RIAI, AAI, IAF...

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There are ostensibly three architectural organisations in Ireland, the RIAI, the AAI and the IAF.

In their own words:

The RIAI,

The Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland, founded in 1839, is the representative body for professionally qualified architects in Ireland.
The objects of the RIAI are the advancement of Architecture and the associated Arts and Sciences, the promotion of high standards of professional conduct and practice and the protection of the interests of architectural training and education.

The AAI

The Architectural Association of Ireland was founded in 1896 ‘to promote and afford facilities for the study of architecture and the allied sciences and arts, and to provide a medium of friendly communication between members and others interested in the progress of architecture’.

The new kid on the block is the Irish Architectural Foundation

Established in 2005, the IAF is all about promoting a better built environment for everyone’s benefit. We strive for an Ireland in which the importance of architecture is widely acknowledged, and in which people are able to relate to and influence the built world around them, and where high standards of architectural design are appreciated by all.

A loose synopsis is that the RIAI represents its members and the promotion of architecture generally, the AAI promotes education for architects and discussion mainly amongst architects, and the IAF promotes architecture for non-architects.

With the recent change in legislation, the title Architect is protected. The RIAI maintains the Register of Architects™, or at least will do when it is set up. The question is will the RIAI then represent only its members, or also those who choose to join the Register only? If they decide to represent only the RIAI members, who will represent those on the Register who are not members?

There are three organisations, and my feeling is that such a small country does not need another, but there are currently areas which are not being covered by anyone. I think that the RIAI needs to look hard at its role now that it has finally 'got' registration, and what that in turn means for its stated role as the "representative body for professionally qualified architects".

The recent and very successful Now What? initiative in Richview highlights how slow to react long established organisations are.

What do you suggest the RIAI could do at this time that would be useful to struggling architects? Is there anything you would suggest that they do differently? What do you think their role is? Leave a comment...

How bad is it?

There is no disputing that Ireland has had an unprecedented building boom in the last 10 years or more. When I began college in 1996, Professor J Owen Lewis gave an introductory lecture in which he began by saying that architecture is a cyclical business, which follows the vagaries of the economy of a country as a whole. He said that the good news was that we were in a boom time, and the bad was that it would be over by the time we graduated. He was only half right.

This is not a blog about economics, but an attempt to discover how badly the architectural profession has been affected in the last 15 months. The RIAI published figures last January about job losses, but anecdotal evidence suggests that the situation has far exceeded their nightmare situation.

Frank McDonald had an article in the Weekend section of the Irish Times a couple of weeks ago about this, but it was sorely lacking in any figures.

So, how bad is it? If time is short, please vote in the polls on the left hand side or leave a comment in anonymity. Don't forget to click on the "vote" button for each poll!

Or, better still, click to take part in a more indepth (but still brief) survey.