Professional Negligence in Construction
Page 7
CHAPTER 2
Types of construction professional and their functions
Types of construction professional and their functions
- Section A: architects 8
- Origins 8
- Function 8
- Professional regulation 9
- Architects’ contracts 10
- Section B: engineers 12
- Origins 12
- Function 13
- Professional regulation 13
- Engineers’ contracts 14
- Section C: quantity surveyors 15
- Origins 15
- Function 15
- Professional regulation 17
- Quantity surveyors’ contracts 17
- Section D: project managers 18
- Origins 18
- Function 19
- Professional regulation 20
- Project managers’ contracts 20
- Section E: building surveyors 21
- Origins 21
- Function 21
- Professional regulation 21
- Building surveyors’ contracts 22
- Section F: other construction professionals 22
- Section G: a typical construction project 23
- Year 1: preliminary works 23
- Year 3: outline scheme design and application for planning permission 23
- Year 4: letting the contract 24
- Year 5: letters of intent, the building contract, novation 24
- Year 5 to year 7: the construction period 25
- Year 7 to year 8: defects liability period 26
- Year 9 and subsequently: dispute resolution 26
Page 8
Section A: architects
Origins
2.1 The term “architect” derives from the Latin “architectus”, which in turn derives from the Greek “arkhi” and “tekton”: chief builder. For the ancients (and indeed until the Renaissance) titles such as “architect” and “engineer” were used interchangeably to apply to master builders, often artisans such as masons and carpenters, who had acquired seniority and experience in substantial construction projects such as castles and churches.1 Design skills were learned in apprenticeship and through experience. Arguably it was the increasing availability of cheap paper which permitted the production and repetition of construction drawings which allowed the emergence of modern architecture as an academic discipline.2 2.2 The emergence of a distinct class of person known as “the architect” and thus the architect’s profession is a relatively modern phenomenon. In the United Kingdom that emergence is generally traced back to Sir John Soane who insisted that the architect separate himself from the day to day business of carrying out the building works opining, “with what propriety can his situation and that of the builder, or the contractor, be united?”3 In 1834 a group of prominent architects formed the Institute of British Architects in London, which became known as the Royal Institute of British Architects in London after the grant of its royal charter in 1837. The Charter set out the purpose of the Royal Institute to be: “… the general advancement of Civil Architecture, and for promoting and facilitating the acquirement of the knowledge of the various arts and sciences connected therewith…”. In 1892, it became the Royal Institute of British Architects, or RIBA.4Function
2.3 The Oxford English Dictionary definition of “architect” is “a person who designs buildings and also in many cases supervises their construction”. However, the English courts adopted a longer functional definition:An “architect” is a person who possesses, with due regard to aesthetic as well as practical considerations, adequate skill and knowledge to enable that person: (i) to originate, (ii) to design and plan, and (iii) to arrange for and supervise the erection of such buildings or other works calling for skill and design in planning as they might, in the course of their business, reasonably be asked to carry out or in respect of which they offer their services as a specialist.5