Is somewhat of a mystical the whole process is like business hey welcome back to the channel if you're new here i'm callum i study architecture at the university of cambridge i'm extremely happy to be joined by natalie perry in this video natalie hey natalie is in architecture grad school studying her master's at the university .

Of pennsylvania she is also the creator behind the fabulous youtube channel unraveling architecture in this video we are going to be discussing some of the differences between architectural education in the united kingdom here and in the united states as well as hopefully .

Debunking some of the myths surrounding the somewhat mystical process that is architectural registration in the uk you have to study for a minimum of seven years to become an architect that is three years of undergraduate study then at least a year of practical experience two years of .

Masters and another year of practical experience before you're actually an architect so it's a really long old slog but at least you do earn money for two of those seven years natalie do you want to explain how it works in the u.s yeah so we have three components four years undergrad .

Two or three years graduate school five tests five passer fail are tests and three years of interning it's definitely strenuous your registration does that happen at the states level or does that happen nationally wide it's state it's state you can register .

In multiple states here though but if you want to construct a building in state a but you have a license in state b you're going to need somebody who understands the state a laws and regulations the term architect is legally protected in the uk so you can't be an architect unless you've done that .

Minimum of seven years i've read a lot of articles about how to increase your salary as an architect and sort of the number one thing is become registered which suggests that i don't know maybe you can be an architect without being registered yeah no i i think that us and the uk are very similar um .

In that regard because you can't put the word architect on your resume if you aren't registered by your board here do you have to take a testing component too or do you just intern yeah so there are three educational elements the actual process so the part one and part two are .

Both your actual degree part and then your part three is your final professional qualification that you do in your final year of practice but actually it's not explained particularly clearly it's somewhat of a mystical kind of experience the whole process is like .

Mystical yeah love it okay groovy so um yeah i think those this discussion takes us up to the next point in terms of working internationally and the difference between the uk and the us so yeah do you know what the procedure would be if i was a qualified .

Uk architect and i wanted to move to the us and start working as an architect there how straightforward would that be for me to register yeah yeah so it's definitely going to be a little trickier than if you were obviously a domestic student in the united states .

And you're looking to become licensed here so first things first you need to secure your visa if you are an international student and you completed all of your education requirements like you are doing and you want to become licensed here you're still going to have to .

One fulfill your internship hours here the second component would be your education so all of our schools all of our architecture schools at least the good ones right um are accredited by naab and you're at university of cambridge right great school .

Great reputation so you shouldn't really have a problem transferring all of your education credits here but let's say one didn't transfer and you need to take another structures class you'll just do that on your own time here while working and then the third component would be your ares .

So same thing five tests pass fail you would just have to pass all of those the next thing you know you're a licensed architect in the states so how about how about for me if the converse is true i want to go to you amazing well it sounds like you've got it very methodically uh sorted out yeah in the uk um .

Equivalent sort of thing yes so there is the general criteria of being an architect and so obviously it's a general rule of thumb if you're coming from anywhere else with any qualifications that aren't from the uk then it's fine so long as you can prove equivalencies if you're coming from a different part .

Of the world you'd have to prove that your level of education is the same and i think you have to sit in front of a board sort of thing and go through an application process similar sort of thing i suppose 60 of my course is actually like assessed studio work although in reality it's probably more like 80 to 90 .

Of my time certainly towards the end of term when portfolios are due um outside of studio work we have history and theory structures and construction as well as environmental based learning and this sort of changes as you go through the education to become more practice oriented as you get nearer .

Qualification wait i have a i actually have a question you said end of studio when portfolios are due do you have a portfolio at the end or a final review at the end of term yes so we have well so far we have had two briefs in each term and at the end .

Of the brief we'll have a final review to external architects then at the end of time we'll also have a portfolio submission yeah that's interesting wait do you do you present your project in front of people or in theory yeah i mean obviously this has all been online for us we have a pin up .

Where we have like pdfs right instead of actually physically pinning up boards uh but yes in theory okay gotcha i presume that's all the same isn't it well yeah yeah the pin-ups are definitely the same here um but we don't we never have our portfolios reviewed because you said by professionals right .

Like actually in the field yeah so well it's really nice the portfolio assessment team is within house within the university but certainly for the external review we have professional architecture invited in to come and review our work and then they discuss it with us which is great that's inviting okay yeah no that sounds great um it's .

The same same kind of structure in the united states it's about like you said 80 studio and then i'm taking history and theory structures construction and visual representations which i think is the one class that you have environmental .

Sustainability class instead how's the sustainability part to that class yeah it's really interesting i was surprised that we are informed about it rather than told you know we're not we're not told that you need to build in this way it's interesting actually in our cohorts there are a lot .

Of active voices about sustainability that are really loud and there's a lot of conversation about it i don't know if that's the same with you definitely our generation of architects who are emerging we're definitely very well aware of the crises we're in .

But also it is our building design you know in 10 years down the line that like plays such a big factor in you know the carbon footprint we're leaving then yeah absolutely um and that's really great to hear actually clearly a similarity therefore between the u.s and the uk is .

Environmental awarenes
s and students love to see it yeah that's great thank you so much for joining me natalie it's been great having you here on the channel thank you for having me if you haven't seen natalie's youtube go and check out unraveling architecture for sure .

She's got loads and loads of great videos about all things architecture related thank you so much for watching and have a great day