What is an architect?

A survey has found that the majority of British adults have little idea what architects do:

·         15% do not know that architects design buildings.

·         22% do not know that architects prepare detailed construction drawings for building projects.

·         48% do not know that architects prepare specifications to be used for building projects.

·         69% do not know architects negotiate planning permission with the local authorities.

·         72% do not know architects apply for planning permission.

·         74% do not know architects can deal with certification for building projects.

·         79% do not know architects can ensure that the construction site complies with Health & Safety legislation.

·         86% are not aware that architects select, negotiate with contractors and manage contracts.

·         91% do not know architects run the financial accounts for building projects.

Building Defects and the Law

I often find rather naive views on UK law relating to building defects published on the web.  I have collated some of these commonly held misconceptions, which I address below:

1. Compliance with Current Standards

“Every kind of construction must be completed to current standards.”  Wrong!  British and adopted European Standards provide guidance and advice.  Generally they attempt to summarise a consensus of good practice.  Usually they represent the views of interested parties co-opted onto a committee.  Due to the time taken to produce a Standard it is, on average, about 7 years out of date when published.  They are not mandatory.  A failure to comply with them is not criminal.  Most importantly, following building standards does not ensure sound building or confer immunity from law suits.

2. Construction Law

“At the heart of construction law are the building regulations.”  Wrong!  Regulation of building is to be found in a wide variety of statutes from the Town & County Planning Act to the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act.  The building regulations are, in their inception, health and safety provisions which have recently been widened principally to encompass some environmental concerns.   Their applicability and content are limited.

3. Building Regulations

“These regulations set out precise levels of quality and competence that should be met within all construction projects.”  Wrong!  Schedule 1 to the regulations provides performance requirements but does not prescribe quality and competence.  Approved documents issued under the regulations give technical guidance in the form of deemed-to-satisfy provisions.  Compliance therewith, however advisable, is not mandatory.

4. Construction Defect Law

“Construction defect law exists to protect your building project from shoddy workmanship. Defect law also gives your builders clear guidelines they must follow.”  Wrong!  There is not a distinct law of construction defects.  There is limited regulation of workmanship standards under schedule 7 to the building regulations and certain habitability standards required under statute for residential housing.  They are primarily intended to protect residential tenants from the results of demonstrably poor work and will in limited circumstance only assist those who commission building work.

5. Regulation of Building Professions and Workers

“You can hire designers, builders and tradesmen safe in the knowledge they are qualified to carry out the work you are paying them for.”  Wrong!  Architect alone is a protected title.  In contrast, anyone can lawfully trade as surveyor, engineer, builder, etc. or offer architectural services as long as they do describe themselves as an architect.  There is limited regulation of function covering certain installations such as gas fittings, which is intended to reduce the incidence of unsupervised unqualified persons working on certain defined hazardous installations.  

Those who are uninitiated into the complex mishmash of building qualifications defined variously as: registered, chartered, time-served, competent persons, etc. are unlikely to distinguish say between an architect, who by law must be qualified and registered, and an architectural designer, who requires neither qualification nor registration.   Much building in this country is performed by unregistered persons lacking appropriate formal qualifications.  When I am asked to investigate supposedly negligent architectural design, more often than not the designer was not an architect but the employer thought he was.  In a similar vein but at the other end of the scale, the worst gas pipework I have inspected was not installed by, or under the supervision of, a competent person but this did not have come to light until my inspection report was served. 

When I started in practice, design was usually provided as a separate service unconnected with the building contractor and the designers were retained to supervise construction as independent inspectors.  Builders worked in teams lead by experienced tradesmen.  On large schemes we had resident engineers, architects and/or CoW’s.  Self-certification by plumbers, etc. was unheard of.  Independent inspection was the norm.

Building regulations have moved progressively towards self-certification in place of independent inspection.   Procurement through design and build contracts tends to separate the employer from the designers so removing from him the once traditional team of independent consultants capable of expertly monitoring the work in progress.  Most standard forms of contract however deny the employer the automatic right to work which is reasonably fit for its intended purpose, so taking from him the greatest legal benefit a design and built contract would otherwise bestow. 

Defects are often more easily concealed than corrected.  The temptation to hide mistakes has always been there.  When at some future date concealed defects manifest themselves, expert inspection is required.  What constitutes competent building design, sound materials, and good workmanship is not defined in statute.  To claim compensation a combination of expert opinion and legal assistance is required.  To resist or pass on a claim more expert and legal opinions are often engaged.

If there were a statute providing overriding building defects law, all this might be brought to an end.  To draft such an all-embracing law to effectively consolidate and extend existing regulation would take unprecedented ingenuity.

Cladding which did the 2-way shuffle

A cladding system designed to accommodate differential movements between an aluminium frame and metal-faced insulation-cored cladding panels experienced gradual displacement of building components as the gaskets snaked their way along the grooves between shuffling panels. 

The panels, being small, elongated less on heating than the relatively long frame sections.  The connection between the two was a combination of shelf brackets and clamps, with polymer gaskets inserted tightly into grooves between the panels to complete the weather-sealing.  Long continuous gaskets ran horizontally; vertical gaskets were shorter, and discontinuous at each horizontal joint. 

When the system heated up and expanded, the panels and vertical gaskets tended to move upwards.  When it cooled, the panels and gaskets contracted but did not uniformly return to their original positions.  The consequence was a gradual displacement of parts of the system relative to one another.  This opened gaps at the butt joints between horizontal and vertical gaskets and, in places, drove the vertical gaskets into the horizontal gaskets, deforming them.  Those panels on the elevations which received most sunshine moved progressively out of alignment.

The design was intended, by avoidance of rigid fixings, to allow reciprocal movements without distress.  But this lack of rigidity allowed each reciprocal movement to cause slight relative displacements in the panels and gaskets, the accumulation of which over time reduced weather resistance and marred appearance.

Sir Walter Scott, Guy Mannering, ch. 37, 1815:

A lawyer without history or literature is a mechanic, a mere working mason; if he possesses some knowledge of these, he may venture to call himself an architect.

Lead Roof Corrosion

A recent investigation revealed an oversight in roof design.  The construction under investigation had wide lead gutters behind masonry parapets.  These gutter formed part of the roof and are in effect cold decks over thick thermal insulation.  Other parts of the roof were provided with interstitial ventilation following current guidance.  The gutters were not.

The natural durability of lead under normal conditions is due to the formation of protective insoluble salts which are formed on the surface. Moisture and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere combine to form weak carbonic acid and this reacts with bright metallic lead during periods of rain or overnight dews to form the normal grey patina typical of lead roofs. This thin continuous surface layer protects the metallic lead from further attack. On the underside of lead sheets these protective layers may not form.

Architectural Acoustics

The third most common complaint of defects in buildings is noise. Architectural acoustics is the study of applying sound control within and between buildings. An early well recorded application of architectural acoustics is in opera house design. More recently it has been applied to both new and renovated concert halls. This has much to do with the quality of sound rather than noise suppression which is critical to the design of multi-occupancy building and city centre living. Dwellings and business premises may both generate significant noise and suffer from noise intrusion. The design of workplaces has often to contend with the potential effects of noise on health. Architectural acoustics includes room acoustics, the design of recording and broadcast studios, home theaters, and listening rooms for media playback.