and conspicuous attendance in the cocktail circuit) as well as a
competent portfolio of work overseas. It is no wonder then that
local media find these personalities good copy.
Nevertheless they have been found not to be in the roster of
registered or licensed architects. The United Architects of the
Philippines (UAP) has sent notices to editors in chief and writers
of design magazines and broadsheets to desist from referring to
these designers as “architects.”
Similar incidents have been cited by the Philippine Association
of Landscape Architects and the Philippine Institute of Interior
Designers regarding personalities featured in newspapers and
magazines and referred to as landscape architects or interior
designers. All three professions are regulated by the government
and require registration and licenses to practice.
On a show, architect Alli explained that the Architecture Law
RA9266 (there are similar ones for landscape architecture,
interior design and environmental planning)protects the interest
of the public and ensures legal accountability for malpractice or
its results—collapsing buildings, landslides in housing sites,
exploding utilities and the like.
More worrying for the UAP, PALA and PIID is the proliferation
of foreign designers who are featured in numerous press releases
and ads by real estate developers—complete with portraits and
interviews as to how they have designed this or that new master
planned community, world-class complexes or trend-setting
landscapes and urban design.
The situation with architecture is a bit different but malpractice in
the art and science of designing buildings could lead, like bad
medicine or lawyering, to loss of life or a sad existence in a
structure that looks and feels like a prison.
Filipino architects are considered world-class in every country
except their own. Like many in other design professions they are
driven overseas because they are unappreciated and underpaid yet
they possess the technical expertise and capacity that could create
all that public and private clients are planning to build in support
of a booming economy without there course of foreign
consultants.
Architecture is a proud profession. Its practitioners have to be
respected for them to be able to produce structures and settings
that engender pride of place and a national identity. Philippine
architecture is best created by Filipinos for Filipinos. If we aspire
instead to live in simulations of other lands and cultures,
then globalization will have shown its ugliest façade, an illusion
of modernity that hides behind it a poverty of culture and purpose
we can never escape from.
APEC Architects
Manual
OVERVIEW