Arch Job Losses

Has anybody been unaffected?!!

The practice I work for has halved in size. I’m clingin on by the skin of my teeth!!

from what I hear I’d estimate that the big 6 firms in dub have let about 400 people go between them this year.

Who are the big six?

Jobs could be tough to come by for a long while if this thing is dragged out in an attempt to prop people up. Apparently we’re nowhere near fair value in the housing market – house prices should be 12 to 14 times annual rent historically. With builders, banks, general public in denial this thing could go on for a lot longer than it would if the pain and the liquidation of mal-investmnet were just taken up front. It would be sharp and painful, but mercifully short unlike the propping up option which spells 10 years of inactivity…and political chaos no doubt!

“In the US, analysts claim that, in the long run, house prices should be equal to between 12 and 14 times earnings. This means that if a house is generating a rent of $10,000 a year, it must be worth between $120,000 and $140,000 a year.

The implication from this, compared to the advertised price of €289,000, is that the house is still wildly overvalued. The Irish calculation means that the house is trading at 31 times its annual yield. This clearly needs to fall dramatically by close to 60 per cent for it to make any financial sense to buy“. – David McWilliams, 26th Oct 2008

When opportunity knocks
http://www.davidmcwilliams.ie/2008/10/26/when-opportunity-knocks

Bkd Rkd Hkr Hjl Omp Ara Etc Etc

for some reason it won’t let me capitalise the above

more job losses in the new year?

Lots – hearing about layoffs everywhere

I believe the RIAI estimate 50% of architects in Dublin have lost their jobs over the past year or so…

yeah in retrospect it was a bad time to start an architects jobs board

Then again, it’s a very ‘liquid’ market as a result, and with a captive audience…

Ive heard of one firm that’s gone from 16 to 1 😮

i’ve heard of plenty more that have gone from (pick any number) to zero, with several more following in the next few months.

The speed of the jobs losses has been pretty scary

Have you been affected by the job losses in the architecture profession? – added poll

just got 10% pay cut.. better than the 3 day week but if things don’t improve it will be goodbye time!

HI, i am th first in my firm to be cut, have been here for over three years.
Unfortunately all the places i was banking on like Dubai & Abu Dhabi seem to be stagnant, does anybody know where on this planet there is work for us Architects?

@zelemon wrote:

HI, i am th first in my firm to be cut, have been here for over three years.
Unfortunately all the places i was banking on like Dubai & Abu Dhabi seem to be stagnant, does anybody know where on this planet there is work for us Architects?

Sorry to hear that. The global market seems a bit grim at the moment.

The AJ just listed the big winners of 2008. There’s one Irish firm that’s most probably getting a tonne of CV’s

http://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/dailynews/2009/01/top_of_the_class_2008.html

@Paul Clerkin wrote:

Have you been affected by the job losses in the architecture profession? – added poll

RTE Radio 1 1oC news is just about to do a piece about how 4 in every 10 architects here are likely to be out of a job.

I am hoping that this isn’t an optimistic estimate 🙁

And it’s not just architects- I’ve heard today of half a dozen household names (in an Archiseek way) in the planning and developer spheres that are facing decidedly uncertain futures- 3 day weeks for staff, layoffs, major pay cuts, inability to pay consultants and service providers…

‘Limping on’ doesn’t even begin to describe it.

41% of Architects will have lost their jobs by March 2009

A recent survey projected 41% of architects will have lost their jobs in the period between January 2008 to March 2009. This was according to the survey Architectural Practices Employment Survey commissioned by the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland (RIAI) and conducted by Millward Brown IMS.

Survey findings include:

* 29% of architects have been made redundant in the last year and based on current patterns; this figure is projected to increase to 41% by March 2009;
* 39% of architectural technicians have lost their jobs in the last year and this is projected to increase to 54% by March 2009;
* 38% of architectural technicians outside of Dublin will have lost their jobs from January 2008 to March 2009;
* It is projected that the number of practices employing architectural technicians will decrease by 40% by March 2009;
* 38% of administrative staff in architectural practices will have been made redundant by March 2009;
* 47% of architectural practices reduced their staff in 2008 with only 2% increasing their staff levels.

Director of the RIAI, John Graby, said, “The institute is working on developing information, education and support services for architects and looking at opportunities for them. The RIAI is looking to Government to assist in developing opportunities for the architectural profession.

“A great deal of expertise has been developed within the Irish Architectural Profession over the last 15 years and Irish architects are among the best in the world at delivering high volume, high quality buildings within very tight time frames. Already foreign countries are looking to Ireland to learn from their experiences. There is a significant opportunity for the Irish government to capitalise on this expertise and use it to promote the knowledge of Irish Architects and the construction sector in the international services market.

