CPD or Continuing Professional Development is part and parcel of the architects duties and responsibilities and is summarised by the RIAI below:

“The systematic maintenance, improvement and broadening of knowledge and skill and the development of personal qualities necessary for the execution of professional and technical duties throughout the practitioner’s working life”.

The required CPD for Irish architects is 20 hours unstructured work and 20 hours structured work and my approach to completing it has varied from year to year. Some years I’ve knocked off each hour one at a time in approved seminars whilst other years I’ve completed the hours in one hit by completing a bigger course – the RIAI Conservation course is one example of this.

This year has also been a ‘one-hit’ year where all of the years CPD was completed in a single course – the Certified Passivhaus Consultant/Designer course and exam which was completed…