There is no disputing that Ireland has had an unprecedented building boom in the last 10 years or more. When I began college in 1996, Professor J Owen Lewis gave an introductory lecture in which he began by saying that architecture is a cyclical business, which follows the vagaries of the economy of a country as a whole. He said that the good news was that we were in a boom time, and the bad was that it would be over by the time we graduated. He was only half right.
This is not a blog about economics, but an attempt to discover how badly the architectural profession has been affected in the last 15 months. The RIAI published figures last January about job losses, but anecdotal evidence suggests that the situation has far exceeded their nightmare situation.
Frank McDonald had an article in the Weekend section of the Irish Times a couple of weeks ago about this, but it was sorely lacking in any figures.
So, how bad is it? If time is short, please vote in the polls on the left hand side or leave a comment in anonymity. Don't forget to click on the "vote" button for each poll!
Or, better still, click to take part in a more indepth (but still brief) survey.
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The End of the Irish Building Boom?
Great minds think alike! Nyder O'Leary has a great post expounding his frustration at the situation we find ourselves in here - http://realreview.ie/ - take a look.
ReplyDeleteJan, maybe you should start a thread on the Irish forum of Archiseek with a link to this page.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.archiseek.com/content/
I take it the RIAI haven't taken time off from selling overpriced books to actually provide their members with a facility like this.
Fergal, that's a good idea, but unfortunately Archiseek are taking a while to validate my account so I can't post it there until they do.
ReplyDeletesurvey probably circulates more amongst the employed which will distort results
ReplyDeleteGood idea - will do my best to pass it on (to the three people I'm actually in touch with). And thank'ee kindly for the link ma'am.
ReplyDeleteAnother iteresing question would be "If you are self-employed, did you set up your practice following redundancy from an Architectural Practice" - although the number of self-employed architects taking part in the poll seems to be quite low.
ReplyDeleteI agree with anonymous above - it would be important for everyone to try to circulate this poll to their unemployed friends.
I agree that there should be a question related to 'If you have been let go in the last year, what have you been doing' Poll answers could be research/study;self-employment;change of career;travel etc. I know a lot of un-employed architects like myself who have been anything but idle. Thanks again, Jan.
ReplyDeletefrom self employed at lower end of professional fee income scale:
ReplyDeletewell done for taking action;
riai sub needs to permamnently be lowered to industry standard, approx 300€-
value for money highly debatable, only sign of action or comfort from body i support financially is a gauche threatening letter/ultimatum from the Griper in Merrrion Square;
public mood seems to be poncy overpaid architects need a dose of reality, including excuse for a tanaiste who should step down in shame- were i to earn a politicians fat salary for lecturing 'the professions...'
potential clients have already started the process of private competitions and fee bidding...mary's wish has come true, value from leinster house next...