Mr Graby continued, “We need to examine best practice. Sustainable design needs to be part of normal practice in the built environment. Architects are at the forefront of delivering on this. If our commitments to preventing climate change are to be delivered on, then how we design and make our buildings is a critical factor and we need to put resources into research to ensure that Ireland is leading the drive in this area”.

42% of RIAI registered practices responded to the survey.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/0116/1232059653927.html?digest=1

What about the public vs private comparison? I think it is the perfect time to start a business that has no assets and no expenses bar ISP and Marketing : P…

@missarchi wrote:

What about the public vs private comparison? I think it is the perfect time to start a business that has no assets and no expenses bar ISP and Marketing : P…

i’m sure that makes sense in your head. go for it.

There may be some jobs at the RPA for contract admin if any one is interested…:D
I’m not one to keep my head down at the moment.
Do let me know:p

41% of Architects will have lost their jobs by March 2009

I struggled through 6 hard years to get my architecture degree from UCD, only to find myself unemployed less than a year after graduating. I now find myself with absolutely no career prospects, while friends (with far less points) enjoy comfortable lives in engineering and commerce.

The % of architect’s unemployed is expected to rise above 40% this year and yet I have seen nothing from the RIAI, who promised free associate membership for recent graduates (not that they offer much support) but have now changed their policy. The construction workers are getting retrained but yet there is nothing for us.

The way I see it now is that an architect is the worst possible profession to go into and i will spend my life making sure nobody i know goes into this industry. What makes it all the more tragic is that the amount of architecture graduates is set to double soon when cork, limerick and waterford start
turning out graduates.

I wonder if they calculated this into their 41% prediction.

According to this poll 85% of architects/techs will be unemployed sometime this year.
Assuming that say 5% of the positions are in the public sector only 10% of the private sector will remain if all the doom and gloom is to be confirmed? Half of the RIAI practices did not respond? either means they cannot be bothered or they will no longer be in business?

4arch it may be bad but i’m guessing you didn’t have to pay much for your degree like some other parts of the globe? Not that it makes it any more easy…

But this is a knowledge nation whirling in the joy of globalisation? co-insiding with the change over of American presidents and Irish and English alike 😀

It would be interesting to see how much work is outsourced from Ireland;)

@4arch wrote:

The % of architect’s unemployed is expected to rise above 40% this year and yet I have seen nothing from the RIAI, who promised free associate membership for recent graduates (not that they offer much support) but have now changed their policy. The construction workers are getting retrained but yet there is nothing for us.

I agree with what you’re saying, there has been an eerie silence the downturn. Any recommendations made involved spending money and not saving it. :confused:

@4arch wrote:

I struggled through 6 hard years to get my architecture degree from UCD, only to find myself unemployed less than a year after graduating. I now find myself with absolutely no career prospects, while friends (with far less points) enjoy comfortable lives in engineering and commerce.

why didnt you do engineering or commerce if you wanted some kind of cast iron job (not that they exist)? the building industry is always the worst affected by economic decline, it’s something we were made aware of from day 1 in architecture. also- the idea that by getting more points than someone you deserve a better job prospect/wage is really just astounding.

as for the retraining, i believe architecture gives you one of the most well rounded educations of any degree, analytical skills, design skills, communication skills etc. architects should build on these skills and branch out. start thinking for themselves instead of for developers.

i guess graduates these days have never experienced the idea of not having 2/3 job offers as soon as they send out their cv- this is not reality most of the time, we were living in a bubble. unfortunately the reality check has hit us all harder than we could have imagined…

From the Irish Times, Friday, January 23, 2009 – Róisín Ingle accompanies an out-of-work architect on her first outing to the dole office.

Getting to grips with life on the dole

At dole offices, unlike almost anywhere else at present, queues are lengthening and extra staff are being taken on. And for those who have never signed on before, the experience can be a daunting one, reports Róisín Ingle

THE QUEUE OUTSIDE the dole office on Cumberland Street in Dublin’s north inner city stretched right down to the end of the road when Laura Kenneally arrived this week to make a claim for unemployment benefit for the first time. When she turned up two weeks ago to arrange the appointment, she almost cycled past the grim building with its high windows covered in wire mesh.

“It looks like a prison, it’s not the most welcoming of buildings,” she says, sitting in a cafe round the corner. “The most daunting thing is that when you go in, you don’t know where to line up or where you are meant to be going. You walk in a bit doe-eyed, but being there brings you down to reality. You are part of something else now, something you never imagined yourself being a part of.”

Thousands of people around the country will relate to the first impressions of life on the dole offered by Kenneally, a 27-year-old architect who was let go from the job she loved just before Christmas. The Minister for Family and Social Affairs, Mary Hanafin, said this week that jobless figures have hit the 300,000 mark and that they could rise to 400,000 by the end of the year. Around 23,000 people signed on for the first time last month and, as the recession worsens, job vacancies across all occupations are increasingly scarce.

