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Challenge of the New World order

The Sri Lanka Institute of Architects

The implications of trade liberalisation on the practice of architecture in Sri Lanka

This issue concentrates on the above subject area. In order to commence a debate, we are publishing extracts of the presentations made by the participants at the recently held CPD event which proved to be highly appreciated by the membership. The subject area is dealt under seven heads as follows.

Opening of the Services Sector to foreign persons & organisations, Existing situation in Sri Lanka, The situation in other countries, Objectives of the WTO & GATS, Levels of Access, Implications on architectural consultancy services in Sri Lanka and Future Directions for the Profession and the Country.

Extracts from the presentation by Dr. H. N. Thenuwara, Central Bank

Opening of the Services Sector to foreign persons & organisations

Benefits of International Trade

One of the corner stones of theory of trade is the notion of comparative advantage developed by David Ricardo. Ricardo explained that even if a country is more efficient in producing all goods and services compared to any other country, specialization and producing only a subset of goods, and trade them with other countries will increase income in all countries. Thus, trade in goods and services could increase output of a country through specialization and comparative advantage.

Levels of Access - Modes of Supplying Services

Unlike a product, which is supplied using only the cross-border mode, a service can be supplied in four different ways.

Mode 1 - Cross-Border Supply - Services supplied from one country to another. In this mode, a foreign country would be interested if Sri Lanka allows its residents to purchase services originating in the foreign country. This mode of supplying services is similar to the supplying of goods across borders.

Mode 2 - Consumption Abroad - Consumers or firms in the home country making use of a service in a foreign country by visiting the foreign country. For example, Sri Lanka allows its residents to purchase services when they travel to a foreign country to enhance market access to Sri Lanka by foreign service suppliers.

Mode 3 - Commercial Presence - A foreign company setting up subsidiaries or branches to provide services in the home country. In this mode, Sri Lanka would allow foreign service suppliers to establish commercial enterprises in Sri Lanka.

Mode 4 - Presence of Natural Persons - Individuals travelling from their own country to supply services in another country. In this mode Sri Lanka would allow foreigners to travel to Sri Lanka and deliver various services to residents of Sri Lanka.

Future Directions for the Profession and the Country

Prospects of Liberalizing Services

Similar to the goods market, liberalizing services sector will have benefits accruing from both absolute and comparative advantage, enlarged size of the market and any benefits from economies of scale. Sri Lanka has already liberalized several major sectors and has opened them for competition. Enlarged services sector will enhance the standard of living and will also generate greater opportunities for employment.

Sri Lanka has fully liberalized the exchange restrictions in current account transactions. Hence there are no restrictions on payment for services, but there could be other regulatory restrictions to safeguard various social and economic aspects. Some areas of Sri Lanka's economy are now undergoing a severe shortage of high level human capital to develop these areas.

Examples are information technology and business administration. Thus, professional services via mode 4 are procured from overseas. On the other hand, Sri Lanka can benefit from its relatively low wage structure to attract service related investments. Liberalization will pave the way for such investment.

Extracts from the presentation by Prof. Rohan Samarajeeva

Objectives of the WTO & GATS Services: Rules for growth and investment The General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) is the first ever set of multilateral, legally-enforceable rules covering international trade in services. It was negotiated in the Uruguay Round.

Like the agreements on goods, GATS operates on three levels; (a). The main text containing general principles and obligations; (b). Annexes dealing with rules for specific sectors; (c). Individual countries' specific commitments to provide access to their markets. Unlike in goods, GATS has a fourth special elements: (d). Lists showing where countries are temporarily not applying the "most-favoured-nation" principle of non-discrimination.

These commitments - like tariff schedules under GATT - are an integral part of the agreement. So are the temporary withdrawals of Most-Favoured-Nation treatment. A WTO Council for Trade in Services oversees the operation of the agreement. Negotiations on commitment in four topics have taken place after the Uruguay Round. A full new services round started, as required in GATS, in 2000.

Most-Favoured-Nation (MFN) Treatment

Favour one, favour all. MFN means treating one's trading partners equally. Under GATS, if a country allows foreign competition in a sector, equal opportunities in that sector should be given to service providers from all other WTO members. (This applies even if the country has made no specific commitment to provide foreign companies access to its markets under the WTO). MFN applies to all services, but some special temporary exemptions have been allowed.

National Treatment

National treatment - equal treatment for foreigners and one's own nationals - is treated differently for services. For goods (GATT) and intellectual property (TRIPS) it is a general principle. In GATS it only applies where a country has made a specific commitment, and exemptions are allowed.

1. In the course of the Uruguay Round negotiations, the Secretariat had produced a note "Trade in Professional Services" in document MTN. GNS/W/67 of 25 August 1989.

This earlier note provided an overview of the various activities comprising professional services, described the forms of trade in those services, and discussed the objectives and the content of measures affecting such trade. Architectural and Engineering services were briefly discussed in the note, although the focus was on accountancy, legal services, management consulting and advertising. Delegations are invited to refer to this earlier note, which is now being re-circulated, as necessary.

