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<\/p>\nThe president of the Royal Institute of British Architects has voluntarily surrendered his legal right to use the title \u201carchitect\u201d in protest at a lack of regulation that he warns has created a \u201csevere risk\u201d to public safety.<\/p>\n
Chris Williamson, 69, designed the Elizabeth Line stations at Paddington and Woolwich in London as well as numerous other transport projects in the capital.<\/p>\n
He will not renew his \u00a3225 registration with the Architects Registration Board which gives him the right to use the title \u201carchitect\u201d. Williamson, who qualified in 1981, will no longer legally be able to call himself a registered architect.<\/p>\n
It will be the first time since the Second World War that Riba has been led by someone who cannot legally describe themselves as an architect.<\/p>\n
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Chris Williamson, 69, designed the Elizabeth Line station at Paddington<\/p>\n
CHRIS RATCLIFFE\/BLOOMBERG\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n
Williamson, who started a two-year stint as Riba president in September, has taken the decision to protest at the fact that while there is legal regulation over the use of the title of architect, there are no rules governing who can work as or perform the function of an architect.<\/p>\n
He said not all parts of the job should be regulated but that there needed to be regulation over who could submit full planning applications, building control applications and final compliance certificates.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cIn this particular case, as there are with doctors and dentists and vets, there are certain things you have to regulate. There are severe risks of public safety and the design of our built environment<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n He said regulation should not be about the protection of a title. \u201cToday, the most pressing architectural decisions \u2014 the climate emergency<\/a>, relentless urbanisation, designing homes, workplace, healthcare, education, and critical infrastructure, co-ordinating fire and life-safety strategies, resolving complex technical details \u2014 can and are being legally made by people with no regulated training, no clear accountability and no professional duty of care. This is where regulation matters most.<\/p>\n \u201cRegulating function would ensure that those entrusted with these responsibilities are properly qualified, insured and bound by clear ethical and professional standards.\u201d<\/p>\n Williamson said he was \u201cnot protectionist\u201d and that it was not \u201cabout guarding a profession for its own sake\u201d, but \u201cit is about acknowledging that architecture carries real social, environmental and safety consequences<\/a> \u2014 and the public deserves to be protected accordingly\u201d.<\/p>\n It takes seven years\u2019 study to qualify as an architect. \u201cThere\u2019s a reason we train for so long,\u201d he said. \u201cI think having a protection or regulation of the function and what you are allowed to do is important.\u201d<\/p>\n Paddington\u2019s Elizabeth Line station<\/p>\n CHRIS RATCLIFFE\/BLOOMBERG\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n Williamson said he felt able at this stage of his career to make such a protest, adding that someone operating a \u201cone-man practice\u201d would be unable to afford it. \u201cI need to act on their behalf,\u201d he said, adding that he made his decision after handing out hundreds of qualification certificates to young architects last week.<\/p>\n![\"Paddington](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/\/8eb8555f-6bd2-422f-9c2d-c91d95b808da.jpg\")
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