Leaders of existing professional structures were invited to discuss the principles of forming the Architectural Chamber: the Unions of Architects of Russia and Moscow, the Moscow Architectural Society, as well as self-regulatory organizations in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Nizhny Novgorod. Pavel Andreev, deputy chairman of the coordinating council and moderator of the round table, stressed that such a meeting confirms the absence of confrontation between professional organizations in the field of design.
According to him, the need to create a body capable of uniting the architectural workshop and securing the future of the profession has long ripened. As you know, at the beginning of 2010, licensing was replaced by self-regulation. The law "On self-regulatory organizations" (Federal Law No. 315) was adopted, which outlined the provisions, procedure and rules for project activities. State powers in the field of self-regulation were transferred to the Ministry of Regional Development of Russia and Rostekhnadzor. But despite this, the conditions for the normal functioning of the SRO are still a big question.
The situation has become more complicated in connection with the upcoming accession of Russia to the WTO. By the way, the discussion of the ratification of the package of documents on accession to the WTO in the Duma took place simultaneously with the round table at the 2nd Brest. And apparently this is not an accident. The fact is that the model of self-regulation of project activities does not correlate in any way with the norms and rules of the WTO, where such associations include not legal entities, but individuals.
According to Andrei Bokov, “… Russia remains the only country in the world where the absurd system of self-regulation of legal entities without appropriate qualifications of individuals is still upheld. There is nothing like this either in Gabon or Honduras. " Against this background, according to the "founding fathers" of the National Architectural Chamber, its main task should be to highlight the personality of the architect as an ideological and creative leader.
In addition, the Chamber should undertake the mission of forming national and regional standards for the professional activity of an architect, streamlining the system of certification and advanced training.
As for the Standard, to date, an initiative group led by Vladlen Lyavdansky, President of the NP SAI of St. Petersburg and Vice-President of SA S. Pb, based on the recommendations of the International Union of Architects, has already developed a draft Standard for the professional activity of an architect.
“This is the basic document, the constitution of our profession. Without it, from a legal point of view, we do not exist for our Western colleagues,”stressed Vladlen Lyavdansky.
He also noted that in the global system of certification of professionals, the Chamber as a structure is not an end in itself, it acts as a physical carrier of professional standards. In his opinion, many Chambers cannot be created, it must be single and unitary.
According to the President of the SAR, Andrey Bokov, the primary task in the creation of the Chamber is to establish strong ties with the Union of Architects and the National Association of Designers (NOP).
The ideal of the relationship between the Chamber and the Union of Architects, in his opinion, should be the structure of an American institution. It is the Union, as the main generator of ideas and proposals, and as an organization covering the entire territory of the Russian Federation, that could become the basic platform for the Architectural Chamber, capable of further implementing these ideas in practice.
Therefore, back in May, the CAP decided to become the founder of the Architectural Chamber and created a working group for this. At the current round table, it was decided to borrow the brand of the Union for the new organization. Thus, the name was preliminarily assigned to the Chamber: "Union of Architects of Russia (Architectural Chamber)".
The scheme of interaction between the Chamber and the NOP, according to the President of the SAR, should be built according to two main vectors: first, the qualification of individuals should be mandatory, and a register and a provision on a single mention of one specialist in any organization should be prepared. Second, Rostekhnadzor or NOP should be endowed with special rights related to the tightening of administrative control.
In addition, in parallel with the organization of the Architectural Chamber, Andrey Bokov proposes to create Chambers of Designers, Engineers, and Designers. By competently building connections within the professional community and within the framework of Russian legislation, it is possible to achieve systematization of self-regulation and its competent functioning.
Continuing the discussion, Dmitry Alexandrov outlined several main aspects arising in connection with Russia's accession to the WTO and its formal requirements. He especially highlighted the need to amend the professional liability insurance system.
In Anglo-Saxon practice, there are five areas of responsibility: from the lowest (interior design) to the highest (design of unique objects of increased technical complexity). Architects are divided into specific professional strata. The qualification confirmation procedure is carried out only once in a lifetime.
On Russian soil, according to Dmitry Alexandrov, if such a scheme works, it will only be subject to major amendments to the current legislation.
The participants of the round table moved from theoretical proposals to practical ones. Sergey Melnichenko, secretary of the working group on the creation of the Architectural Chamber, told the audience about the progress of organizational and preparatory work. The charter, register and standard of professional activity of the architect were presented to the attention of the participants.
At this stage of development, the Charter of the Chamber is focused on the model of a parliamentary republic, when the organization is headed not by one person, but by an assembly of professionals. According to the charter, the President of the Chamber will be elected every two years, and re-elections are possible only after 4 years after the expiration of the presidential term.
As for the preparation of the register, it is proposed to select candidates according to the principle adopted back in the CPSU, i.e. based on the recommendations of the current members of the register.
Summarizing everything that was said at the round table, Pavel Andreev asked the question: is the architectural community ready today to create the Chamber? Taking into account the limiting Federal Law No. 315 in all areas and endless administrative and bureaucratic obstacles, the answer to this question remains unclear. The formal requirements of the law do not allow automatically re-registering the Union into the Chamber by correcting its charter. So all the participants in the roundtable agreed that it would be extremely difficult to achieve success without changes in Russian legislation.