- This report highlights that a strong compliance culture is not optional in architectural practice. It is central to what it means to be a professional. It helps architects navigate their complex regulatory obligations and the challenging commercial and practical pressures they may face. Most importantly, a strong compliance culture safeguards the safety, quality and integrity of built outcomes. This report makes an important and timely contribution to how outcomes in the built environment can be improved.
- The report has examined the state of compliance culture within the Victorian architecture sector and proposed strategies for strengthening it. The findings reaffirm the strong foundation of professionalism and ethical awareness among Victorian architects. However, they also expose residual risks of non-compliance that cannot be overlooked.
- The research indicates that some practitioners may lack a complete understanding and appreciation of their professional responsibilities and compliance obligations. Others may fail to turn their mind to compliance because they believe that the primary responsibility for ensuring compliance rests elsewhere or that their responsibility for compliance is confined due to contractual arrangements that limit the scope of services.
- Embedding a commitment to compliance in daily practice can take time and significant effort and can deteriorate rapidly if neglected. A strong compliance culture must be continuously cultivated through leadership, accountability, education and an ongoing commitment to upholding high standards and to compliance.
- The seven overarching duties owed by architects set out in this report provide a powerful foundation for this effort. These duties are not narrow and context-specific rules. Rather, they are relevant and universally applicable across the profession and transcend firm size, project types, and procurement practices.
- Further, as the case studies in this report show, the overarching duties are not abstract ideals. They translate into daily behaviours, actions and decisions that can enhance professionalism, ensure compliance, and consequently also positively influence built outcomes. By consciously embracing these overarching duties, architects not only discharge their compliance obligations, but also elevate their practice to the highest standards of professionalism.
- In the current climate within the construction sector, architects may face diminished authority and responsibility due to commercial pressures and contractual arrangements, particularly in the context of large projects involving D&C procurement. Embracing these overarching duties offers a clear way forward. Architects can lean into these duties and thereby demonstrate the value they bring through care, competence, ethical leadership, and a deep commitment to the public interest.
- Of course, this approach has its limits because architects do not operate in isolation and are not solely responsible for the compliance of built outcomes. The broader construction sector includes a wide range of other participants, each of whom plays a critical role in shaping outcomes in the sector.
- When these participants prioritise compliance and ethical practices at the individual and project levels, they help to ensure that buildings are safe, durable, and high-quality. The opposite is also true. A poor compliance culture among participants in the broader construction sector can increase the risk of non-compliance, undermine public confidence, and lead to poor built outcomes.
- The ARBV, like other regulators in the broader construction sector, has tools to support the strengthening of compliance culture in the architecture sector.
- The ARBV is committed to assisting architects and architectural firms to establish a strong compliance culture and will use this report to inform its future initiatives. The ARBV invites education and training providers, industry bodies and other regulators to collaboratively participate in this journey to improve compliance culture across the broader construction sector.
- However, the heavy lifting will need to be done by sectoral participants themselves. In the case of architecture sector, the primary responsibility for shaping a culture of compliance rests with architects and architectural firms. This starts with an unambiguous embrace of their duties and a proactive commitment to upholding the values that define the profession.
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