I posted a thread a while back (http://archinect.com/forum/thread/18403110/march-as-means-for-career-change-from-engineering-australia) about my contemplations about transitioning from Building Services Engineering to Architecture.

What I didn't say in my thread was at the time I was about 6 months in to a 9 month trip traveling, volunteering, and studying throughout South America. So, I wasn't working and had plenty of time to stare out bus windows and try and figure out my next move when I landed back in Australia.

I've landed back in Australia now... about a month ago... and I'm still not sure what's next. But having a few months to really think about it was good. I've also contacted architects I know or have worked with to get their opinion. I also found Lee Waldrep's book Becoming an Architect helpful (although US centric) as well as the AIA podcasts (must have listened to about 50 of them on overnight buses the length of South America).

For me, I've come to realize that a lot of my interest is really on the ESD/Green Building side of things. And from my experience, this area is one that sort of sits between the Arch and Eng disciplines... with Engineers modeling energy consumption or optimizing rain water storage  and Architects siting buildings, orientating them, and being largely responsible for things such as thermal massing and passive heating and cooling strategies(with some Engineering input hopefully), materials selection, etc.

Here in Australia, there are a number of firms that have dedicated ESD Engineering teams... and the scope of ESD is a bit broader in that environment. But I still think that holistic green building design is siting (sometimes awkwardly) between the disciplines. Of course, a number of projects that have significant ESD goals typically (or hopefully) approach the project with an integrated design philosophy and a green building results from a team effort. But the division of labor still exists on most projects.

So for me, the quandary is this: I now want to become a green building designer. But what is that? Sounds like an Architect... but is sitting through 3 years of an MArch or trying to knock out some sort of apprentice arrangement to become an Architect the way to achieve this? Or is pursuing greater specializing on the Engineering side (sustainability, sustainable energy, energy modeling) the way to achieve this?

I don't see a lot of Architectural firms hiring Engineers to bring what would typically be ESD Consulting to their in-house practice. Wish they did. Or, what I wish was, there was a market for specialist Arch/Eng Green Building Designers... maybe this exists, but I'm not sure. There are some (really small here in Melbs) ESD only firms... but they don't seem to do anything different than their competitor engineering firms and their in house ESD teams.

Case in point, Melbourne hosted a Sustainable Living Festival this weekend. One of the events was Speed Date a Sustainable Designer (http://festival.slf.org.au/program/other-features/speed-date-sustainable-designer). I walked past the event and jotted down the name of the 15 designers there. Nearly all were relatively small / mostly residential architectural practices (as you'd expect with homeowners coming to ask questions). But a review of their websites confirmed that all 15 of the firms were staffed by Architects (save an industrial designer or two). Are these guys also doing some heavy lifting in terms of energy and indoor environmental quality analysis and advice? Perhaps that's an unfair question... as they were all predominantly doing green residential design (smaller, less complex systems, easier?)

I guess I'm saying that the majority of green building designers I've seen are Architects... but do you think there's a market for a specialist Arch/Eng (or some sort of hybrid)?

Long post. Thanks for reading.