Professional Practice, Ethics, and Wellbeing

# Chapter 5: Professional Practice, Ethics, and Wellbeing  Professional ethics in Victorian architecture extends well beyond ticking compliance boxes. You're entering a profession grappling with documented wellbeing challenges whilst navigating evolving ethical obligations around climate action and public safety. ## **Registration versus Membership: Understanding the Distinction** ARBV registration gives you the legal right to call yourself an architect, it's mandatory and ensures you meet minimum competency standards for public protection. Think of it as your professional licence. By contrast, Australian Institute of Architects (AIA) membership is voluntary, signalling your commitment to ongoing excellence and connecting you to professional development, advocacy, and community. Neither currently addresses the profession's fundamental challenge: sustaining the humans doing the work. Importantly the Union of Architectural Workers (UAW) is the Union for architects in Australia, this union has the legal right to not only advocate for your rights in the workplace but also is the only organisation that must legally be consulted when changes are proposed to the Architects Award which sets out minimum rights of architects, including payment rates, annual leave and 'better off overall' requirements. Employers have a legal and ethical responsibility to their employees. ## **The Wellbeing Reality Check** Let's be frank about what you're walking into. The 2021 "Wellbeing of Architects" survey of over 2,000 practitioners revealed architects score 70.0 on quality of life measures compared to 76.5 for the general population, we're worse off on every single wellbeing metric. While claims about "twice the rate" of anxiety and depression are hard to verif, the data shows significantly elevated psychological distress and burnout across the profession. The Architects Award technically limits your week to 38 hours, with overtime paid at 1.5 times your rate. Reality? Australia has among the worst unpaid overtime in the developed world, and architecture's culture particularly expects 12-hour days and weekend work as standard "commitment." This hits women and carers hardest, effectively excluding them from career progression. It is important that you not only refuse unpaid overtime, but you advocate for those who are likely to be the most exploited; in particular this applies to students, graduates, women and disproprtionality those of diverse backgrounds or BIPOC. Further to this, paying below the award rate is illegal as are 'unpaid' internships. It's improtant to remember that architecture is a profession not a passion project, and you are entitled to payment for your time and labour. ## **New Mental Health Regulations: December 2025** Victoria's new Occupational Health and Safety (Psychological Health) Regulations commence December 1, 2025, applying to all employers regardless of size. These regulations treat psychological hazards (bullying, harassment, violence, trauma exposure) with the same seriousness as physical risks. Your employer must identify and control these hazards, though specific wellbeing policies aren't mandated, instead, prevention plans are encouraged through compliance codes. There are strong legal ramifications for employers who break these laws, and you have the legal right to not only involve the ARBV, but also Fairwork and the Union for Architectural Workers. ## **Professional Conduct: The Written Rules** Since July 2015, you legally cannot provide architectural services without a written agreement containing 14 specific elements. This isn't bureaucracy, it's protection for both you and your clients to prevent exploitation, fit for purpose services and prompt payment. Your agreement must specify who's responsible (including their registration number), what you're doing, when it'll happen, how much it costs, and critically, how either party can exit if things go wrong. Document retention catches many graduates off-guard. You must keep project documents for a minimum 10 years after completing services or the Building Act limitation period, whichever's longer. With recent cladding-related extensions, this can stretch to 15 years for specific circumstances. Your professional indemnity insurer will expect this documentation if claims arise years later. ## **Defect Reporting: Navigating Ethical Tensions** Here's where ethics gets complex. The Victorian Architects Code requires maintaining client confidentiality except where disclosure is legally required or client-authorised. You don't have a general mandatory duty to report defects to authorities under architect-specific regulations, but you're walking a tightrope between client loyalty and public safety. When you spot serious safety issues, document everything and seek senior guidance, this isn't territory for solo decision-making, and you do not need to blindly follow the instructions of clients or stakeholders where they place you or the public at risk. ## **Climate Action: The Emerging Imperative** The 2021 National Standard of Competency (implemented January 2024\) now mandates sustainability competencies including First Nations engagement, life cycle assessment, and whole life carbon understanding. Yet Victorian's Code of Professional Conduct remains silent on specific climate obligations beyond general legal compliance. This gap matters, ARBV's 2022 Systemic Risks Report identified potential liability if you can't adequately explain sustainable design implications or lack green architecture expertise. International frameworks are moving faster. RIBA's 2030 Climate Challenge mandates 75% operational energy reductions, whilst the AIA made sustainable design an ethical imperative in 2018. With Victoria targeting net-zero by 2045 and the building sector pushing for 2030, expect regulatory catch-up soon. Graduates are uniquely positioned to be at the forefront of the shift to culturally and ecologically respectful design. In many cases this may mean educating existing practicing architects who have little experience or training in these areas. ## **Moving Beyond Individual Resilience** True cultural change requires systemic reform, not just telling graduates to be "resilient." The May 2025 replacement of the Architects Regulations presents an opportunity to embed wellbeing considerations into professional frameworks. Meanwhile, protect yourself: establish boundaries early, document your hours (even unpaid ones), and remember that sustainable practice means sustaining yourself too.  **Key Terms:** - **ARBV**: Architects Registration Board of Victoria, the statutory body that registers and regulates architects under the Architects Act 1991 - **UAW**: The union that protects architects including landscape architects, membership is tax-deductible and gives you protection from exploitation. The stronger the union, the better the conditions for working architects will become. A rising tide lifts all ships. - **Psychological hazards**: Workplace factors causing psychological harm, including bullying, harassment, violence, and trauma exposure, treated equally to physical hazards from December 2025 - **Written agreement requirements**: Mandatory 14-element contracts required since July 2015 for all architectural services, including scope, fees, timeframes, and termination provisions - **10-year retention**: Minimum document retention period after service completion, extendable to match Building Act limitation periods (potentially 15 years for cladding matters) - **NSCA**: National Standard of Competency for Architects, defines required competencies including mandatory sustainability knowledge since January 2024 - **Systemic risks**: Sector-wide vulnerabilities identified by ARBV including climate transition, mental health, and professional liability exposure I'll search for more specific information about fee structures for early career architects to make this section more relevant and practical for graduates.Now I'll create a much improved version that's more practical and relevant for Victorian graduates: