Part 1 architectural assistant portfolio vs Part 2: what changes

Part 1 and Part 2: where the portfolios sit

"Part 1" and "Part 2" are shorthand for stages of the route to registering as an architect in the UK. The Architects Registration Board (ARB) describes the typical route, which takes a minimum of seven years, like this:

• a three-year first degree, "often referred to as Part 1";
• at least one year's practical experience;
• two years' further study, "often referred to as Part 2";
• at least one more year of practical experience;
• a professional practice qualification, "often referred to as Part 3".

ARB requires at least 24 months' practical experience before registration, with conditions on when and where it's done (ARB, Practical Training Requirements). The RIBA's Professional Experience and Development Record (PEDR) splits it into two stages: Stage 1, "any time between the start of a Part 1 course and the start of a Part 2 course", and Stage 2, "from the start of a Part 2 course up until taking Part 3".

So there are usually two moments when you need a portfolio for practice: after Part 1, for your first year in an office, and during or after Part 2, for the experience that leads to Part 3. That's what this article compares.

The route is changing. ARB introduced new Competency Outcomes and Standards in 2024 and says it "will cease accrediting Part 1 qualifications from 1 January 2028". Existing Part 1, 2 and 3 qualifications stay accredited until they're replaced or until 31 December 2028. Practices will still use "Part 1" and "Part 2" in job titles for some time, but check ARB's website for where your course sits.

What each role is for

The portfolio follows from what the practice is hiring you to do, and the RIBA's guidance on professional experience is a useful guide to that.

Part 1 (Stage 1 experience). The RIBA's PEDR guidance says Stage 1 experience is "to determine if architecture is the right career; to apply some theory to practice". It also says that students "are unlikely to be given the opportunity to do a significant amount of design, particularly at stage 1". A practice hiring a Part 1 architectural assistant is mostly looking for someone who can draw, model and produce, and learn quickly.

Part 2 (Stage 2 experience). For Stage 2, the guidance is more demanding: "by the end of the Stage 2 experience, graduates ought to be able to run a small project with minimal supervision." A practice hiring a Part 2 is looking for evidence that you're on the way there.

The RIBA also says professional experience "is intended to be practical and technical, rather than purely creative". That's the thread through both portfolios: show you can design, but show that you can deliver too.

The Part 1 architectural assistant portfolio

If you're applying for your first year in practice, most of your work will be academic, and that's expected. What a practice wants to see, in our experience:

• Clear drawings. At least one project with plans, sections and elevations that read as real drawings, at a sensible scale, not only diagrams and renders. This is the single most useful thing a Part 1 portfolio can show.
• One strong design project. A project where the idea is clear and carried through, from the first diagram to the resolved drawings.
• A sense of how things are built. A construction or technical study, a detail, a structural model, or a project where you thought about materials. It doesn't need to be complete; it needs to show interest.
• Range, briefly. A second project of a different scale or type, and a page of sketches, models or making.
• Any work experience, even short, with your role stated.

Keep software skills in the drawings rather than in a list. Our architecture portfolio tips cover the first minute, the opening pages and showing your role.

The Part 2 architectural assistant portfolio

By the time you apply for Part 2 roles, you'll usually have at least a year in practice behind you and a different kind of work in your portfolio. The changes we'd expect to see:

• Office work moves forward. What you did in practice is often more relevant to the reviewer than your thesis. Put it first or second, depending on the role.
• Your role becomes the headline. Say what you did on each office project, and at which stages. Using the RIBA Plan of Work stages is a clear way to do it: for example, "Stage 2 to 4: planning drawings, façade study, coordination with the structural engineer".
• A detail you resolved. A drawn and annotated detail shows the technical side the RIBA expects Stage 2 experience to build.
• Part 2 design work shows how your thinking has developed. Your strongest Part 2 project can still lead, especially for a design-led practice. A second one can be condensed.
• Part 1 work shrinks. One or two pages at the back, or out altogether if it no longer represents you.

If you're between the two. Applying during your Part 2 course, with a year out behind you but little Part 2 work yet? Lead with whichever is stronger and more relevant to the role, your office work or your best Part 1 project, and say clearly where you are in your studies. A practice reading it needs to know which kind of role you're applying for.

Check what you can share. Office work belongs to the practice and its clients. Ask your employer what you can include, and show it only in the way they agree.

What changes, side by side

Notice what doesn't change. Both portfolios need clear drawings, a clear idea in each project, and an honest account of what you did. A Part 2 portfolio doesn't stop being about design; it adds evidence that you can deliver it. And both are read the same way, quickly and often on a screen, so the first pages carry most of the weight.

The structure underneath both stays the same: a short front, your projects in order of strength, other work and contact at the back. We cover that skeleton in How to structure an architecture portfolio.

Common mistakes when moving from Part 1 to Part 2

• Adding the office work at the back of the old Part 1 portfolio, instead of rebuilding the order.
• Leaving out your role on office projects, so the reviewer can't tell whether you drew the plans or attended the meetings.
• Keeping every Part 1 project. If your Part 2 work is stronger, your Part 1 work doesn't need full sections.
• Office work with no story. A set of planning drawings without a line about the brief, the constraint and what you did reads as a print-out.
• The same portfolio for every practice. A design-led studio and a delivery-focused practice will read the same pages differently. Reorder the lead projects for each.
• Showing only the polished images from practice, and none of the production work: the drawings, details and coordination that show what you can do.

Frequently asked questions

Working on your portfolio?

If you're applying for Part 1 or Part 2 roles, the Portfolio Review Sprint is a 30-minute video call with Ariadna López Bieling, Principal of blng studio. You share your screen, she goes through the portfolio you already have with you, and you come away knowing what to change first. £69 incl. VAT, paid when you book. It's feedback on your portfolio, not a guarantee of a job or an interview.

Before you book, the free portfolio self-check gives you 16 yes/no questions to run through on one page.

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