ARCHITECTURAL PRACTICE EXAMINATION (NATIONAL EXAMINATION PAPER)

Transcription

1 SAMPLE PAPER Architects Accreditation Council of Australia ARCHITECTURAL PRACTICE EXAMINATION (NATIONAL EXAMINATION PAPER) Time allowed: 1 hour (plus 10 minutes extra reading time) Instructions to Candidates This is a closed book examination. NB: The following will not be permitted in the examination room: Reference material, practice notes, building contracts, handwritten notes and any other printed or written material; laptop computers, mobile phones and other electronic equipment. Read the following scenarios and select by marking with a tick in the box ALL statements you consider to be CORRECT. NOTE: In each group of scenarios, one or more than one of the statements may be correct. Marking:. The paper will be marked by template.. If you wish to correct an answer you must do so in the answer box.. White-out will be available in the examination room. The following marking scale applies:. Correct statement selected 2 marks. Incorrect statement selected minus 1 mark. Correct statement missed zero mark 60% is required to pass the National Examination Paper.

2 Candidate s Name Scenario 1 You have recently opened an architectural office which is gradually attracting work of increasing size. Some years ago, as a student you designed alterations and additions to a house. You maintained contact with that client who is now CEO of an IT company. He telephones you and offers you the commission to design his Company s new headquarters. A budget of $2.5 million is discussed and you estimate that a fee of 7% will apply. This is immediately confirmed and accepted by and you are requested to get the job underway immediately. You intended to send an Architect/Client agreement but such is the enthusiasm of your client that the formalities are passed by. Similarly, when the engagement of a structural engineer is canvassed your proposal to engage your usual engineer is readily accepted and you are authorised by to engage the engineer, which you do. The engineer provides an ACEA Engineer/Client agreement which you sign and return. Included in that agreement are two limitations on the engineer s liability for claims. There is a $300, upper limit on liability for any claim and a one year time limit after completion of the service to be provided by the engineer. You hold Professional Indemnity Insurance limited to $1 million per claim. 1. You have no contract with the client because of the absence of a formal signed agreement. 2. If the engineer made a design error resulting in a financial loss to the building owner in excess of $300,000.00, you would not be liable unless you had changed the engineer s design. 3. If the engineer made a design error, which resulted in a $500, financial loss to the building owner, you would be potentially liable for $200, In the above circumstance you may be liable for the full amount of the loss. 5. If a visitor to the building made a $5 million claim, having sustained serious injuries and mental trauma as a result of the collapse of part of the façade due to a shear failure of the supporting façade steelwork, the engineer would be protected by the one year limitation on liability in his/her fee agreement.

3 Scenario 2 You have designed and documented a house. Your fee claims over the last four months of the design/documentation period have been based on an agreed budget, which is set out in absolute terms in the Client Architect Agreement signed by you and your client. Six tenders were received the lowest of which is 50% higher than the construction budget. There is no prospect of a reduction in project quality or the size of the project in order to bring it within the budget. 1. Professional Indemnity Insurance policies do not cover architects for budget over runs. 2. You may be required to forfeit all or part of your fee for this work. 3. Your client has an action in damages for negligent misstatement or deceptive and misleading conduct in contravention with S52(1) of the Trade Practices Act. 4. Your client has no action because it was he who set the budget. 5. You should notify your Professional Indemnity Insurer of the possibility of and circumstances giving rise, to a future claim in accordance with the terms of your policy.

