Archinect's Lexicon usually focuses on newly invented (or adopted) architectural vocabulary. For this installment, we're featuring a very well-known, and comparably contentious, term.

Outside of architecture, the word “intern” (n.) is generally defined as “a student or trainee who works, sometimes without pay, at a trade or occupation in order to gain work experience.” In general professional parlance, when one does an “internship”, they become an intern. The word is used differently within architecture. NCARB defines “intern” as “any person who by means of their education or experience has qualified to enter the IDP… the term intern refers to any individual in the process of satisfying a registration board’s experience requirements. This includes anyone not registered to practice architecture in a U.S. or Canadian jurisdiction, graduates from NAAB-accredited programs, architecture students who acquire acceptable experience prior to graduation, and other qualified individuals identified by a registration board.” 

Similar to how it’s used in medicine, “intern” is a title that defines the employed’s status within an accreditation hierarchy, not necessarily the job title itself. The deriving medical usage is from the French “interne”, meaning “assistant doctor” – literally, “resident within a school”. Considering the precise meaning of the word, in and out of the architecture profession, seems particularly relevant now that NCARB is officially reconsidering the use of “intern” to denote an architect seeking accreditation. To insular communications amongst professionals, the title is a clear label, but not so when communicating to anyone on the outside. “Intern” to the general population is an adolescent phase; a sign of inexperience and greenhornery with little claim to professional demands, easily abused and replaced.

Why should architects care about this connotative gap? Because the idea of the “architect” is changing, and while NCARB could defend the sanctity of “Intern Architect” to its death by bathroom elevations, it could also embrace this opportunity to define architectural practice in a progressive and inclusive way. What role can pre-accreditation architects have in the profession, if their chosen practice doesn’t depend on them seeking licensure? Our conceptions of spatial design are being fluttered by the winds of technological change, and more and more, it seems like the practice is secondary to the process. Practice is changing, and the title should reflect that.

NCARB will announce a resolution on the intern title debate at the AIA's National Convention next week.

Welcome to Archinect's Lexicon. Architecture notoriously appropriates and invents new language – sometimes to make appeals, sometimes to fill conceptual gaps, sometimes nonsensically. But once a word is used, it's alive, and part of the conversation. We're here to take notes.