CARIFORUM-EU Business Forum
Architecture & Interior Design
November 2008
ARCHITECTURE AND INTERIOR DESIGN
Perspectives of Caribbean - EU Business Developments
The Caribbean
Architectural
Industry
Within the Caribbean, trade in architectural services is being driven by
a combination of the larger firms opening offices in other islands and
sub-contracting or alliances with specialists based in other countries.
The larger architectural practices are based in the Dominican
Republic, Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad. They have opened offices
in other islands. In addition, in the OECS, there is evidence of a
growing intra-regional trade in architectural services.
As the CSME emerges, it is enabling greater movement of persons.
Currently, each country has its own association of architects and the
right to practice in that jurisdiction is linked to membership of the
association by law. Reducing the barriers to mutual recognition of
registration should not pose a problem. The Caribbean School of
Architecture, at the University of Technology, Jamaica, is the only
School of Architecture in the English-speaking Caribbean. Further, a
large proportion of Caribbean architects are registered with the Royal
Institute of British Architects (RIBA). This provides the basis for a
common recognition of qualifications and registrations.
Encouraging greater freedom to practice across the CSME would be
helpful in developing the capability to provide architectural services to
more attractive markets in the US and UK. It would enable larger
firms to emerge that would have the capacity to supply services to
these markets. And it would enable specialisation to increase and
competitive advantage to develop in niche segments.
Trade in
Architectural
Services
International trade in architectural services is growing for many of the
same reasons as engineering services. The globalisation of the
construction industry, the growing importance of large, complex
projects that require large or specialised architectural firms and
growing cost differentials between architects from the rich developed
countries and the rest of the world, are common to the growth of
both types of service. However, global trade in architectural services
is likely to be considerably lower in value than engineering services
for a number of reasons:
Foreign architects need to be registered locally to be able to practice
architecture. Registration is considerably harder than for engineers
(see the Qualification and Accreditation Section below) requiring
foreign architects to practice as interns and pass exams, all but
preventing the supply of services on a temporary basis (mode 4)
unless the architect has registered previously.
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Many countries specify who may apply for planning permission,
limiting this key function to those who are registered to practice
architecture in the country.
The nature of architecture means that the types of work that may be
subcontracted or outsourced is more limited than engineering.
The large architectural firms are smaller and less globalised than their
engineering counterparts and hence less able to drive international
trade.
International trade in architecture will grow rapidly, but will be driven
mainly by the international expansion of large firms. Outsourcing will
remain limited to a few labour-intensive processes such as
draughtsmanship. This is borne out by the fact that the outsourcing
of architectural services has received far less attention from within
the profession than outsourcing of engineering services has.
The market for architectural services is also fairly strongly contested.
In the UK for instance, charges for an architect (not senior) range
from US$85/hour to US$115/hour and for an architect’s assistant,
US$65/hour to US$85/hour. Whether the difference in pricing is
sufficient to compensate Caribbean architects for investing the time
and money in developing a market overseas and still enables them to
undercut domestic service providers remains to be determined.
Qualifications
and Accreditation
in UK and EU
To practice in the UK, architects must be registered with the
Architects Registration Board (ARB). Britain is a world leader in
architectural education, evidenced by a high enrolment rate by
international students. In 2000/01, 15.4% of architecture students
entering British universities were from overseas. The ARB does not
recognise any qualifications obtained outside the UK (including
international courses validated by the RIBA) except those covered by
the European Commission Architects’ Directive 85/384/EEC.
Appropriately-qualified architects from EU Member States registered
in their own country are able to register in other Member States. Most
UK architectural qualifications are recognised under the Directive and
UK architects registered with ARB may register in other EU member
countries.
For architects qualified in other EU member countries via one of the
academic programmes listed under Directive 85/384/EEC, s/he may
register with the ARB following two years European professional
experience and go on to practice as an architect within the UK.
Statutory control over who may practice varies from one Member
State to another. Whist countries such as Denmark, Ireland and
Sweden exercise no state control, others reserve some functions for
domestically registered architects or put in place various restrictions
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such as who may make planning applications.
In the UK, the sole professional body is RIBA. RIBA represents 24,000
architects in the UK and a further 3,000 overseas. Its main function is
to promote the development of the profession in the UK, though it
plays an important regulatory role with the ARB in registering
architects. RIBA membership provides recognition of professional
competence and is hugely important in the UK market. To be a RIBA
member, one has to train for a minimum of seven years, which
normally involves three key stages:
A five-year degree programme, on a course that is recognised
by the RIBA and the ARB.
A minimum of two years Professional Experience in an
architects' office or equivalent.
This is followed by the RIBA Examination in Professional
Practice and Management.
For those who wish to apply for chartered membership of the RIBA,
s/he must have completed five years professional experience since
finishing listed qualification.
In addition to individual membership, most of the UK’s architectural
practices are also corporate members of RIBA. The key criteria for
RIBA Registered Practices include:
A minimum of 80% of registered architects within the practice
are RIBA
Chartered Members
The active Principal or Executive Company director of the
practice is currently a RIBA Chartered Member.
