Building designer vs architect: the short answer
Building designer vs architect is mostly a question of title and training rather than whether someone can design your home. In NSW, only a person on the NSW Register of Architects can call themselves an architect, and it is an offence to describe someone as an architect when they are not registered. Building designers and draftsmen design and document homes too, under their own titles.
Macarthur Drafting Services in Camden is a building design practice, not an architecture firm. It is led by proprietor and senior designer Rod McGrath, an Accredited Full Member of the Building Designers Association. This guide sets out what each role involves so you can decide who suits your project.
What makes someone an architect in NSW
The title “architect” is protected by the Architects Act 2003. According to the NSW Architects Registration Board, architects hold professional qualifications, have completed a period of practical experience in architecture, and have passed the Architectural Practice Examination or an approved alternative pathway.
Registered architects are bound by the NSW Architects Code of Professional Conduct 2017, must hold professional indemnity insurance suited to the services they provide, and must complete at least 20 hours of continuing professional development each year. A business can only describe itself as an architect if it has a nominated architect, who must be a director, member, partner or employee and is responsible for the business’s architectural services.
What a building designer does
A building designer designs homes and prepares the documentation needed to get them approved and built. Building designers are not registered under the Architects Act, so their professional accreditation is the credential to ask about. Rod’s accreditation with the Building Designers Association means our designs align with the latest industry standards and environmentally responsible practices.
NSW planning rules recognise that accreditation. The Low Rise Housing Diversity Code, which covers dual occupancies, manor houses and terraces approved as complying development, requires a design verification statement prepared by either a registered architect or a building designer accredited with the Building Designers Association of Australia.
Over more than 25 years we have delivered over 5000 projects across Camden, Macarthur and Greater Sydney. We design new residential homes both small and large, including custom new home designs drawn for your block, along with granny flats and dual occupancies, and we specialise in renovations and extensions.
What does a draftsman do?
A draftsman, or draftsperson, prepares the drawings a project is approved and built from. At Macarthur Drafting Services the drafting is part of the design work rather than a separate stage, and you can see it in how our design process works.
We start with site surveys and a review of council requirements and site constraints. From there we design a sketch plan, prepare computer-drafted plans and review them with you, then develop a final sketch plan with elevations and a site plan, at the stage where your builder can give you a budget. The last step is the DA or CDC documentation: finalised plans, the BASIX energy rating, and input from planners, engineers, bushfire, wastewater or other consultants where your application needs them.
Which one do you need?
Both registered architects and accredited building designers design homes in NSW, and the planning rules for low rise housing name both. Whichever you choose, a few questions sort out most of the decision:
- Is the credential real? Search the NSW Register of Architects for an architect, or ask a building designer which professional body accredits them.
- Have they designed projects like yours, on blocks like yours?
- Who prepares the approval documents, coordinates the consultants and lodges the application?
- Can builders quote from the plans? Drawings developed to that stage let you compare quotes like for like.
If your project comes with a set of rules attached, such as granny flat plans drawn to the complying development standards, also ask how the designer will check your block against those rules before the design starts.
Want to talk to a building designer about your project? Call (02) 4655 1390 or get in touch through our contact page for a no-obligation chat.
