emergent

A THOUSAND UNEMPLOYED ARCHITECTS

By hemant.purohit ⋅ November 3, 2008 ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

The figure is imaginative since there are no statistical facts to support it. But there’s a crucial conjecture based on the metaphor of this phrase – its ability to transcend architecture. Worldwide construction industry is suffering due to reduced capital flow. In spite of the Olympics, the largest show (on earth!) scheduled within the next 4 years, London has frozen recruitment for graduates surfacing on architectural horizon this year. Even employment agencies are refusing applicants who cannot produce proof of over 5 years UK experience and RIBA III qualifications.

Besides US and European countries which indicate similar trend, hitherto booming economies of the East also seem to be flooded with surplus manpower this year as business declines and demand is poor. Fresh Graduates face tougher competition as they compete with experienced experts, already employed and available at reasonable remuneration. Yet the word ‘unemployed’ is not entirely correct for these budding architects who are crossing over job titles, professional fields, income brackets and international borders in order to grab any vacancies and make a living whether respectful or demeaning.

Few years ago around 2001, as a student of Bachelors in India, I witnessed the first ever campus interviews for architecture students; healthy, above average pay packages were offered for in house design and maintenance work in IT and product manufacturing companies. Already, architects were turning into builders and contractors by then, taking up small scale turnkey projects like independent residences; design and build and sell. In the years to come, some of my more entrepreneurial colleagues set up practices offering presentation and simulation services to other offices and some even went on to become graphic designers in banner advertising firms. In the past few years, salaries have risen as multi-national commercial architectural firms set up their ‘back-offices’ in India. In lieu of work nothing more intelligent than drawing, many young architects were paid handsomely who willingly turned into draughtsmen. A number of international projects began to be drawn and detailed in India. To get their Indian projects executed, foreign firms collaborated with Indian counterparts who provided project managers and construction manages with B.Arch degrees!

Now, with real estate slump foreseen this year, these lucrative jobs are vanishing. Architects will offer their services to infrastructure projects and structural engineering firms. Most of the fresh graduates will not work in a design office or an architectural firm as we conventionally know them. There are possibilities that they may undertake restoration and conservation projects, as renovation work will gain priority or heritage and property valuation by utilising the authority to certify buildings. Some may turn into surveyors, land valuers or researchers in one of the many fields that architecture will diversify into. Others may opt for product design, furniture design and hardware design. I was once suggested to pursue set design in theatre and entertainment industry! As trained to be ‘jack of all trades’ architects will exploit software skills, construction and site experience and even theoretical knowledge to gain employment in commercial or academic professions.

For more than a decade, we saw ambitious architectural projects and glossy images competing for world fame. Now, virgin land is barren and new projects are scarce. But once the buyers become keen again, and architects enrolled in niche markets are called upon to draw and build again, new considerations towards architectural thought and new criteria of construction will influence the next decade of built scapes.

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