They have management systems in place to ensure their
architects comply with RIBA Continuing Professional
Development obligations.
A RIBA registered practice may register overseas, following the
requirements and process set up by the national registration
body of that particular country.
For architects qualified from outside the EU to register as an architect
in the UK, s/he needs to apply for an assessment by the RIBA and the
ARB through the ARB RIBA Assessment Panel to obtain recognition of
her/his qualification and then sit the Professional Practice Examination
run by the RIBA. For those who have their architectural education
partially completed overseas and plan to complete studies within the
UK, they will first need to have their international study assessed for
equivalence to UK standards before undertaking further study on
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RIBA ARB recognised courses in the UK. Hence, for those architects
that have studied and qualified in non-EU countries, there are
substantial barriers to supplying services to the EU. All that is open,
for now, is to provide non-critical services such as producing
drawings.
The EPAs would change this substantially. The draft EPAs indicate
that architects would benefit alongside engineers by having greater
access to EU markets.
Provisions in the
EPA
Entertainment/cultural industries have been central to CARIFORUM in
the negotiating process of the EPA. In terms of liberalizations the
following sectors are open to the EU market: model agency services,
architects, interior design and other specialties design services,
entertainment services (with some restrictions in a few EU member
states). Restrictions are applied depending on the type mode of
export as well as the EU member states. In total CARIFORUM has
access to 90% of EU services sector. CARIFORUM opened 65% of the
sector including entertainment.
The following actions agreed as stated in Protocol III, will benefit the
sector:
the parties agree to exchange of information and cooperation
on cultural and audiovisual matters through the ECCARIFORUM Dialogue
Facilitation of entry including from CARIFORUM to the EU of
artist and other cultural professionals and practitioners. The
stay could be of up to 90 days.
Technical assistance offered to CARIFORUM countries for the
development of the cultural industries, development and
implementation of cultural policies and in promoting the
production and exchange of cultural goods and services.
Cooperation will include training, exchange of information,
expertise and experiences, counselling in elaboration of policies
and technology transfer and know how.
There will be specific collaboration in performing arts as well as
the publishing industry and the protection of sites and historic
monuments.
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Actions to be
implemented
The proposals arising from the different regional meetings and study
indicate four key areas for a possible regional work plan for cultural
sector as a whole and the Architecture and Interior Design subsectors in particular:
-Policy and enabling environment. This component will assist
national governments to develop facilities and incentives to
promote the export of creative industries. It is also assist
through mechanism indicated above, to establish regional
approach to the entire sector or the sub sectors.
Institutional support for the establishment of national and
regional associations from the different sub sectors as well as
the development of inter-linkages support.
Business Development Support to include training on different
areas including intellectual property rights and technical
support. This component would also give assistance to the
establishment of clusters from the different industries or across
industries like the suggested that links creative industries and
ICT.
Marketing Caribbean on its creative products. The marketing
activities will include branding of the industry, participation in
festivals and other international events, matchmaking, etc.
Financial
Resource
Availability
European Union
1. 9th EDF Caribbean Regional Indicative Programme:
Caribbean
Integration
Support
Programme: Support on standards to
CROSQ and CRNM
9th EDF CTPSD Caribbean Trade and
Private Sector Development ProgrammePhase 2
2. 10th EDF Caribbean Regional Indicative Programme
which is currently being approved and operational zed.
3.
PROINVEST: In its second phase will support larger
sectoral projects from €500,000 up through call for proposals.
4. Centre for the Development of Enterprises (CDE):
Offer technical assistance and Sectoral Support for selected creative
industries sectors. CDE is an ACP-EU organizations
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5.
Institutional Support Programme for Regional
Integration (ISPRI): €5 million project to assist the Dominican
Republic to foster closer collaboration and integration with the rest of
CARIFORUM.
6. BizClim: All ACP support to actions to improve the
business environment.
7.
Other EU individual member states have pledged
support to EPA development related projects. However, this is being
discussed at the level of the Regional Preparatory Task Force (RPTF)
between CARIFORUM and EC.
Other Donors:
1.
CIDA’s CARICOM Trade and Development Project:
Executed by the CARICOM Secretariat for CSME harmonisations
activities
2.
Case of Barbados
The World Bank has support for e-commerce initiatives.
(Source of information: “Strategic Marketing Plan for the Promotion of
Professional Services Exports” , CEDA and EME, Barbados, January
2007)
Market Positioning
The size, quality and maturity of the Bajan industry give the country a
competitive advantage in the CSME. Exporting to the region has
already taken place and this market continues to present the best
chance for increased exports. Trade negotiations should seek to open
up the EU and the US to architects and if that is done, there may be
long-term possibilities in those markets. At the moment, higher valueadded services are not outsourced, but if this were to change, Bajan
architects could attempt to supply such services to UK and US firms
via cross-border supply, which would allow them to avoid onerous
registration requirements.
Capability and Competitiveness
Architecture is a smaller industry than engineering and this general
pattern is reflected in the sizes of the two industries in Barbados.
There are roughly 24 architecture firms in the country and the
Barbados Institute of Architects (BIA) has 64 members. Most local
firms are one or two person operations that lack export capacity.
