Architects' Duties

STATUTORY DUTIES

An architect is expected to have a reasonable working knowledge of laws and legislation which affects him in the discharge of his duties as an architect. The following are the principle legislation governing design and building works.

Planning Act (Cap 232)

The Planning Act governs the development of land in Singapore. Section 10(1) provides that "No person shall without the written permission of the competent authority, develop any land." The competent authority for planning purposes is designated as the Chief Planner, Urban Redevelopment Authority.

Building Control Act (Cap 29) & Building Control Regulations

The Building Control Act ("the Act") and Regulations govern building works and imposes on the qualified person statutory duties of design and supervision. Under s.2(1) of the Act, a qualified person means a person who is registered as an architect or a professional engineer. The Regulations lay down the form and content for the design and carrying out of building works.

Design

By Regulation 6(1) "All plans Ö accompanying any application for approval shall be prepared and signed by an appropriate qualified person."

The architect is under a duty to ensure that his plans comply with the Act and Regulations.

Supervision

By Section 8(1) of the Act "Ö no person shall commence or carry out any building works except under the supervision of an appropriate QP."

CONTRACTUAL DUTIES

Express Terms

The architects' duties to his client depends on the express terms of his contract with the client. The contract may be a standard form contract like the SIA Conditions of Appointment and Scale of Professional Charges which sets out the terms and conditions of appointment and governs the rights duties and obligations of the architect and the client.

Implied Terms

Not all contracts however, are required to be in writing. Where there is no written contract, the terms of the contract will have to be implied. A term can be implied by law or from the facts.

Degree of Skill

An architect who offers professional architectural services warrants that he will use "reasonable care & skill". The degree of skill required is that of an ordinarily competent architect professing to have that special skill. Contracts for supply of professional architectural services do not normally give any implied warranty beyond reasonable care and skill.

The SIA Conditions of Appointment warrants that the architect "shall exercise a reasonable standard of skill and diligence normally expected of an accepted by the profession of an architect."1

Delegation of Duties

The appointment of an architect, as with most professional persons is personal to himself. He cannot delegate his duty to be performed by someone else. In practice however, due to the complexities of some projects an architect will usually delegate a substantial proportion of the technical aspects of design to other skilled professionals like mechanical & electrical engineers, civil & structural engineers, quantity surveyors, etc. Where an architect undertakes the design and supervision of a building project under an "umbrella" arrangement, he should let the client know that he is delegating other aspects of the design like the mechanical & electrical design work and structural design work to other professionals.

Design responsibilities

Quite apart from the aesthetic designs of a building, the design responsibilities of an architect can extend to specifications, selection of finishes choice of construction techniques. He must exercise skill and care in the execution of his designs and in the choice and specification of materials.

Design and Build

In traditional employer/architect relationships, an architect is only required to use reasonable care and skill in the execution of his design services. He does not normally warrant the suitability of his design for an intended purpose. In design and build contracts however, there may be an implied term that his design is suitable for the intended purpose. He has a higher duty of care to his employer to ensure that his design is suitable for the purpose made known to him where his is employed under a design and build contract.

The "employer" is the person with whom the architect has a contractual relationship. In a design and build contract, the "employer" is the builder with whom the architect has teamed up to offer his design. Although no privity of contract exists between the architect and the building owner, an architect is still under a duty of care to ensure that he acts and omissions do not cause loss or damage to the building owner.

A turnkey contractor engaged structural engineers to design the frame of a factory building, the floors of which were required to accept the weight of stacker trucks moving over them carrying oil drums. As designed, the floors were not in fact able to withstand the resonance forces set up by the movement of the trucks. The contractor sued the engineer for damages. The trial expressly stated that there was no negligence but implied a term of suitability, suggesting that a higher duty might be implied by law than that owed by professional men generally. It was held by the Court of Appeal that in general no higher duty rested on the structural engineer than that formulated, in Bolam's case for professional negligence, on these particular facts, since the design and build contractor was liable to the owner without qualifications for a suitable design, the defendants...