NCARB Competency Standard #7: Create deliverables that convey a design solution.

Deliverables are how we communicate with clients, contractors and the public, and you probably do it everyday. You create documents that are written or drawn or modeled--maybe three dimensional physical or three dimensional on the computer. These are tools we create in order to convey our ideas and instructions to other people so they can understand what's going on in our brains--what is the design all about?

NCARB Competency Standard #7: Create deliverables that convey a design solution.

At the point of initial licensure, architects with this competency can …

• Communicate the proposed design to clients and other stakeholders using appropriate and responsive methods (e.g., written, verbal, graphic, modeling techniques, etc.).

• Develop comprehensive and coordinated Instruments of Service (e.g., plans, sections, elevations and/or details, models, etc.) that convey design intent and project requirements, can be used to obtain approvals and permits, and guide the construction of a project.

• Develop specifications that describe the materials, qualitative requirements, and execution.

This one competency is where you will gather up the most experience hours under the AXP.

This is not very difficult, because we just do this all the time.

What can you do right now?

Learn the difference between instruments of service and other deliverables. Instruments of service are legal communications, and are clearly defined in the AIA contracts, and in most contracts that any architect uses.

Start with a completed set of construction drawings; in the office where you work, or if you work remotely, find one published on the internet. Study the type of information conveyed; what drawings and what text. Study how the information is conveyed; the views, the labels, the line weights, the organization of the information.

Most firms convey information the same way in their instruments of service. They follow commonly accepted standards. That way, the people receiving the instruments of service, who also know those standards, can understand what they are looking at.

Written specifications also follow standard formats. Although there are some minor differences in those formats, they all describe the materials, qualitative requirements and execution--the three part specs.

The next thing to do right now is study specifications. Not just read them but ask your supervisor and firm principals why certain choices were made that became included in the specifications.

As we develop more tools using AI, we're going to get a lot more automation with specifications and construction drawings.

Architects are always looking for ways to produce the documents—the instruments of service—faster. The introduction of CAD and BIM were both efforts at increasing the speed at which the drawings can be completed faster and with fewer errors.

When you start using AI tools to create documents, your value will continue to grow in understanding the content of the documents and being able to control the inputs that create the documents. Whether you're drawing by hand or on a computer or creating models and then printing onto paper or printing onto PDFs or however it's being communicated, doesn't really matter. What matters is the content, the instruments of service, the conveyance of communication.

That's what this competency standard is all about. Create deliverables that convey a design solution.