The Australian Institute of Architects has issued feedback on the NSW government’s Building Legislation Amendment Regulation 2023, held on 27 February, describing the government amendments to the building classes regulation as a “missed opportunity.”
“While we have been encouraged by the quality and the nation-leading volume of work which has been undertaken by the NSW government on these reforms to date, we believe the new Amendment Regulation is a backward step in the protection of consumers in NSW,” a spokesperson for the Institute said.
The regulation applies to Class 3 buildings – which the building authority defines as buildings that are “a common place of long term or transient living for a number of unrelated people,” including “care-type” facilities such as accommodation buildings for children, the elderly and people with disability – and Class 9c buildings, which are residential care buildings that contain 10 percent or more residents in need of physical assistance in conducting their daily activities.
The Institute said that endorsing an unrestricted class of building designer to document these classes of building will have negative outcomes for the community’s most vulnerable residents accommodated by these buildings.
“The Institute believes an unrestricted class of building designer may result in unintended consequences; will reduce consumer protection; and will impair international recognition of our skills base by indicating that an Architect and Building Designer (Level 1) are equivalent in terms of their education, skills, experience, ongoing professional development, regulation, and expertise,” a spokesperson for the Institute said.
The Institute said that the skills of an architect and a building designer (level 1) are “clearly not the same” and that conflating these two professions is signalling to the market, misleadingly, that the product delivered by the two will be of the same quality.
“Registration as an architect requires five years of full-time study to masters level, meeting a National Standard of Competency for Architects (NSCA), 3300 hours of logged, verified and supervised practice which can take up to five years to achieve, and then completing an architectural practice exam administered nationally by the Architects Accreditation Council of Australia,” the Institute continued.
“Alternatively, building designers do not need to meet all these stringent requirements. It is critical to note that under the current DBP [Design and Building Practitioners] Act and Regulation, some fully registered and experienced architects are restricted from operating as Design Practitioners – Architectural due to the stringent new experience parameters.”
NSW Chapter president Adam Haddow said consumers should feel confident that the designing of complex buildings for the most vulnerable will always be put in the hands of those with the highest level of qualification and expertise.
Source: Architecture - architectureau