Kenneally, from Ennis in Co Clare, graduated from UCD three years ago, at a time when everyone in her class got jobs and nobody had to leave the country for employment.

“I had three jobs in that time, so I was really lucky,” she says, adding that, from what she’s heard, most of last year’s graduating class have struggled to find employment. “I feel worse for them, because at least we had a couple of good years. I was able to build up the PRSI credits which mean I am entitled to benefits, but if you’ve just recently left college, it’s a different story.”

She says the tight-knit community of young architects in Dublin began to hear of bigger firms letting people go earlier this year.

“I think the list of jobs on the website of the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland went from a full page to just one listing for a recruitment agency for Dubai,” she says. Yesterday, on the job-search section of that website, the blunt message that “there are no jobs available” could be found.

In her own case, Kenneally guessed her time had come when a job she was hired to work on, a social housing project, didn’t go ahead.

“My boss was really good, he was very open with us, so it wasn’t a shock. I know he didn’t want to let me go, but he had no choice,” she says. “The thing is, you know it’s happening to lots of other people from all sectors and walks of life, so you feel you are part of a bigger picture, which does make it slightly easier. From where I am standing I am not in the worst position – I don’t have a mortgage or children. A few years ago I was thinking I should buy a house, but I’m very relieved now that I didn’t.”

AT CUMBERLAND STREET and other dole offices around the country, more than 100 extra staff are being brought in to deal with growing numbers of “new unemployed”, often highly skilled and educated workers traumatised by sudden job loss and unsure of their welfare entitlements. There have been considerable changes at this office, one of the largest in the country, dealing with the Dublin 1, 3 and 9 postcodes, since local manager Kathleen O’Donnell began working there in 1982. Back then there was a separate floor in the building for women who were signing on.

“I remember when the dole queues became mixed, some people thought it would never work,” she says, smiling.

The customer profile was also different back then, according to O’Donnell, compared to the unemployed coming in now. “At that time it was local Irish people, mainly men, labourers or operatives engaged in manual work who were in shorter-term employment. If an architect came up to the hatch you’d have been very surprised. I remember some pilots near retirement age coming in and us all being shocked by how much they earned,” she says.

At that time, far fewer documents were required for signing on and payments were given out at a pay hatch in the office where clients were obliged to turn up and sign each week. What used to be known as unemployment benefit or allowance is now called jobseekers benefit or allowance, which puts more emphasis on finding a job than on being unemployed.

These days, people receive their money once a week at the post office and only sign on once a month at the dole office. The boom years meant a lull at dole offices, but in the last few months the queues have grown longer, the “local Irish” joined now by foreign nationals seeking benefits or looking to have them transferred to their home country, along with a new wave of unemployed architects, engineers and accountants, many of them casualties of the decimated construction and property sector.

“The type of customer and the complexity of the cases has changed completely,” says O’Donnell. These changes have placed more demands on staff who, despite increased numbers, are doing their best, she says, to process claims quickly. “We are seeing people now who have been in work since they were 16. It’s quite traumatic for them to come in here. You’d have members of staff telling you: ‘God, I was an hour and a half with the last lady, she was in floods of tears.’ In the past, the people we dealt with wouldn’t have had this great tenure of employment and quality of life behind them . . . These new people are in alien territory, it’s a huge loss for them.”

O’Donnell has had some people on the phone reluctant to come in because of the perceived stigma of drawing the dole.

“I encourage them in,” she says. “I say to them: ‘If you are out of work and satisfying the conditions, then come in to us.’ People need to have something on their record, they often don’t realise they should be signing on to keep up their credits. We tell them: ‘Come on in here, we’re not that bad, we’ll look after you.’ ”

Careers coach Jane Downes, of Clearview Coaching Group, says her client base has doubled in recent months and that the self-esteem of the new wave of unemployed, who range from receptionists to company directors, has taken a severe bruising. “They just can’t believe their situation. Many of them say they will do anything rather than go on the dole and are trying for stopgap jobs in posts they never would have considered before,” she says.

ONE OF THESE, Garrett (not his real name), a father of three who lost his job as a mortgage broker three months ago, understands the reluctance of some people to be seen signing on. “I sign on at a dole office that isn’t close to where I live, which I am glad about because I have to admit I would be embarrassed to be seen there. I know I shouldn’t have a sense of shame, because it’s not my fault – but I do,” he says. “When I go to the post office to get my money I can’t even bring myself to say I am collecting my dole. I say I am collecting my benefits; it feels less degrading.”

Garrett has been in full-time employment since he left school almost 30 years ago and says adapting to his current situation has been “a culture shock”. He has sat his children down and explained that “Daddy and Mummy won’t be able to spend as much money any more”.

