A council architect or municipal architect (properly titled county architect, borough architect, city architect or district architect) is an architect employed by a

local authority Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of governance or public administration within a particular sovereign state. Local governments typically constitute a subdivision of a higher-level political or administrative unit, such a ...

. The name of the position varies depending on the type of local authority and is similar to that of county surveyor or

chief engineer A chief engineer, commonly referred to as "Chief" or "ChEng", is the most senior licensed mariner (engine officer) of an engine department on a ship, typically a merchant ship, and holds overall leadership and the responsibility of that departmen ...

used by some authorities. Council architects are employed in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

but also used in

Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...

and

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

History

The role was once widespread with many counties, cities and other local authorities employing their own architect to design

public works Public works are a broad category of infrastructure projects, financed and procured by a government body for recreational, employment, and health and safety uses in the greater community. They include public buildings ( municipal buildings, ...

. Council architects acted as designer, client and regulator for their authority, and having significant buying power, they were able to influence suppliers to accommodate their requirements. They worked closely with the council planning department, with whom they were often co-located. In 1953, the

London County Council The London County Council (LCC) was the principal local government body for the County of London throughout its existence from 1889 to 1965, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today ...

(LCC) employed more than 1,500 people within its architects department. The LCC architects were key innovators, with the guaranteed salary and relative anonymity allowing them to develop experimental designs without risk to income or the stigma of failure. The LCC architects department also provided research funding, including for the

Survey of London The Survey of London is a research project to produce a comprehensive architectural survey of central London and its suburbs, or the area formerly administered by the London County Council. It was founded in 1894 by Charles Robert Ashbee, an A ...

, and had in-house testing and development teams. The smaller scale firms in private practice at the time could not provide such luxuries.

Current role

The trend in recent decades has been for councils to close their architects departments. As of 2015, there were 237 council architects in England, 159 in Scotland and 24 in Wales. The biggest employers are Hampshire (44), Glasgow (18), the

Highland Council The Highland Council (' ) is the local authority for Highland, one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. The council is based at the Highland Council Headquarters in Inverness. History The Highland area had been created as an administrative a ...

(13) and Lancashire (11). Despite their predecessors having one of the largest and most active architects departments in the country, no London borough now employs more than five council architects. Once closed, a local authority is highly unlikely to revive an architects department and will instead rely on outsourcing to private firms. One exception is the London Borough of Croydon, which re-established a council architect position in 2015. Hampshire County Architects remains the largest council architects department, and is recognized as a leader in its field, winning several awards for its school designs since the 1980s.

References

{{reflist Architecture occupations Government occupations