State of the industry – Architects in turmoil


An article from the Age describes a bleak outlook for Architects in the upcoming years.

“One source put the Melbourne job losses at more than 100, with such firms as John Wardle, Hassell, Bates Smart, ARM and Hayball all believed to have made cuts.”

Some of the biggest names in Australian architecture are having to lay off their workers, making the world financial crisis a scary reality for many – the cuts come as a direct result of clients tightening their belts, and deferring major projects -

Though its just not the big fish cutting jobs, smaller firms are also having to let people go.

Karen McWilliam, said the industry was starting to feel the way it did in the early 1990s recession, when she started her career.

“The projects are coming through planning, and sitting on hold,” she said. Then, in the recession, many architects lost their jobs. In many cases they never returned to the profession. “It’s a well-known fact that many architects were driving taxis at that stage,”

Driving taxis.. that’s comforting, 5-6 years for a degree, countless nights without sleep, the sweat blood and tears that go with completing a design degree, not to mention the thousands of dollars in hecs debt. Only to wind up driving a taxi.
allanis morisette would probably describe this as ironic -

Expect to see many a rugged design graduate on street corners, smelling of rum with “will design for food” on a piece of foamcore

I myself work part time at a known construction company, and again and again im getting called the night before with “dont bother coming in today, there’s nothing really to do..”

But surely some good will come from the crisis (I’m a glass half full kinda guy) – architects and certainly all designers will have to diversify, expand their knowledge, gain skills where the industry is booming -  perhaps the architect of the near future will be dabbling in all things design -

Read the original article here

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4 Comments »

  1. hmcke says:

    hmm, thats always a possibility, though the whole construction industry is finally halting after whats been a mad rush.

    and engineers are wankers.

  2. ecalwell says:

    count yourself lucky, you could be trying to be a writer. now THAT would be depressing.

  3. Daniel says:

    You could always work in automation…as everyone lays off jobs…they wanna keep up production…get a couple of robots in…and there ya go….fully functioning, more productive and more cost effective business.

    =D

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