NAAB Student Performance Criteria (2001)
For the purposes of accreditation, graduating students must demonstrate awareness, understanding, or ability in the following areas:

1 Verbal and Writing Skills
Ability to speak and write effectively on subject matter contained in the professional curriculum

2 Graphic Skills
Ability to employ appropriate representational media, including computer technology, to convey essential formal elements at each stage of the programming and design process

3 Research Skills
Ability to employ basic methods of data collection and analysis to inform all aspects of the programming and design process

4 Critical Thinking Skills
Ability to make a comprehensive analysis and evaluation of a building, building complex, or urban space

5 Fundamental Design Skills
Ability to apply basic organizational, spatial, structural, and constructional principles to the conception and development of interior and exterior spaces, building elements, and components

6 Collaborative Skills
Ability to identify and assume divergent roles that maximize individual talents, and to cooperate with other students when working as members of a design team and in other settings

7 Human Behavior
Awareness of the theories and methods of inquiry that seek to clarify the relationships between human behavior and the physical environment

8 Human Diversity
Awareness of the diversity of needs, values, behavioral norms, and social and spatial patterns that characterize different cultures, and the implications of this diversity for the societal roles and responsibilities of architects

9 Use of Precedents
Ability to provide a coherent rationale for the programmatic and formal precedents employed in the conceptualization and development of architecture and urban design projects

10 Western Traditions
Understanding of the Western architectural canons and traditions in architecture, landscape, and urban design, as well as the climatic, technological, socioeconomic, and other cultural factors that have shaped and sustained them

11 Non-Western Traditions
Awareness of the parallel and divergent canons and traditions of architecture and urban design in the non-Western world

12 National and Regional Traditions
Understanding of the national traditions and the local regional heritage in architecture, landscape, and urban design, including vernacular traditions

13 Environmental Conservation
Understanding of the basic principles of ecology and architects’ responsibilities with respect to environmental and resource conservation in architecture and urban design

14 Accessibility
Ability to design both site and building to accommodate individuals with varying physical abilities

15 Site Conditions
Ability to respond to natural and built site characteristics in the development of a program and design of a project

16 Formal Ordering Systems
Understanding of the fundamentals of visual perception and the principles and systems of order that inform two and three-dimensional design, architectural composition, and urban design

17 Structural Systems
Understanding of the principles of structural behavior in withstanding gravity and lateral forces, and the evolution, range, and appropriate applications of contemporary structural systems

18 Environmental Systems
Understanding of the basic principles that inform the design of environmental systems, including acoustics, lighting and climate modification systems, and energy use

19 Life-Safety Systems
Understanding of the basic principles that inform the design and selection of life-safety systems in buildings and their subsystems

20 Building Envelope Systems
Understanding of the basic principles that inform the design of building envelope systems

21 Building Service Systems
Understanding of the basic principles that inform the design of building service systems, including plumbing, electrical, vertical transportation, communication, security, and fire protection systems

22 Building Systems Integration
Ability to assess, select, and integrate structural systems, environmental systems, life-safety systems, building envelope systems, and building service systems into building design

23 Legal Responsibilities
Understanding of architects’ legal responsibilities with respect to public health, safety, and welfare; property rights; zoning and subdivision ordinances; building codes; accessibility and other factors affecting building design, construction, and architecture practice

24 Building Code Compliance
Understanding of the codes, regulations, and standards applicable to a given site and building design, including occupancy classifications, allowable building heights and areas, allowable construction types, separation requirements, occupancy requirements, means of egress, fire protection, and structure

25 Building Materials and Assemblies
Understanding of the principles, conventions, standards, applications, and restrictions pertaining to the manufacture and use of construction materials, components, and assemblies

26 Building Economics and Cost Control
Awareness of the fundamentals of development financing, building economics, and construction cost control within the framework of a design project

27 Detailed Design Development
Ability to assess, select, configure, and detail as an integral part of the design appropriate combinations of building materials, components, and assemblies to satisfy the requirements of building programs

28 Technical Documentation
Ability to make technically precise descriptions and documentation of a proposed design for purposes of review and construction

29 Comprehensive Design
Ability to produce an architecture project informed by a comprehensive program, from schematic design through the detailed development of programmatic spaces, structural and environmental systems, life-safety provisions, wall sections, and building assemblies, as may be appropriate; and to assess the completed project with respect to the program’s design criteria

30 Program Preparation
Ability to assemble a comprehensive program for an architecture project, including an assessment of client and user needs, a critical review of appropriate precedents, an inventory of space and equipment requirements, an analysis of site conditions, a review of the relevant laws and standards and an assessment of their implications for the project, and a definition of site selection and design assessment criteria

31 The Legal Context of Architecture Practice
Awareness of the evolving legal context within which architects practice, and of the laws pertaining to professional registration, professional service contracts, and the formation of design firms and related legal entities

32 Practice Organization Management
Awareness of the basic principles of office organization, business planning, marketing, negotiation, financial management, and leadership, as they apply to the practice of architecture

33 Contracts and Documentation
Awareness of the different methods of project delivery, the corresponding forms of service contracts, and the types of documentation required to render competent and responsible professional service

34 Professional Internship
Understanding of the role of internship in professional development, and the reciprocal rights and responsibilities of interns and employers

35 Architects’ Leadership Roles
Awareness of architects’ leadership roles from project inception, design, and design development to contract administration, including the selection and coordination of allied disciplines, post-occupancy evaluation, and facility management

36 The Context of Architecture
Understanding of the shifts which occur—and have occurred— in the social, political, technological, ecological, and economic factors that shape the practice of architecture

37 Ethics and Professional Judgment
Awareness of the ethical issues involved in the formation of professional judgments in architecture design and practice