Although the industry lacks scale internationally, it matches up well
on quality. The Bajan architectural industry is among the largest in
the region and can rival any other country for standard of service.
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The cost of services in Barbados is competitive with the UK. The
hourly fee for a drawing technician in Barbados ranges from US$20$55. Whereas an architect’s assistant in the UK, a position that
involves drawing, can cost between US$65 and $85 per hour. So a
competitive advantage exists in this area. However, the current
accreditation scheme makes it difficult for architects to supply
services to the UK through mode 4. And since outsourcing in the
industry is limited to labour-intensive activities such as
draughtsmanship, these activities are more likely to go to lower cost
destinations with the ability to handle high volumes of work.
Accessing the UK and the rest of the EU market will be dependent on
easing of registration requirements through the EPA negotiations.
Similarly, outsourced work from the US is not likely to be sent to
Barbados, and the registration regime will have to be eased through
trade negotiations before mode 4 service supply becomes feasible.
Therefore, the primary opportunity for exports in this market segment
lies within the CSME.
Case of Saint
Lucia
(Source of information: “Strategic Marketing Plan for the Promotion of
Professional Services Exports” , CEDA and EME, Saint Lucia, January
2007)
Market Positioning
The quality and cost structure of the Saint Lucian industry give the
country a competitive advantage in the CSME. This market continues
to present the best chance for increased exports. Trade negotiations
should seek to open up the EU and the US to architects and if that is
done, there may be long-term possibilities in those markets. At the
moment, higher value-added services are not outsourced, but if this
were to change, St. Lucian architects could attempt to supply such
services to UK and US firms via cross-border supply, which would
allow them to avoid onerous registration requirements.
Capability and Competitiveness
Architecture is a small industry in Saint Lucia with 27 registered
architects and only two larger firms, although there are others
practicing who have not registered as yet. Most local firms are thus
one or two person operations that lack export capacity. Although the
industry lacks scale internationally, it matches up well on quality. The
cost of services in St Lucia is competitive with the UK, so a
competitive advantage exists in this area. However, the current
accreditation scheme makes it difficult for architects to supply
services to the UK through mode 4. And since outsourcing in the
industry is limited to labour-intensive activities such as
draughtsmanship, these activities are more likely to go to lower-cost
destinations with the ability to handle high volumes of work.
Accessing the UK and the rest of the EU market will be dependent on
easing of registration requirements through the EPA negotiations.
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Similarly, outsourced work from the US is not likely to be sent to Saint
Lucia and the registration regime will have to be eased through trade
negotiations before mode 4 service supply becomes feasible.
Therefore, the primary opportunity for exports in this market segment
lies within the CSME.
Case of Trinidad and
Tobago
Source of information: “Strategic Marketing Plan for the Promotion of
Professional Services Exports” , CEDA and EME, Trinidad and Tobago,
January 2007)
Market Positioning
The size, quality and maturity of the Trinidad and Tobago
architectural industry give the country a competitive advantage in the
CSME. Exporting to the region has already occurred and this market
continues to present the best chance for increased exports. Trade
negotiations should seek to open up the EU and the US to architects
and, if that is done, there may be long-term possibilities in those
markets. Trinidad and Tobago will not be able to compete with lowcost destinations for labour intensive outsourcing. At the moment,
higher value-added services are not outsourced, but if this were to
change, local architects could attempt to supply such services to UK
and US firms via cross-border supply, which would allow them to
avoid onerous registration requirements.
Capability and Competitiveness
The local architectural industry has a similar structure to the
engineering sector, but on a smaller scale, which reflects the relative
size of the two industries. The Board of Architecture of Trinidad and
Tobago, the local authority charged with registering architects,
recognises about 40 practices. Roughly 8 of these are considered
large by local standards, which mean they have at least 5 architects.
There are a few two professional firms, but the majority is singleperson operations; even the small firms do work on large projects.
The Trinidad and Tobago Institute of Architects (TTIA) has 84
qualified architects as members.
The quality of services is internationally-competitive, but the industry
has a low profile outside of the region. Firms offer a full range of
services, including design, technical drawings and project
management. As a result of the petroleum industry, particular
capabilities exist in areas such as efficient energy design and terrorist
protection design. Costs are competitive with the UK and the TTIA
provides recommended fee bands that charge a percentage based on
the cost of the project, the classification of the building and whether
it is a new building or work on an existing structure.30 These vary
widely, from 4.8%-15.65%, but some firms charge between 6% and
10%.
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While there is a cost advantage, the current accreditation scheme
makes it difficult for architects to supply services to the UK through
mode 4. And since outsourcing in the industry is limited to labourintensive activities such as draughtsmanship, these activities are more
likely to go to lower-cost destinations with the ability to handle high
volumes of work. Accessing the UK and the rest of the EU market will
be dependent on easing of registration requirements through the EPA
negotiations.
Similarly, outsourced work from the US is not likely to be sent to
Trinidad and Tobago, and the registration regime will have to be
eased through trade negotiations before mode 4 service supply
becomes feasible. The exporting that has taken place has been
regional.
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