CLIENTS PERCEPTIONS ABOUT THE SYNERGY BETWEEN ARCHITECTS AND ALLIED PROFESSIONALS IN THE NIGERIAN BUILT ENVIRONMENT

Enwerekowe, Ebelechukwu Obianuju, and Abioye, Femi Jonathan

Department of Architecture, University of Jos

Plateau state, Nigeria.

Email: e_ebele12@yahoo.com

ABSTRACT

The ‘Prime Consultant’ describes the leader of a team of professionals in the construction industry. Recently, this term has been removed from the architect who traditionally was the de-facto head of the building team, and loosely used to describe any allied building professional assigned by the client to oversee building activity. This paper examines the effect of client perceptions of this increasingly shared role by the architect and the other allied building professionals on building practice satisfaction and the wider implication of relevance of the modern day architect. A mixed-method study of the prescribed duties of the architect and increasing client discontent with architectural practice in Nigeria show architects had a 66.1% approval rating while allied professionals had 67.3% approval rating. Collaborative services of architects and other allied professionals were more highly rated at 90.3%. The study also showed that client discontent with delivery of architectural services centred largely on tardiness and exorbitant architects’ professional fees for which most allied professionals took “much less” to do the same job. The study recommends: 1) the integration of technology, finances and ethnography as standard skill sets for the modern architect to successfully execute a project as the Prime Consultant to the satisfaction of the client; 2) Nigerian architects should not sacrifice competence for remuneration and 3) echoes the plea to legislative bodies, stakeholders and clients to protect the constitutional role of the architect as the “Master Builder”.

Keywords: Architect, Allied Professionals, Prime Consultant, Client Perception