Another change has been re-evaluating his place in the jobs market. He recently applied for a job as a store manager in a discount supermarket, a job he’d be delighted to secure.

“I’ve had to lower my expectations, you have to, and I spend two or three hours a day looking for jobs. There’s no slouching around the house. It would be hard to stay focused if you went into slouching mode,” he says.

Also adjusting to life on the dole, Laura Kenneally agrees that some people still attach shame to signing on.

“I believe most Irish people have a hard-work ethic and nobody wants to be seen as a lazy so and so, scrounging for money. But the way I look at it is that I worked hard for whatever I get and I am entitled to it,” she says. Her positive attitude in a bleak situation seems to be helping her cope.

“I think it’s important to stay upbeat,” she adds, preparing to cycle off for an afternoon trawling the internet for jobs – Canada and Australia are two emigration possibilities she’s researching, although jobs in her field are scarce everywhere – and filling out forms for rent allowance.

“The days are long, but I try to keep busy, job-searching or going to museums rather than just sitting watching TV all day,” she says. “If I sit down and start crying about it, nothing is going to change. I think people should try and stay positive. It’s a tough time, but hopefully it will all come good again.”

Signing on: a step-by-step guide

1 If you lose your job you are entitled to claim either jobseekers benefit or jobseekers allowance from the Department of Social and Family Affairs.

2 You qualify for jobseekers benefit if you have paid 104 PRSI contributions, or “stamps”, since first starting work. Thirty-nine payments must have been paid in the relevant tax year. This benefit is not means-tested. (If you are unsure about your PRSI record, you can contact the Department of Social and Family Affairs at 01-7043000 and ask for the PRSI section.)

3 If you don’t have enough “stamps” you can apply for jobseekers allowance, which is means-tested.

4 You must make an appointment with your local social welfare office to make a claim. To check where your nearest dole office is, go to http://www.welfare.ie

5 Depending on what part of the country you live in, an appointment can take up to two weeks.

6 You are required to bring a range of documentation (again go to http://www.welfare.ie for the complete list), including a P45, P60, proof of identity and residence, and an RP50 form if you have been made redundant. You will also be expected to provide proof that you are making efforts to seek work.

7 At this meeting your claim will be discussed and forms filled in. According to the department, the average processing time in December was two weeks for jobseekers benefit and five weeks for jobseekers allowance. However, in some parts of the country the processing time for the jobseekers allowance is as long as 15 weeks.

8 While waiting for a decision you can apply for a means-tested supplementary welfare allowance payment. Applications should be made to the Community Welfare Office at your local health centre.

9 Once your claim has been authorised you will be obliged to sign on once a month at your dole office, and to collect your money once a week at the post office.

10 For advice, you can speak in confidence to the welfare-to-work section of the Irish National Organisation for the Unemployed ( http://www.inou.ie ) at 01-8560088, Monday to Friday, between 9.30am and 5pm.

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times

@4arch wrote:

41% of Architects will have lost their jobs by March 2009

I struggled through 6 hard years to get my architecture degree from UCD, only to find myself unemployed less than a year after graduating. I now find myself with absolutely no career prospects, while friends (with far less points) enjoy comfortable lives in engineering and commerce.

The % of architect’s unemployed is expected to rise above 40% this year and yet I have seen nothing from the RIAI, who promised free associate membership for recent graduates (not that they offer much support) but have now changed their policy. The construction workers are getting retrained but yet there is nothing for us.

The way I see it now is that an architect is the worst possible profession to go into and i will spend my life making sure nobody i know goes into this industry. What makes it all the more tragic is that the amount of architecture graduates is set to double soon when cork, limerick and waterford start
turning out graduates.

I wonder if they calculated this into their 41% prediction.

If this site had been available to me in 1993 I would have written exactly the same thing. Or in 1987 when I went into college. Or in 2001 after 9/11. and probably again in 2016

Times change – it’s life. Architecture is, if anything, consistent in it’s swings and roundabouts – I didn’t have the benefit of the interweb to tell me this in 1987.

deal with it, get over it and adapt.

One thing that’s overlooked in all this is the high percentage of architects who are married to architects. That’s a double whammy baby

@hutton wrote:

From the Irish Times, Friday, January 23, 2009 – Róisín Ingle accompanies an out-of-work architect on her first outing to the dole office.

As if losing the job wasn’t bad enough… Roisin Ingle? This must be the definition of ‘adding insult to injury’.

@ctesiphon wrote:

As if losing the job wasn’t bad enough… Roisin Ingle? This must be the definition of ‘adding insult to injury’.

:eek:Took the words right out of my mouth. Then the final indignity of having to declare your nixer income from Rosey Dingle before the ‘ole scratch house will settle up with you :p

I feel a series coming on

Until it was mentioned above, I never actually thought about the number of architects married to architects – would make for very stressful households right now

So do Architects and their technicians sit whimpering waiting for the axe to fall or the ‘bounce’ which will apparently hasten a full recovery in 2011? or do something.

