ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the professional identity of architects in Britain– 'the relatively stable and enduring constellation of attributes, beliefs, values, motives, and experiences in terms of which people define themselves in a professional role'. Architect-bashing is a national sport. They are an easy target as they have neither powerful patronage nor public image and sympathy and are, in general, poor at fighting back. A fundamental problem for architects is that what Kaye describes as the 'bogey of dispensability', the feeling that they aren't really necessary and that what they do do is of dubious worth. The architecture profession has developed in parallel with a growing interest in DIY and self-build. The legacy of post-war town planning still trails behind the architectural profession, the implication being that it followed sheep-like in the footsteps of Le Corbusier's megalomaniac vision to wipe out large swathes of existing cities and communities.
