Architect — a protected title, not a protected function

A verification engine must encode a distinction that stale articles get wrong: architecture is a protected title, not a protected function. The word “architect” is protected under s.20 of the Architects Act 1997 — using it in practice or business without ARB registration is a criminal offence — but the act of designing a building is not reserved to architects (unlike, say, prescribing for a doctor). Established carve-outs exist for compound titles such as “naval architect”, “landscape architect” and “golf-course architect”. Two adjacent roles are not the protected title: an architectural assistant (a Part 1 or Part 2 working pre-registration) is not yet legally an “architect”, and an architectural technologist is a different profession entirely (regulated through CIAT, not ARB) — a verification surface must avoid mis-mapping either onto the protected title.