Who is an architect?

Some time ago, there was a flurry of excitement over the fact that one of the world's most acclaimed architects, Daniel Liebeskind was described as just that, an architect, in a jurisdiction where he was not registered with the local regulatory body.  It was kind of amusing.  Soon after, it became apparent that the British Architects Registration Board (ARB) in particular had for some reason become especially aggressive in the same fruitless endeavour, from memory challenging the great Italian architect Renzo Piano.  And now I read in Dezeen, that they have been given notice for referring to John Pawson as an architect, in the context of an article on his beautiful St Moritz church in in Augsburg, Germany.

Pawson not only consistently produces masterful buildings, but could be described as genuinely influential in the evolution of international architecture through the medium of his so called 'minimalist' work.  But he didn't ever finish his studies at the Architectural Association school in London, and he isn't registered with the ARB.

So the Dezeen article, or more precisely the follow-up article describing their dealings with the ARB over the issue, has elicited many comments.  The poor correspondent who first commented in support of the ARB's adherence to their charter (to police the protection of the title 'architect') got an awful lot of 'dislikes', and ended up actually apologizing for giving offense.

In my view he really didn't need to apologize. I think his comment could have been made more unambiguously in the context of an aggressive critique of Architecture.  Namely, that it is not enough to afford legal protection to the term 'Architect' and then assume that 'Architecture' is that which is produced by 'Architects'. 

To the contrary, Architecture should be able to be distinguished by its quality (something like the Quality discussed by Robert Pirsig in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance), and only someone who produces Architecture should be afforded the honorific "Architect'. 

But of course, that doesn't work in any simple credentialing system where what you are trying to do, really, is to afford some crude protections to badly informed consumers, while distorting the market for a particular service.  Which is all that the various architects' registration acts in Commonwealth countries seem to achieve.

This is a long running discussion with no satisfactory resolution in sight.  The article in Dezeen is not exactly a profound exposition on the subject, but it does make lively reading.  Read it here, then look at the original piece on Pawson's church.  Then work out where you stand.