Re: Re: How do Architects get work?

Word of mouth is definitely the way most clients arrive but I wouldn’t knock the Golden Pages, we’ve had a few come that way. Thing about a website is that it’s become a necessity – I’ve been told by clients and potential clients that if they see an architect has no website, they rule them out straight away.

Of course, this is all by the by as the best advice for someone thinking of setting up their own practice is Don’t Do It!

I hate to be negative and put a downer on things but the root cause of unemployment among architects in Ireland is that there’s a surfeit of architects for the work that’s there. The only reason to set up your own practice is if you already have a quasi-practice in nixers and want to turn it into something more professional but the sad reality is that the trend is in the opposite direction: established practices shrinking down to nixer operations.

The fact that there’s not much work around is why architects are getting laid off in the first place and the standard advice doled out by the institute and magazines to those architects to go out on their own is pretty poor (and unimaginative!) advice. That can’t increase the amount of work out there. Better advice IMO would be about what alternative careers might be suited to architects even if just on a temporary basis or how architects could keep their skills levels and familiarity with architecture while doing something else for a living and leave themselves ready to get back into it if and when the demand returns for architectural services.