2. Documents distributed in the Working Party on Professional Services are relevant to the architectural and engineering sub sectors. In the following, reference is only made to a small number of those documents, but Delegations are reminded that many of the questions raised and the information provided in the course of the work of this Working Party are very much relevant to discussions on these sub sectors.

It needs to be mentioned, however, that detailed country-specific information on trade volumes, regulatory regimes and trade restrictions could only be provided by Members. The Secretariat would greatly appreciate any comments or additional information from Members on these sub-sectors or on any related matters.

This item covers all types of architectural services except those classified below under urban planning and landscape.

Architectural Services, which are:

(i) Advisory and pre-design architectural services (86711), (ii) Architectural design services (86712), (iii) Contract administration services (86713), (iv) Combined architectural design and contract, administration services (86714), (v) Other architectural services (86719).

Implications of WTO & GATS on architectural consultancy services in Sri Lanka Over the years most foreign aided projects incorporate consultants and contractors from the donor country. Examples have been Mahaweli Project, various road development programs, superior court complex, BMICH etc.

In addition, many local clients or locally established international clients (Ex: Hotel chains) have insisted on foreign consultants and contractors being commissioned for their projects. The Board of Investment has no legal basis to insist foreign investors to utilise only local consultants. Political patronage plays a major role in permitting foreign consultants and contractors to gain a foothold on the local construction industry.

The situation in other countries

Generally, countries such as United Kingdom, Australia, Japan and the United States do not permit unrestrained practice by foreign professionals. For example, the UK will not permit even its foreign membership category to practice in that country without prior examinations and registrations in the ARCUK.

Archi-Quacks : The community must be warned

We reproduce this editorial from the SLIA Journal Vol. 101 No. 1 of August 1992, in reply to a letter sent to the Arch by a reader from Gampaha, who had fallen victim to a quack Architect.

The medical profession has had its fill of quacks. The Architectural Pond is now apparently ripe for the picking and the quacks have begun to move.

Soon we will have architects and engineers diagnosing and prescribing medicine and engineers (and doctors) prescribing architecture!

The quack is easy to pick. He solicits. He pleads. He tries to pull the legitimate down to have his fill. The organised professions prohibit its members from using such means to promote one's services.

Such methods are not permitted so that the burden of checking qualifications, evaluating performance and claims and counter claims, is not passed on to the patrons who have their own businesses to attend to. Instead, with the concurrence of the State, the respective Institutes of the Professions undertake this task and certify to its members' competence to discharge the services professed to. More importantly, these Institutes are geared to, and have the authority to weed out and punish those who stray from the high standards of conduct and performance specified.

In the case of the erring Institute member, the injured Patron does not need to rush to the cumbersome legal process of the land - a Complaint (in the case of an architect) to the Institute of Architects will set in motion a process of investigation and accounting which is as thorough and serious as any judicial process. With the non-member the public does not have this opportunity nor the Institute any jurisdiction. The Quack thus makes impressive claims and gets away with murder!

The Institute Member Architect, constrained by his Code of Conduct is prevented from countering these claims, thus protecting the name of his calling or the public. In this situation the Institute of Architects must take the matter to the public. They should launch an aggressive campaign on behalf of the individual member, who is constrained from acting on his own.

It is apparent that the Sri Lankan Public is not aware of the dangers of Quackery in Architecture. It is aware that just as one cannot sue a doctor for tuning your car badly, that it is not possible to seek legal redress when an archi-quack messes up a building project? Is the prospective builder aware that it is this prospect of legal action, as well as other corrective and preventive measures instituted by the Architects Institute that Guarantees a high level of care and performance?

Countering Quackery in Architecture should be a top priority undertaking of the SLIA and a worthy theme to pursue at the next Institute Sessions. It will not be sufficient to cry "FOUL" and sit back. The matter must be pursued with diligence if the Institute does not want individual members to take the matter into their own hands.

That the difference between an Institute Member and the Quack is the "Guarantee" that is implied in the services of the former is worthwhile highlighting. That he, unlike the Quack, cannot misperform and runaway must be emphasized. That the guarantee is to Perform and to Perform what may also have to be clarified.

That the guarantee is the Willingness to be held responsible for what will have to be explained. With an array of engineers, building economists, each responsible for many aspects of the Design and Construction of a Building, what responsibility is held and borne solely by the architect for which the above guarantee is given, must be clearly spelt out. These and other similar questions must be answered by the SLIA in language digestible by the Public.

The rationale for the Fee Structure and Design Costing Procedures must be explained. The so-called financial wizardry of the Archi-quacks, the deviousness and the risks taken, often at the cost of the clients, must be laid bare. If , as some claim, Overall Functional Performance of the building is the architects' specific responsibility should Brief Formulation be elevated to higher status in the Work Plan as well as in the legal documentation? What other similar changes are necessary? The SLIA should take the lead in generating such discussion.

If, in the process of this Campaign changes have to be made, our own houses have to be put in order, so be it. Perhaps the time has come to separate Men from the Boys!