Lets look at this Globally. traded services, since the 80’s it went from a 20 trillion dollar market to a 200 trillion dollar market, this addition was created by derivitives, or borrowings by another name. It took 20 years to create this artificial wealth. In the 1970’s the club of Rome recognised the Malthusian notion that there were limits to growth. The planet being a finite resource. But we are all now shackled to the growth machine. Our education and values have been conditioned to feed this monster. Sweden encountered the same problems we are having now and re-engineered their economy and society to focus on quality of life over growth rates. We were naive enough to associate productivity with success.
Now we must recognise it will take 10 years to correct our economic situation. We need to focus on what your guy Sean O’Laoire calls de-growth.

Celtic Tiger mark II (post 2002) was clearly A latter day Tulip mania

Architecture has lost its role as a leader for the built environment sector, throughout the last 15 years it dropped its standards and critical role to bring out the best in its clients. (Anybody live in a new apartment). Instead it has just become the drawing office of big country house builders. Architectures key responsibilities taken over by QS Project Managers, Fire consultants and best laugh of all the mechanical services engineers are now sustainability consultants, Ha! So no great loss really. Architecture firms have a shelf like of 20-30 years with 3 or 4 exceptions.

I sat in a Peters pub with a builder friend of mine before Christmas, beside us a group of suited up architects were comparing their clients projects, like kids bragging about their daddies. My builder friend laughed to think that architects boast with pride about the cheap blocks of floor space that the architect was allowed wallpaper with timber louvres or stone tiles.

Architecture is viewed as the prince of the arts and an intellectual activity, but it is also an empirical science. But why have the sciences of Architecture and urban design not resulted in better buildings, beauty, and societal improvements, indeed we are moving in the opposite direction. Would a market without Architects produce anything worse than the state of our urban fabric after the boom?

Its time for a new architecture, a socially responsible community focused discipline, with quality of life and comfort as its focus. A scientific discipline able to exclude conventional heating and cooling systems from buildings. Able to design airtight diffusion ope,n natural buildings using ethical and low impact materials. Able to design for society not for the growth machine. Who are the architects who will rise to the challenge and become the new big 5 practices. Forget about architects becoming redundant, the architecture establishment as we know it is now redundant.

But I’m positive about the future, no longer will we tolerate the type of architecture establishment which created Mulhuddart, Gorey, Rathoath, new ballymun, Docklands or Templebarf.

I subscribe to the idea of recession as time to think. It still can be a time of opportunity which is what I am trying to see it as. Easier for me to say this because I’m not an architect and, touch wood, should keep my job, but I still believe that the right mindset will seee people through, and help them thrive in the bounce. I am contemplating launching new projects during this period.

Sure there has been a personal knock-back in that jobsarchitect.com will be pretty dead for a while, but there’s always the chance that the recession and the need to pay wages will remove some of the competitors 😉

@keating wrote:

So do Architects and their technicians sit whimpering waiting for the axe to fall or the ‘bounce’ which will apparently hasten a full recovery in 2011? or do something.

Lets look at this Globally. traded services, since the 80’s it went from a 20 trillion dollar market to a 200 trillion dollar market, this addition was created by derivitives, or borrowings by another name. It took 20 years to create this artificial wealth. In the 1970’s the club of Rome recognised the Malthusian notion that there were limits to growth. The planet being a finite resource. But we are all now shackled to the growth machine. Our education and values have been conditioned to feed this monster. Sweden encountered the same problems we are having now and re-engineered their economy and society to focus on quality of life over growth rates. We were naive enough to associate productivity with success.
Now we must recognise it will take 10 years to correct our economic situation. We need to focus on what your guy Sean O’Laoire calls de-growth.

Celtic Tiger mark II (post 2002) was clearly A latter day Tulip mania

Architecture has lost its role as a leader for the built environment sector, throughout the last 15 years it dropped its standards and critical role to bring out the best in its clients. (Anybody live in a new apartment). Instead it has just become the drawing office of big country house builders. Architectures key responsibilities taken over by QS Project Managers, Fire consultants and best laugh of all the mechanical services engineers are now sustainability consultants, Ha! So no great loss really. Architecture firms have a shelf like of 20-30 years with 3 or 4 exceptions.

I sat in a Peters pub with a builder friend of mine before Christmas, beside us a group of suited up architects were comparing their clients projects, like kids bragging about their daddies. My builder friend laughed to think that architects boast with pride about the cheap blocks of floor space that the architect was allowed wallpaper with timber louvres or stone tiles.

