Who is an architect?
An architect can be described as a person who designs buildings and supervises their construction or a person responsible for the invention or realisation of something. For the purposes of this article, an architect will be described as a person who designs buildings and supervises their construction. That means that the individual will not only have to be trained in knowing how buildings are designed but must also know how they can be put together. How is such a professional trained? Through the years, the training of architects has gone through several developments.
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Training
Initially, most architects, including those who are often referred to in architectural studies as some of the earlier "master builders" such as Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright and Mies Van Der Rohe, did not have university degrees in architecture and started their training as draughtsmen in architectural offices and practical work in the field. Such training basically consisted of draughtsmen being trained first to learn how to do lettering on drawings and progressing to learn how to trace drawings, first in pencil and later in ink.
In many offices, the beginning of the training period also involved cleaning the offices and preparing tea and coffee for the office staff. Such training could be compared to the guild system of the Middle Ages which had the master at the top followed by the journeyman who actually did various works and supervised the apprentice who was learning the trade.
The principal architect or the principals in an architectural firm determined how long the training of the draughtsman should last. Such training, however, generally did not go beyond three years. Draughtsmen thus trained, were generally offered employment in the architectural offices to produce drawings and run errands for the office. Sketch designs of buildings were undertaken by architects and handed over to draughtsmen who were guided to produce working drawings with all the necessary measurements on the site plan to be used for construction at the site.
Architectural studies in universities
Around the world, architectural studies in universities started less than 300 years ago. So arguably, architecture as a professional course offered in universities is relatively, younger than some other professional courses. It must be pointed out that the peculiar circumstances leading to the establishment of architectural schools in individual countries emphasised the direction in which architectural training was carried out. Thus some universities emphasise on technical and/or "practical" issues whereas others harp on philosophy and/or theory. This is what is often referred to as the philosophy of the School or Department of Architecture.
Prior to the establishment of architectural training in Ghana, the British colonial government had had British architects design buildings such as the Old Parliament House, the General Post Office, the Supreme Court buildings - all in Accra - to name a few, and a small number of British architectural firms had been registered to practice in Ghana. Architectural training in Ghana started in the early 1950s at the then Kumasi College of Technology in the School of Architecture, Building and Planning. (It must be pointed out that before then, some individuals had taken correspondence courses and had qualified as draughtsmen. Some of such draughtsmen progressed to be called licensed building surveyors).
The attainment of independence in 1957 and a republican status in 1960 led to the conversion of the Kumasi College of Technology into the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in 1961 and the subsequent creation of the Faculty of Architecture with the Departments of Architecture, Building Technology and Planning.
More structured training
The Department of Architecture was set up on the model of the AA (Architectural Association) school in London, U. K. The curriculum introduced from the U. K. spelled out a six year programme. Early on, architecture students did what was known as the "inter" examinations in Kumasi and at least an entire class had to be sent to the U.K. to complete their architectural studies. Eventually, a six-year programme was crystallised and segmented into a four year programme for the Bachelor's degree and a two-year Masters programme which was later labelled the post graduate diploma programme in line with what pertained in the U.K. In recent times, however, the same two year programme has been re-designated as the Master of Architecture degree programme. The Master of Architecture degree from the KNUST is equivalent to the Part 2 Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) professional qualification examination and the graduate who wants to acquire the final Part 3 certification can work in architectural offices in the U. K. for some time to take that examination. Though Ghana still belongs to the British Commonwealth of Nations and the Commonwealth Architectural Association (CAA) still undertakes accreditation visit to KNUST every five years, the formation of the Ghana Institute of Architects (GIA) in 1960 arguably diluted the desire of many young Ghanaian architects to acquire the final RIBA qualification.
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Architectural design studio as core
Architecture is a combination of arts and science courses and students register for various courses every semester but architectural design studio remains the core course every year. This is where students are assigned various design projects from inception to completion and they present/defend such works at juries by explaining the rational or design concept to both their peers and staff and invited practising architects. Every year, during the "long vacation" from June to August, architectural students are expected to do vacation or practical training in architectural offices and submit completed log books signed by principals of the offices to confirm that the students had actually done the works. Successful completion of the Bachelor's programme permits students to apply for consideration to the Master's degree programme and applicants may be interviewed depending on the degree obtained at the end of the fourth year.
The practical training continues during the next two years and upon the successful completion of the Master's programme the student is deemed to have done two years of practical training which count towards qualification for the professional practice examination organised by the Ghana Institute of Architects (GIA) and the Architects Registration Council (ARC) of Ghana - the body that regulates architectural practice in the country. Furthermore, the architecture graduate can only be eligible to take the professional practice examination only after two years experience in an office. So effectively, an architect in Ghana would have spent about ten years altogether in school and in practise to qualify. Despite this seemingly long period of training, to become good in architecture - just in any other profession - apprenticeship under senior colleagues is also very essential.
The writer is the Past Dean, Faculty of Architecture and Building Technology, KNUST.
Past Head, Department of Architecture, KNUST.
gwkintsiful@gmail.com