4 Scenario 3 You have designed a small house on a difficult site with highly reactive foundation conditions. It is a condition of your specification that the builder give 48 hours notice prior to pouring concrete. A slab at ground level has been prepared and poured without your knowledge. After consideration of the available information, you reject the possibility of opening up part of the slab because of the likely sub-surface consequences and you issue instructions for the builder to demolish the slab and pour a new one in accordance with the specification. The builder has referred your instruction to your client on the basis that the decision is unfair, will delay the progress of the works and will add a variation for which the proprietor will be responsible. Your client overrules your decision and tells the builder to proceed with the works. Assume that there is no issue of contract interpretation in the following answers. 1. The client has authority as the principal in your agency agreement to overrule your decision. 2. In the event that the builder complied with your instruction and the slab was found to have been properly constructed the builder would have a valid claim for a contract variation. 3. Irrespective of the outcome of the demolition the builder has a valid claim for a variation. 4. If there was a valid variation under the circumstances outlined above the builder would also have a valid claim for an extension of time and costs associated with the time extension. 5. If there was a valid claim for a variation and costs you could be called upon to meet the claim due to your negligence in wrongly instructing the builder.

5 Scenario 4 You are asked by a client to provide complete architectural services for a new car showroom. At the request of the client you engage a structural engineer who agrees, in a telephone conversation with you, to provide the necessary structural design services for a fee payable by the client, direct to the engineer, on your authorisation. 1. You are not responsible to the client for the engineer s design, as you did not produce the structural design. 2. You are not responsible to the client for the engineer s design unless you were negligent in selecting the engineer. 3. If the engineer were to make a structural design error, resulting in financial loss to the client, the engineer would not be liable, as the client and the engineer have no contract. 4. If the engineer were to make a structural design error resulting in financial loss to the client, the engineer would be potentially liable to the client on the basis that the client was aware of the engineer s appointment and relied on the engineer to provide a reasonably competent structural engineering service. 5. The client owns the copyright in the design of the showroom because the client commissioned you to undertake the design. 6. The client has an implied licence to build the showroom on the site for which it was designed. 7. The client has no licence to build the showroom on the site for which it was designed because you have no written agreement with the client.

6 Scenario 5 You have designed an apartment building with subterranean car parking and storage areas. You are now administering the building contract. After the proprietor has made the first progress payment in accordance with your certificate, work on the site is delayed by three days of rain which floods the entire basement area. It takes a further five days for the water to drain away. The rain and flooding has prevented all work from continuing on the site. The builder lodges a claim for an extension of time for eight working days plus costs. In considering the claim you form the view that the builder has not taken sufficient steps to drain the site. In your view, had he done so, work could have been recommenced earlier than it did. 1. You should allow the whole of the builder s claim including delay costs. 2. You should allow the whole of the time claimed, but no costs for delay. 3. You should reject the entire claim. 4. You should allow a three day extension of time for the wet weather, plus part of the five days claimed for the effects of the site flooding.

7 Scenario 6 Construction has commenced on a project which you have redesigned several times. The builder has provided your client with two bank guarantees in lieu of having retention deducted from his progress claims. 1. In situations where a bank guarantee is provided in lieu of a retention sum no GST will be applicable to the retention. 2. Retention sums in any form do not attract GST. 3. The builder s assessment of the cost of the work completed must include any GST that is included in the prices the builder has received from his subcontractors and suppliers. 4. In the event that it becomes necessary to draw down all or part of the retention to pay for work rectified by another contractor because the builder refused to do it, GST will be payable when the funds are spent. 5. GST is applicable to the sum drawn down.

8 Scenario 7 Your company has been approached to undertake the design and administration of a major refurbishment of a recent significant building regarded by many members of the profession and the wider community as a modern classic. The original architect has not been approached to undertake this work. The client sees elements of the original building design as a commercial problem and is seeking a fresh approach to the refurbishment. Your company has recently received a number of architectural awards for buildings constructed predominantly of glass. It is this aesthetic that has attracted the owner of the building, the subject of this commission to contact you. It is expected that you will change the nature of the building to reflect the new minimalist aesthetic. Although you have some reservations about this approach the commission is the highpoint of your architectural career and will secure your company s financial viability for years to come. 1. You must decline the commission. 2. You should accept the commission without reservation. 3. You should advise the client about recent changes to the Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act Under the Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000 you are legally bound to contact the original architect and advise him/her of your appointment to refurbish the building and invite his/her comment on your initial design concept.