Architecture is viewed as the prince of the arts and an intellectual activity, but it is also an empirical science. But why have the sciences of Architecture and urban design not resulted in better buildings, beauty, and societal improvements, indeed we are moving in the opposite direction. Would a market without Architects produce anything worse than the state of our urban fabric after the boom?

Its time for a new architecture, a socially responsible community focused discipline, with quality of life and comfort as its focus. A scientific discipline able to exclude conventional heating and cooling systems from buildings. Able to design airtight diffusion ope,n natural buildings using ethical and low impact materials. Able to design for society not for the growth machine. Who are the architects who will rise to the challenge and become the new big 5 practices. Forget about architects becoming redundant, the architecture establishment as we know it is now redundant.

But I’m positive about the future, no longer will we tolerate the type of architecture establishment which created Mulhuddart, Gorey, Rathoath, new ballymun, Docklands or Templebarf.

who do you see as the new clients who will employ the new architects to complete the new architecture?

@wearnicehats wrote:

who do you see as the new clients who will employ the new architects to complete the new architecture?

The new bank of architecture Anglo Irish Bank:p run by wait for it the president of the RIAI;) based in St Stephens Green.

In any case I think there may be a good reason for the arts council to strike out the rule of if an existing proposal is being developed/exists it cannot secure funding within reason/ peer review. It serves the public and bodes for discussion in the media well.

Applications that duplicate an organisation’s existing work programmes or ongoing administration.

Is there any part of Dublin that is not under ongoing administration?

@wearnicehats wrote:

who do you see as the new clients who will employ the new architects to complete the new architecture?

Me for one, soon as I can find some sucker to take this drafty dark apartment off my hands. .
Energy is the new currency, investing in ways to reduce energy use and even become a supplier of energy makes sense. There are now associations of individuals grouping together to build pasive house schemes. Why do have to rely on Spud Gobblin Fianna Fail card carrying developers to build us houses at 40 times rental yield paying €1k per annum extra on energy for badly designed and built schemes. The Green tech sector will require new buildings. Low impact buildings which contribute to the ecology of the site, buildings which are designed as a machine which adapts to provide comfortable efficient living. Buildings which integrate energy and manage all resources on site.

This will be the only show in town however, there is a huge deficit in skills level in the architecture profession. The recession and collapse of activity in the building sector is a good thing, in that architects can wipe the slate clean and start again. Its going to be survival of the fittest, with the Architects responsible for Neanderthal radiant city urban schemes like the half finished tumbleweed strewn hulks of Sandyford Industrial estate following their drinking buddy builders to retirement in Spain with their staff consigned up to Thomas Street job centre.

Give up the hope that things will return to normal in a few years, the past is a foreign country, the future is even foreigner. But it can be a country full of exciting opportunities for architects who can adapt to new realities. ‘Clients’ don’t drive lexus anymore, they wear sandals and cycle bikes.

@keating wrote:

So do Architects and their technicians sit whimpering waiting for the axe to fall or the ‘bounce’ which will apparently hasten a full recovery in 2011? or do something.

Lets look at this Globally. traded services, since the 80’s it went from a 20 trillion dollar market to a 200 trillion dollar market, this addition was created by derivitives, or borrowings by another name. It took 20 years to create this artificial wealth. In the 1970’s the club of Rome recognised the Malthusian notion that there were limits to growth. The planet being a finite resource. But we are all now shackled to the growth machine. Our education and values have been conditioned to feed this monster. Sweden encountered the same problems we are having now and re-engineered their economy and society to focus on quality of life over growth rates. We were naive enough to associate productivity with success.
Now we must recognise it will take 10 years to correct our economic situation. We need to focus on what your guy Sean O’Laoire calls de-growth.

Celtic Tiger mark II (post 2002) was clearly A latter day Tulip mania

Architecture has lost its role as a leader for the built environment sector, throughout the last 15 years it dropped its standards and critical role to bring out the best in its clients. (Anybody live in a new apartment). Instead it has just become the drawing office of big country house builders. Architectures key responsibilities taken over by QS Project Managers, Fire consultants and best laugh of all the mechanical services engineers are now sustainability consultants, Ha! So no great loss really. Architecture firms have a shelf like of 20-30 years with 3 or 4 exceptions.

I sat in a Peters pub with a builder friend of mine before Christmas, beside us a group of suited up architects were comparing their clients projects, like kids bragging about their daddies. My builder friend laughed to think that architects boast with pride about the cheap blocks of floor space that the architect was allowed wallpaper with timber louvres or stone tiles.

Architecture is viewed as the prince of the arts and an intellectual activity, but it is also an empirical science. But why have the sciences of Architecture and urban design not resulted in better buildings, beauty, and societal improvements, indeed we are moving in the opposite direction. Would a market without Architects produce anything worse than the state of our urban fabric after the boom?