The Institute must however prepare and warn the membership of the tightening necessary. We may have to redefine our specific role and divest ourselves of irrelevant responsibilities. But let us not pull our punches for fear of stirring a hornet's nest.

Vidura Sri Nammuni , Editor, SLA

Designing spaces and enabling places

by Dr. Ranjith Dayaratne, University of Moratuwa

Recent shifts in approaches to settlement planning within the support-based people-involved design practices have renewed the interest in the idea of 'sense of place' and 'placemaking'. These contrast with the designer-centred planning approaches which claim to bring about a 'close fit' between people and places even by 'bypassing' the people who really matter.

This renewed concern with the creation and preservation of 'places' reflect an attempt to provide opportunities and potentials in enabling the making of places meaningful to the dwellers, more than the designers themselves. This paper considers placemaking in the architectural practice: the degree to which a 'place' can be created in architectural design independently of the people who eventually use it. The concept of place involves the 'where' dimension of people's relationship to the physical environment conjuring up a feeling of 'belonging'.

The terms such as the 'Genius Loci', or the 'spirit of a place' signify this dimension as the Genius was the guardian spirit of a physical location.

The idea of place is a historical one and can be traced to the ancient philosophical writing of Aristotle. Despite numerous writing and interests on place which emerged within the field of architecture (Norberg Schultz, 1980; Aldo Van Eyck, 1985) human geography (Relph, 1976; Tuan, 1977) and psychology (Canter, 1977; Seamon, 1982) from time to time during the last two decades, the ideas of place have had little influence in the analysis and interpretation of the architectural design practice. (Notably however, a few designers have effectively employed such ideas in creating built-forms, which have become masterpieces for the architectural profession).

Nevertheless, it is becoming increasingly clear that a placed-based interpretation of architecture offers the most exciting potentials for making environments that fit the geographical context, satisfy the dwellers, and also provide a way forward for a meaningful architectural practice, in the contemporary context of supporting people and their processes.

The setting is a very familiar one. Increasingly, approaches to design of buildings and landscapes which concentrate exclusively on the physical properties have come under criticisms. A general unease about technological innovations in design and the destruction of existing landscapes and historical places has precipitated a growing literature concentrated primarily on the experience and meaning of places. Supporting people's own processes in housing has brought about a shift of approaches to housing, where there are unprecedented potentials for enabling meaningful places.

In the light of these situations, there has been a revival of the concept of place and its relevance to architectural practice. Given this context, it is appropriate to ask what place means and how placemaking may be enabled and to investigate the degree to which a place can be created through physical artefacts, by architects on behalf of people: the real users of places.

There is no doubt that architects are all aware of the activities of designing spaces, and consider this to be the main event in architectural design. Designing spaces is a process by which a given site, constituted of already defined spaces or otherwise is transformed and articulated in terms of recognisable and meaningful volumes of spaces required for specific purposes. Space in this sense is considered largely in terms of its geometric characteristics into which people and things could be envisaged, on the basis of a number of phenomena.

To begin with, the shapes, dimensions, patterns, interrelationship and rhythms etc. become central in these exercises. At the same time, spatial experience and anticipated human movements are predicted on the basis of known or imaginary information but mostly dependent on designers' own experiences, and intuitive feelings.

However, it is also commonly believed that the designers are likely to be seduced by the properties of geometric space in this process. The end product is perceived as being that of spatial and imagery experience, for which purpose the spaces and built-forms may be articulated leaving aside spontaneous feeling and emotions as well as the meaning and experiences the dwellers are likely to bring to the situation. In fact, a widely spread general criticism of such design processes is that the architects are seduced by geometric properties of buildings to the extent that they become blind to the activities and experiences those spaces are likely to engender for other people.

Enabling places is what, in contrast, all of the best architecture should aspire to even if this difficult to achieve without the involvement of the dwellers themselves. Place is a concept which reflects the fact that a physical space is often imbued with symbolic qualities which go beyond the physical elements.

These symbolic meanings are not mere semiotic interpretations of the designers or outsiders, but the experimental components of the dweller's lived-in-world. Thus 'place' is strongly rooted in the dwellers experiences and can hardly be matched by those of the designers alone. The concept of place is considered to turn the heads of architectural theorists way from the semiotic meaning of the external facades and images of buildings to spaces behind the walls. As venturi (1966) suggested 'architecture occurs at the meeting of interior and exterior forces of use and space' and this should essentially become the focus in a place-based practice.

There is no argument that it is the job of a designer to manipulate shapes and spaces in the process of designing spaces, in specific given circumstances where conscious design is to take place. In fact, it is more so in the increasingly labour intensive specialised world where even the making of the interior has been separated from that of making the shell structure of space: Interior decor away from architecture! However, there are no simple architecturally deterministic rules for tuning a space into a place, or designing spaces which can become places.

Thus the practice of architecture can aim at either ends, the making of spaces, or the enabling of places the degree to which latter will happen becoming an arbitrary eventuality. Uncertainty abounds and becoming places may or may not occur. To be continued

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