Landscape architect competency profile

The IFLA has produced the following competency profiles and states that landscape architecture is an interdisciplinary field that comprises several major components: humanities, social and natural sciences, technology and the creative arts.
Landscape architectural education involves the acquisition of knowledge within the following broad areas:

1. History of cultural form and an understanding of design as a social art
2. Cultural and natural systems
3. Plant material and horticultural applications
4. Site engineering including materials, methods, technologies, construction documentation and administration, and applications
5. Theory and methodologies in design and planning
6. Landscape design, management, planning and science at all scales and applications
7. Information technology and computer applications
8. Public policy and regulation
9. Communications and public facilitation
10. Ethics and values related to the profession

The following key knowledge areas are therefore prominent:

1. Technical design knowledge (1, 2,3,4,5,6)
2. Business effectiveness skills (7)
3. Inter-personal effectiveness skills (9)
4. Socio-economic responsiveness/social responsibility (8,10)

Architect competency profile

The UNESCO/UIA charter for architectural education of 2005 (revised in 2006) has developed the following competency profiles:

1. an ability to create architectural designs that satisfy both aesthetic and technical requirements;
2. an adequate knowledge of the history and theories of architecture and the related arts, technologies and human sciences;

3. a knowledge of the fine arts as an influence on the quality of architectural design;
4. an adequate knowledge of urban design, planning and the skills involved in the planning process;
5. an understanding of the relationship between people and buildings, and between buildings and their environment, and of the need to relate buildings and the spaces between them to human needs and scale;
6. an understanding of the profession of architecture and the role of the architect in society, in particular in preparing briefs that take account of social factors;
7. an understanding of the methods of investigation and preparation of the brief for a design project;
8. an understanding of the structural design, constructional and engineering problems associated with building design;
9. an adequate knowledge of physical problems and technologies and of the function of buildings so as to provide them with internal conditions of comfort and protection against the climate;
10. the necessary design skills to meet building users requirements within the constraints imposed by cost factors and building regulations;
11. an adequate knowledge of the industries, organization, regulations and procedures involved in translating design concepts into buildings and integrating plans into overall planning.

The following key knowledge areas are therefore prominent:

1. Technical design knowledge (1, 2,3,4,8,9,10)
2. Socio-economic responsiveness/social responsibility (5,6,11)