Its time for a new architecture, a socially responsible community focused discipline, with quality of life and comfort as its focus. A scientific discipline able to exclude conventional heating and cooling systems from buildings. Able to design airtight diffusion ope,n natural buildings using ethical and low impact materials. Able to design for society not for the growth machine. Who are the architects who will rise to the challenge and become the new big 5 practices. Forget about architects becoming redundant, the architecture establishment as we know it is now redundant.

But I’m positive about the future, no longer will we tolerate the type of architecture establishment which created Mulhuddart, Gorey, Rathoath, new ballymun, Docklands or Templebarf.

the more I read this idealistic utopian gloating diatribe the more pissed off I am. If all the 1500 architects / technicians / support staff laid off were in the one firm it would be front page news, uproar. Whatever your views on the business that is architecture 99% of those people have the ideals that you purport to understand. They have the ability to design and do all that you espouse. They are also tied to leases, mortgages, families, dependants. In the case of architect couples they face all their income cut off. If you’re interested there’s a six month back-log in the dole at the moment. If you’re interested, firms are just closing, full stop.

what most sensible architects and technicians are “doing” is trying to find an exit plan that allows them to avoid losing everything they have. These plans include, as Paul suggests, a change of direction – even if, in my case it will be working in a bar. Deal with it, get over it and adapt. Wherever or whatever that takes it is clear that a large proportion of talented, experienced and principled people may be lost to the profession for good.

Do you believe that the Sean Dunne’s of this world will suddenly have an epiphany one night, put on their hair shirt and spread the love? .This isn’t the Fountainhead Mr Roark so get off your high horse and apply some reality to your schoolyard mockery – where will the work come from? – perhaps we should all pool our €600 a week and pitch a tent in dartmouth square.

Ya well said ‘wear nice hats’. Good luck to you all in the coming decade, your training will stand to you. Farewell and thanks for all the fish.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/education/2009/0127/1232923366128.html

the year of the OX rotated 45 degrees

Is every graduate architect doing a newspaper interview?

@keating

What you started with was, in my opinion, very interesting and very well put, I mean this:

“Lets look at this Globally. traded services, since the 80’s it went from a 20 trillion dollar market to a 200 trillion dollar market, this addition was created by derivitives, or borrowings by another name. It took 20 years to create this artificial wealth. In the 1970’s the club of Rome recognised the Malthusian notion that there were limits to growth. The planet being a finite resource. But we are all now shackled to the growth machine. Our education and values have been conditioned to feed this monster. Sweden encountered the same problems we are having now and re-engineered their economy and society to focus on quality of life over growth rates. We were naive enough to associate productivity with success.”

And this:

“But why have the sciences of Architecture and urban design not resulted in better buildings, beauty, and societal improvements, indeed we are moving in the opposite direction. Would a market without Architects produce anything worse than the state of our urban fabric after the boom?”

These are very general statements, but I hoped you are really going somewhere with what you say and I was hoping for a discussion. Instead, when asked to be more specific, you got nervous and went way too far, just to finish like that:
” ‘Clients’ don’t drive lexus anymore, they wear sandals and cycle bikes. “

Now, please. Sandals don’t make people better – aspecially in this climate. I would be really interested what specific actions would you see suitable right now, for government, for architects, for developers.

@parka wrote:

Is every graduate architect doing a newspaper interview?

It’s really reassuring to see this level of social solidarity in the young graduates:
“The worst aspect of the slump, says Kennedy, was the feeling of being alone or, worse, being to blame. “Architecture was one of the first areas to be hit and we felt very isolated – why were we the only ones without jobs? Pretty soon other sectors started to slow down and then it didn’t seem so bad anymore. When law and business graduates started to hit the wall, I started to feel better. We’re all in this together, and somehow that’s not as hard to deal with.”

@venividi wrote:

@keating

I hoped you are really going somewhere with what you say and I was hoping for a discussion. Instead, when asked to be more specific, you got nervous and went way too far.

Venividi,
Thanks for picking the salient points from the vitriol of my post, 2 very able and hardworking architect friends of mine were let go in the last week, I blamed the architectural establishment in Ireland for not pursuing a more sustainable path. I wanted to make the point that we are better to prepare for the paradigm shift to a 21st century economy than wait for the Celtic Tiger economy to return. The successful architectural practices of the future are embryonic now or perhaps they haven’t even been born. As we emerge from our archaic epoch to our classical period,the turmoil of the current corrections are a welcome catalyst reorientating our priorities to balance economy, society and environment. During the last depression, (caused by the exact same banking belligerence as today, our most famous Architect was acting his way into friendship with Sean Lemass and Co who developed the 1958 Programme for Economic Expansion which revolutionised this country and dragged a new embryonic Architectural movement along, which quickly made the incumbent architectural practices redundant. Is Eamonn Ryan the new Sean Lemass and is the Green new deal a programme for national expansion. The clients of the future are those that understand that Energy is the new money. we have practically free energy in the west of Ireland. We have new buildings that need 5-25 litres of oil a square meter that could have been designed to use 1. Richard Doubtwaite puts our economic problems down to the fact that 10% of our income leaves the country with no reciprocal transfers in the form of imported fossil fuel. Thats €6 or 7 billion leaving the Irish economy every year, gone. Spending €15 billion on Indigenous energy would yield a better return as the money would stay in circulation and reverberate around the western seaboard. Its a crime that we are 20 years behind Denmark in energy policy, its crime that the Corrib field is not being used to provide peaking plant and voltage control to back up adding large scale renewables to the grid.

