Why does he think all the buildings along Sathorn were designed by foreign architects, and why Thai developers hire them? Exactly because they want to avoid what I have in bold below. Show me any building which has failed that was designed by a foreign architect and built under the supervision of a foreign firm. I can't ask the same for Thai designed buildings, the list is too long. Pete 
Business » Economics
Thai architects must improve skills
Asean FTA will open up sector in 2015
http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/eco ... ove-skills
* Published: 4/05/2010 at 12:00 AM
* Newspaper section: Business
The architecture sector must prepare for the Asean Free Trade Agreement on Trade and Services which in 2015 will liberalise existing laws banning foreign architects from working in the country, experts say.
Local practitioners must take the time to improve their skills, while the authorities need to clamp down on Thai nominees and foreigners who are working illegally in the country, they said.
Currently, only Thai nationals are legally allowed to practice locally as architects, but in reality foreigners have been working in the profession for years, said Piti Srisangnam, an economics lecturer at Chulalongkorn University.
Almost every building along Sathorn Road was designed by foreign architects with the help of Thai nominees who signed the plans when they were submitted for construction permit approval, he said.
"This is a disadvantage for Thai architects as they do not benefit from knowledge and technology transfer. Foreign architects are also able to charge considerably higher fees than Thais," he said.
Dr Piti said allowing foreigners to illegally work in the industry could damage the local sector as the foreign designers may not be held responsible for problems relating to their work, such as a building collapse.
Chumporn Pachusanond, a law lecturer also at Chulalongkorn University, said the fact that a large number of foreign architects are working in Thailand showed that the authorities were not treating the issue of Thai architects acting as nominees seriously.
"Thai architects should join together to investigate and report cases when they find a foreign architect taking a local design job," he said.
Aggressive and defensive tactics are needed to deal with the issue in preparation for trade and services liberalisation under the Afta agreement, he said.
Existing defensive measures include the banning of foreigners from working as architects in the country, and the Foreign Business Act which restricts the establishment of foreign-owned firms. Dr Chumporn said the government should also aggressively promote Thai architects internationally.
"Chinese ambassadors overseas have a businessman's spirit. They help pave the way for Chinese to do business in other countries," Dr Chumporn said. "The Thai government should not let Thai architects walk alone."
Thai architects should also improve their skills, especially English-language capacity. Educational institutions should also add international programme to help enhance Thai architects, he said.
Under liberalisation, certain types of architectural projects, such as Buddhist temples, should be restricted to Thai architects, he said.
Yodyiam Teptaranon, one of Thailand's best-known architects, said the different categories of architectural licences - "vudhi" or academic architect; "samana" or fully-licensed architect; and "bhaki" or associate architect - should be abolished.
Thai architects with less than five years experience will be granted an associated licence, which is automatically converted to a full licence after five years and a scholarly licence after 10. "In 2015, when the Asean FTA takes effect, will foreign architects who have more than five or 10 years of experience automatically become full or scholarly licensed architects?
"If so, we will have 70,000 scholarly licensed architects, 100,000 fully licensed architects and more than 120,000 associated licensed architects here in Thailand. This is a trap that will work against us," said Dr Yodyiam.
Dr Piti said there should be an internship development programme for Thai architects to improve their skills. "With better skills, they will be proud and refuse to sign plans as a nominee for foreign architects."
