Do words mean more than letters when it comes to an architect’s status?

During my 34 years as an Arb and RIBA member I have reported non-architects for using the suffix AAS (Association of Architects & Surveyors).

They were practising as architects not surveyors and the letters suggested that they were architects. Local plan-drawers often don’t call themselves architects but they don’t correct their clients’ assumptions either.

Arb’s attitude was that there is nothing wrong with the use of letters as they can mean anything. It fails to stop draughtsmen from pnractising as architects and relentlessly pursues real architects who have simply not paid fees.

Enough is enough. Scrap Arb as a waste of space and money.

Keith Dicken
Taunton, Somerset

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