I passed! I passed!

[Sunspace]

@twickster

It’s always cool to see someone going after what they really want.

Well, hey, you were one of the ones who inspired me!

[brendon_small]

Congrats!

Brendon

[Morgyn]

Congratulations!

I expect there’s going to be a small explosion in Earthships in Ontario, eh?

[twickster]

@Sunspace

Well, hey, you were one of the ones who inspired me!

blush

[Hodge]

@Sunspace

Thanks, everyone! Hodge, I plan to write the Small Buildings exam. I’ve already had the Small Buildings course, but in the process discovered that it only covered the areas that the House course didn’t, as far as the exam was concerned. I was hoping that it would include the House material, as the exam does.

That’s cool. I mentioned it because I know a house designer in St. Catharines who only bothered getting houses and she immediately regretted not having the option of doing other small structures. Personally, I’ve flirted with the idea of writing Large Buildings but Part 3 of the OBC is positively byzantine. I don’t know if I have the time or energy to make a proper run at it.

Pygmy Rugger, no, this is nowhere close to a P.Eng qualification. The exams only cover knowledge of the building code, and are aimed at building officials, people who have worked in construction and gained practical experience, and so on. The architects and engineers have their own qualifications.

To pick nits, anybody who gets involved in the building permit process must pass these Building Code exams. This includes building officials, designers, draftsman and yes, even architects and engineers have to write them. The only people who are exempt are property owners making their own permit applications. This is a HUGE loophole and an open invitation to copyright violations on a massive scale.

These new requirements have been the cause of much wailing and gnashing of teeth among the engineers and architects I work with and I’ve endured endless tirades on the subject. This is a serious issue for them in that it causes confusion amongst their clients and potentially undermines their professional credentials. Afterall, they’re already licenced by their own professional bodies and yet they’re still being made to study for and write exams on subjects in which they’re already qualified by virtue of several years worth of schooling, professional examinations, fees and internships. The Professional Engineers of Ontario and (I think) the Ontario Association of Architects are suing the province over this issue.

The upside of all of this added red tape is that it has weeded out a fair number of fly-by-nighters who had no business preparing drawings. Now customers can be assured that, at the very least, designers will have the requisite code knowledge and that their qualifications can be checked online at the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing.

[Sunspace]

@Hodge

To pick nits, anybody who gets involved in the building permit process must pass these Building Code exams. This includes building officials, designers, draftsman and yes, even architects and engineers have to write them. The only people who are exempt are property owners making their own permit applications. This is a HUGE loophole and an open invitation to copyright violations on a massive scale.

Yes, that’s clearer. The architects already have the knowledge; they don’t need to take the technical courses. They just need to be recognised under the new process… AFAIK, the architects have come to an agreement with the Province and have their own registration. In the Code, section 2.17.2.1 states that “designers” have to have the qualifications set out in Sentence 2.17.4.1 (1) (i.e. be registered and have liability insurance and pay fees, or fall into one of the exceptions) unless they have Certificate of Practice or a Temporary Licence under the Architects Act.

@Hodge

These new requirements have been the cause of much wailing and gnashing of teeth among the engineers and architects I work with and I’ve endured endless tirades on the subject. This is a serious issue for them in that it causes confusion amongst their clients and potentially undermines their professional credentials. Afterall, they’re already licenced by their own professional bodies and yet they’re still being made to study for and write exams on subjects in which they’re already qualified by virtue of several years worth of schooling, professional examinations, fees and internships. The Professional Engineers of Ontario and (I think) the Ontario Association of Architects are suing the province over this issue.

The engineers are suing. I can see where both groups are coming from, though. All of a sudden you have these other “designers” popping up that haven’t gone through their learning process.

The Ministry exams are supposed to imply at least a minimum knowledge of the Building Code, and the Building Code itself is supposed to have been put together well enough that the buildings it specifies are existence-worthy, won’t fall down, etc. But everything I’ve seen about this whole thing stresses that designers already have to know what they’re doing.

As I said before, I think the process is designed to let people who have learned on the job, and don’t have formal qualification, to demonstrate their worthiness. I can’t see the non-architectural non-engineer designers doing projects larger than small buildings.

@Hodge

The upside of all of this added red tape is that it has weeded out a fair number of fly-by-nighters who had no business preparing drawings. Now customers can be assured that, at the very least, designers will have the requisite code knowledge and that their qualifications can be checked online at the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing.

I’ve seen plans that were damn near unbuildable: the builder, working from his experience of framing, immediately threw up his hands and said, “I can’t build that. It is unsafe and will fall down.” Their designer was registered and insured under the Code. I heard later that the designer said certain calculations were impossible, which I was doing in first year at architecture school. If that’s the kind of competition I’m going to have, my success is assured.

[Sunspace]

@Morgyn

Congratulations!

I expect there’s going to be a small explosion in Earthships in Ontario, eh?

I hope not. i mean, explosions are so messy.

Market research in the next couple of months will, I hope, indicate that people want them.

And I won’t be calling them “Earthships”. That is a registered trademark of Michael Reynolds, the original designer, back in the States. It’s not registered here, but I’m keeping clear just in case.