I FEAR that Ian Ferguson (Letters, January 28) may be painting an entire profession with an excessively wide brush.

The day of the lone genius slogging away alone at a drawing board - if that ever really existed - have long been replaced by a series of client groups, specialist designers, cost control consultants, and project managers.

By way of example, the Scottish Parliament was first and foremost a failure by the client and project management group and expensive changes to the brief, rather than some sort of whim of the designers, combined with a procurement route that did little to encourage efficiency.

Architecture already involves seven years of study, two of which must be undertaken in a working environment. Speaking as one at the "nuts and bolts" end of the spectrum, people might understandably question how this education is split betwixt aesthetic and scientific subjects, but at the end of the day architecture seeks to bring the two together.

A return to the day of the articled apprentices with day-release to technical colleges will be no more of a panacea than it would for any other profession.

Peter Drummond,

Director, Peter Drummond Architects,

130 Stanley Street, Glasgow.