Architectural Registration · Kenya
Architects Registered With BORAQS: What Your Project Requires
Certain drawings and submissions in Kenya must be made by a professional registered with the Board of Registration of Architects and Quantity Surveyors. Here is how to establish whether yours are among them.
- Incorporated in Kenya
- Est. 2017
- Engineering disciplines in-house
- 3
- Service lines under one contract
- 7
Ask about your drawings
Four fields. You'll hear back within one business day, from someone who can answer technical questions.
Registered and compliant with
What the requirement actually is
Registration attaches to people and submissions, not to logos
The Board of Registration of Architects and Quantity Surveyors registers individual architects and quantity surveyors in Kenya, and certain professional work — including drawings submitted for statutory approval — must be carried out and endorsed by a registered person.
This trips people up because it is easy to assume that appointing a design firm automatically satisfies it. It does not necessarily. The requirement attaches to the individual who signs, and to the specific submissions that need signing, which is why it is worth establishing explicitly at the start of a project rather than at the point of submission.
TopHall Group's own team are civil engineers, specialising in structural, environmental and water resource engineering. We provide architectural and structural design as a service, and we confirm at the outset of every project which submissions require a registered professional's endorsement and that the requirement is covered before work proceeds.
Where projects get caught out
Five ways the registration requirement causes delay
Every one of them is solved by asking the question in week one.
Assuming the firm's status covers the individual
Registration attaches to a person. The relevant question is who will sign your submission and whether they are registered to do so.
Discovering it at submission
Finding out that drawings cannot be lodged as prepared means a delay measured in weeks, at the point when the programme is already committed.
Not knowing which submissions need it
Not every drawing requires an endorsement. Establishing precisely which ones do avoids both a delay and unnecessary cost.
Drawings that were never technically resolved
A signature does not make an incomplete drawing buildable. Endorsement and technical adequacy are separate questions and you need both.
Nobody owning the submission
When responsibility for lodging and responding to queries is unassigned, submissions sit. It belongs to a named person with a date.
What we provide
Design and engineering, with the statutory route confirmed
The professional registration requirements for your submissions are established before design work starts.
Architectural Design
Concept, spatial planning and development of a scheme into full construction drawings.
Structural Engineering
Reinforced concrete and steel design to Kenyan building codes, by our own civil and structural engineers.
Bill of Quantities
Measured quantities and tender documentation, prepared as a standalone appointment or alongside the design.
Environmental Impact Assessment
EIA project reports and environmental management plans where the development triggers a NEMA requirement.
Approvals Coordination
The submission carried as a programmed task with a named owner, rather than as something to deal with later.
How to establish the requirement
Six steps before drawings are produced
This sequence takes days and removes a category of delay entirely.
Identify the submissions
Which approvals your project needs — county planning, building approval, environmental — and what each requires.
Establish who must endorse each
Which of those submissions require a registered professional's signature, and of which discipline.
Confirm coverage
That a suitably registered professional is on the project team for each requirement, confirmed before design starts.
Verify registration
Check the individual's registration status with the Board directly, as you would a contractor's.
Programme the submissions
Each one dated on the programme with an owner, including time for queries and resubmission.
Produce and lodge
Drawings developed to the standard the submission requires and lodged complete the first time.
Why TopHall
What we can tell you plainly
Including the limits of what we are.
We tell you what we are
TopHall's team are civil engineers specialising in structural, environmental and water engineering. Where a submission requires a professional registered in another discipline, we say so and confirm the requirement is covered.
The statutory route mapped first
Which approvals, which submissions, who endorses them and when — established before design begins rather than at lodgement.
Engineering in-house
Structural, environmental and water engineering are our own disciplines, so the technical content of the drawings is produced rather than procured.
Submissions treated as programme items
Dated, owned and tracked, with time allowed for queries, because approvals sit on the critical path.
We encourage you to verify
Check any professional's registration with the Board yourself. It is quick, and anyone reluctant to let you has told you something.
Our work
Design and construction by our team
Visualisations produced by TopHall and a photograph from one of our sites. Each is labelled for what it is.
Design visualisationA residential scheme developed to visualisation stage by our design team.
Design visualisationA single-storey scheme at design stage.
Site photographConstruction under way on a TopHall site.
Before you call
What people ask about registration
What does BORAQS registration actually cover?
The Board of Registration of Architects and Quantity Surveyors registers individual architects and quantity surveyors in Kenya, and certain professional services and statutory submissions must be carried out and endorsed by a registered person. The important detail is that it attaches to individuals rather than to firms, so the question to ask on any project is who specifically will sign, and whether they are registered to do so.
Are TopHall Group's team registered architects?
TopHall's team are civil engineers, specialising in structural, environmental and water resource engineering. We provide architectural and structural design as a service. Where a submission on your project requires endorsement by a professional registered in a discipline other than ours, we identify that at the outset and confirm the requirement is covered on the project team before design work proceeds — rather than discovering it at lodgement.
How do I verify someone's registration?
Ask for their registration details in writing and confirm them with the Board directly, rather than accepting a certificate image. This is the same due diligence worth doing on a contractor's construction registration, it takes very little time, and reluctance to provide the details is itself informative.
Not sure what your submission requires?
Tell us the project and what stage the drawings are at. We will set out which approvals apply and what each one needs.
Prefer to talk now? Call +254 742 147 558.