aerial view of kigogo, Dar es salaam

    Many Tanzanians when it comes to build houses, small buildings and sometimes big building, they don’t use an architect. All they know is to tell a builder what they want and the builder builds it. 90% of houses in Dar se salaam are not architectural products. Below here are some whys to this problem;

     Many, many, many people in Tanzania don’t know the professional of architecture. This is like a new profession in construction industry of Tanzania which starts to gain popularity in mid 2000s. sometimes it is hard for clients to hire architects because they don’t know something like that exist in Tanzania. The only professional they know in construction industry is engineering, sometimes clients use engineers to get architectural advice.

    Many people believe that to use an architect is costful, and in fact it is. To hire an architect in Tanzania, you have to pay him/her 6% of the project cost. This is a brainstorming to many clients who want to build their homes. People want to have a house at a minimum cost, if they use an architect the cost will rise.

    There are no rules or regulations which guide people to use architects during construction, especially for small buildings and houses. Thus most people don’t use architects because it is not vital to use them. As the matter of fact that when they use them, they increase the cost of the project.

    There is a few number of architects in Tanzania, currently there are around 300 registered architects under AQRB. Technically this is very low number compared to the need in Tanzania. Other clients may miss architects in their projects because all of them are already occupied in other projects. 

residential house in manzense