"Economic Crisis Hits European Architects"

The survey has jumped the "pond" and is used by "Architect" (The magazine of the American Institute of Architects) to explain how the architects in Spain, Italy, and the Netherlands say that they have suffered from fewer assignments during the crisis, the firm reports, with 54 percent of Spanish architects and 61 percent of Italian architects saying that a lack of assignments is their biggest threat. Spain and Italy (along with Greece, which wasn’t included in the survey) are facing mounting economic troubles from the European debt crisis.

In the United Kingdom, which has been forced to take austerity measures of its own, architects also are finding less work, with 41 percent of respondents citing smaller assignments as the biggest threat and 29 percent pointing to no assignments. Renovation projects, on the other hand, were a bright spot: 51 percent of British respondents cited renovations as their biggest opportunity.

Architects in Germany, which has remained relatively unscathed during the crisis, are showing less concern. Two out of three German architects say that the economic crisis has had no consequences for their company, and 38 percent of respondents see no impending threats to their business. Not all the German responses were so rosy—28 percent of respondents saw no new opportunities for their business.

In France, 31 percent of architects responded that they saw no new opportunities. And 29 percent identified price wars as their biggest threat.

The European Architectural Barometer surveyed 1,200 architects in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the U.K., and the Netherlands in the third quarter of 2011.