Jared here today – Over Christmas I had a discussion with my brother around the relevancy of Registered Architects these days. The discussion mainly went in circles around the point of hiring an Architect over an LBP Designer and the confusion this causes with the public in general and the Architectural profession. As someone currently in the lengthy and onerous process of becoming registered, it troubles me to see the relevance and importance of Architects diminishing in the public eye considering the time and effort it takes to become registered. To become a Registered Architect it takes as long or longer than it does to become a surgeon on average! However, Architects only design less than 5% of houses in NZ! The current system makes me ask the question.. what’s the point? The public realm holds many myths about architects which narrow their vision on what they can do. Here is a great resource on the subject.