Will architects exist in 2025?

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Home / News and press / News / RIBA news / News / 2011 / Will architects exist in 2025?

2011
RIBA Building Futures
debate: Is the value of
design measurable?

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Will architects exist in 2025?

RIBA Future Trends Survey

results for January 2011
Housebuilders need to
think outside the box
Entries invited for the
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Will architects exist in
2025?

15.5.2011 9:18

Will architects exist in 2025?

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http://www.architecture.com/NewsAndPress/News/RIBANews/News/...

Date:
25 February 2011
Press office contact:
Mina Vadon
T: +44 (0)207 307 3761
E: mina.vadon@inst.riba.org

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The demise of the mid-sized practice, a dearth of work in the UK, and no more
'architects'; the architects' profession could look radically different in 2025, according to a
new study by the Royal Institute of British Architects' (RIBA) think tank Building Futures.
Setting out a radical vision for the future, 'The Future for Architects?' examines how the
demands of a global economy and economic recession have transformed business
practice, and projects the evolution of these trends into 2025 by questioning:
Who will design our built environment in 2025?
What role might those trained in architecture have in 2025?
How might practice change by 2025?
The study looks at how architects practise now, and predicts how this could change in the
future.
One of the top issues highlighted in the study was how the label 'architect' is perceived to
hold practices back in terms of the type of work they are able to do. Some practices have
already created offshoot companies with a separate identity and different branding to
their main practice avoiding use of the title architect, in order to reach more diverse
markets and branch into areas such as lighting design, product design, industrial design,
interior design, installation design, branding and community consultation. Many
practitioners are not architects in the formal sense recognised by the RIBA and the ARB,
yet still have a significant role in affecting the built environment; this prompts the
question whether the RIBA might need to consider evolving the 20th century definition of
what it means to be an architect in order to fit better with the broader 21st century reality
of the profession, or whether the title should be used at all. Students and graduates
echoed these concerns, and saw the label architect as restrictive and as creating a
barrier between themselves and other professions such as planning and urban design.
Amongst those interviewed there was a call for architects to ensure they could navigate
the dramatic changes taking place within the profession, particularly by improving their
financial literacy and ability to offer a service that embraces the clients broader aims and
goes beyond building a building. The greatest threat was envisaged for medium sized
practices, who were considered likely to threatened by larger practices with an established
commercial approach towards clients, and global interdisciplinary consultancies for their
ability to quickly complete different scale projects at low cost, leading to a polarisation of
practices by size. One large practice felt that in the longer term future, the architects'
practice could become far more nimble by reducing to a very small core group with
established links to a range of cutting edge technological consultants, enabling them to
keep up with advances in technology, programming and skills by having access to the
best practitioners in each field.
The decline in demand for architects services in the UK (dropping 40% since 2008)
highlights how the UKs finite market has pushed architects with larger scale aspirations
to look overseas for work. In many cases, larger practices looking to work effectively
abroad are gaining local expertise by recruiting directly from local schools of architecture,
and establishing a talent pool for each office. However, a number of small practices felt
that working abroad was not a viable option for them.
Speaking today, Dickon Robinson, Chair of Building Futures said:
This report seeks to stimulate a discussion about the challenges and opportunities which
architects in the broadest sense face, in the hope that the ensuing debate will put them in
the best position to succeed.
The past fifteen years have been particularly interesting. The combination of lottery
funding, Millennium euphoria and the global debt binge have been a great period for
architecture. Our cities have seen radical change. Most now boast examples of exemplary
contemporary architecture, and many have been transformed by architect designed
residential towers and retail developments. For perhaps the first time the public
perception of architecture has been informed by direct experience of well designed
buildings large and small, and by the popularity of television programmes on architecture.
However, this burst of activity, and its consequent creation of an employment bubble,
has tended to obscure the continuing changes in the construction industry that creates
the context in which architects work. Architects are not alone in needing to respond to the
impact of a globalising economy, exploding information technology capability and cultural
confusion. However in the face of a continuing erosion of traditional architectural skills to
other players, the profession seems peculiarly vulnerable to a nostalgic backward glance
at a bygone age in which the architect was the undisputed boss. Fortunately it is clear
that many young graduates see nothing but opportunity in these extraordinary times; if
they are to be fulfilled it is important that our professional institutions work to create the
conditions which will optimise their chances.
The Future for Architects? report can be downloaded at www.buildingfutures.org.uk

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Notes to editors
For further press information contact Mina Vadon in the RIBA Press Office on 020
7307 3761 or email mina.vadon@inst.riba.org
The publication will be launched officially at an event at the RIBA on Tuesday 1
March 2011, and will feature contributions from the authors of the report: Dickon
Robinson, Chair of Building Futures at RIBA; Claire Jamieson, RIBA Building
Futures; John Worthington of DEGW, and Caroline Cole, Founder and Director of
Colander. To reserve a press place at the event, please contact Mina Vadon in the
RIBA Press Office.

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15.5.2011 9:18