SAFA membership

In Finland, If you have a completed a five-year university-level Master’s degree in architecture, or abroad, a five-year academic degree fulfilling the requirements of the EU directive recognizing professional qualifications of architects, or an equivalent degree as an architect, you can apply for SAFA membership.

You can also apply as a student member if you are currently studying to complete one of the above mentioned degrees.

You can join SAFA by filling out the membership application form.

Anyone who has completed a five-year university-level architect’s degree abroad can apply for SAFA membership. Regarding degrees done in EU member states, all the additional studies required by the automatic qualification have to be completed as well.

The equivalency of the degree is evaluated by the Finnish National Board of Education. Those who have graduated as architects abroad are required to attach a certificate of equivalency of Finnish National Board of Education by to their membership application form.

As member of SAFA you will receive numerous benefits, such as the publications Arkkitehti and Arkkitehtiuutiset delivered to your home, inexpensive participation fees to SAFA events and trainings, access to SAFA rental estates in Helsinki and Hyvinkää (read more about Vähä-Kiljava in English), membership discounts and AKAVA Member+ offers.

Via the joint membership of SAFA-TEK, you can request consultation regarding your employment from TEK lawyers. You can also apply for residency and SAFA grants.

Employed members can become SAFA-TEK joint members for free.

The full annual SAFA membership fee in 2024 is 499 euros. You can pay the total amount in a single transaction or in four installments.

For retired members the fee is 124,75 euros.

Membership fees for all undergraduate students are abolished from 1 January 2023. The free rate is calculated per calendar year. After three years, students will be charged an annual membership fee of 25 euros.

In some cases you can receive a discount to the membership fee. If you have just graduated the payment increases in steps annually.

New members have a reduced fee for the first year.

Other grounds for fee reduction include spouse membership, living abroad for at least 6 months during a calendar year, maternity, paternity or parental leave, or unemployment.

You can apply for discount by sending an email to jasenasiat@safa.fi. You will always need to attach a document verifying the reason of your application.

You can complete the payment in one or more installments. Choosing the number of payments is done by notifying the membership secretary by email of by phone. If a member has neglected the payments for over a year, the membership is cancelled by a decision made by SAFA board.

With the SAFA student membership you receive SAFA publications, Arkkitehtiuutiset five times a year to your home address and Arkkitehti at a discount price. Student members also have the option to rent SAFA property at Vähä-Kiljava, Hyvinkää and Villa Oivala at a 30 % discount. You can also participate SAFA events with a reduced fee.

We also offer a chance to network and make a difference in students’ own subsection Opiskelija-SAFA. You can join O-SAFA here.

The student membership is free for all undergraduate students from 1 January 2023. After three years of studying, the annual membership fee is 25 euros. Following graduation, the membership fee will increase gradually.

In future, the membership fee for those who’ve studied for over 10 years will increase annually so that for people who’ve studied for 11 years the fee is 25 % of the full payment or 123,75 euros, for people who’ve studied for 12 years the fee is 50 % of the full payment or 247,50 euros and for people who’ve studied for 13 years or longer the fee is 75 % of the full payment. In the transition year 2019 everyone studying over 13 years pay 50 % of the full payment.

All members are welcome to join SAFA activities. As a member of SAFA, you automatically belong to one of our 13 local sections, which function as collegial collectives in their own regions. You can also join one or more of the six subsections focusing on certain themes. The subsections work as opinion and lobbying groups as well as parties in electoral unions. SAFA subsections include EKO-SAFA, VATA-SAFA of public office architects, Entrepreneur-SAFA and Building Heritage-SAFA. You can join the subsections via the mobile membership card.

TEK and SAFA have agreed upon cooperation based on which employed SAFA members can join TEK as well. As a result, TEK handles the promotion of employed SAFA member workplace interests. As a joint member of SAFA-TEK you will receive the benefits and services of both organizations (excluding the TEK Talentum publication package and membership in the KOKO unemployment fund). The joint membership does not affect the amount of membeship fee. Read more about the SAFA-TEK Membership benefits and services 2021.