Anyway Lets have that other discussion.

What have the disciplines of Architecture and Urban Design contributed to the >35% of our building stock constructed in the last 15 years, that could not have been achieved without them?

There is an argument about these days which states that without the RIAI, which gives the appearance of a regulating board advancing architecture and providing building control, the government would regulate all new works and changes of use through something like a bord Ailtireacht. This would mean less pattern book architecture and a building control similar to the UK. How much of what we have built is Architecture, Look at the AAI awards, They had to give awards to warehouses and sensibly the judges excluded one of houses. People without any aesthetic training design most of the new flloorspace in this country and the daft opinion on substantial compliance is not building control. We’d have better buildings if the RIAI was disbanded in 1995. Touche

(you’d never guess I wasnt offered a place in Architecture after my Leaving, would you.)

@keating wrote:

We’d have better buildings if the RIAI was disbanded in 1995.

Not sure about better buildings, but I do question what they do for us

My depression on the current financial situation has extended even to my fingers, meaning that even typing has become painful. However, as the economy has gotten worse, I note that my bitterness towards the Celtic Tiger has increased proportionally.

What really galls me was the protection and common-goodliness offered by our so-called regulators and planning departments. It’s bad enough that private industry tried to grab every penny they could – hey, isn’t that what private industry is meant to do? – but it’s the fact that our public servants seemed complicit in this plunder that gets to me.

Take negative equity – whatever way you look at it, it’s crap. BUT at least if you were stuck in a decent sized apartment for the next ten years, one that was spacious enough that you could start a family, then while negative equity would be a right ***** you could still progress with your life.

Instead our pathetic standards meant that many (most?) of our recently built apartments are useless for use as anything other than dormitories for mid-twenties workers. Is getting married and having a couple of kids while living in a 600 sq ft two-bed really an option? Especially one with paper thin walls?

Or the number of one-off houses that were built, so that most families are forced to pay for two cars/two sets of petrol/two sets of car tax and insurance, bacause if they don’t, it’s a long walk to the nearest shop/school/church/job.

And now my head hurts. Sorry for the rant.

http://www.bdonline.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=426&storycode=3132638&c=2&encCode=00000000018e6493

This brings back memories of the early 90’s

@massamann wrote:

My depression on the current financial situation has extended even to my fingers, meaning that even typing has become painful. However, as the economy has gotten worse, I note that my bitterness towards the Celtic Tiger has increased proportionally.

What really galls me was the protection and common-goodliness offered by our so-called regulators and planning departments. It’s bad enough that private industry tried to grab every penny they could – hey, isn’t that what private industry is meant to do? – but it’s the fact that our public servants seemed complicit in this plunder that gets to me.

Take negative equity – whatever way you look at it, it’s crap. BUT at least if you were stuck in a decent sized apartment for the next ten years, one that was spacious enough that you could start a family, then while negative equity would be a right ***** you could still progress with your life.

Instead our pathetic standards meant that many (most?) of our recently built apartments are useless for use as anything other than dormitories for mid-twenties workers. Is getting married and having a couple of kids while living in a 600 sq ft two-bed really an option? Especially one with paper thin walls?

Or the number of one-off houses that were built, so that most families are forced to pay for two cars/two sets of petrol/two sets of car tax and insurance, bacause if they don’t, it’s a long walk to the nearest shop/school/church/job.

And now my head hurts. Sorry for the rant.

negative equity – what’s your definition of this? It’s a phrase bandied about by people whose houses are worth less than they paid for them. But, if you bought before the stamp duty revisions at say 6% stamp duty, your house would have to appreciate by 6% before you “broke even”. Negative equity is when your house is worth less than you owe which is a worry if you’re a speculator or on a buy to let jaunt. Ironically a speculator would only get an 85% mortgage so they can absorb a notional 15% drop in price without negative equity

The houses being sold now are desperation sales – the market is not a true reflection of market worth. If you bought for the long term then sit back and weather the storm. If you bought in the last 7 years you will, without a doubt, lose money but not as much as you think.

Even more ironically actually is those people who lose their jobs and have to go overseas will have to rent out their houses and end up paying more tax.

it’s great the way that, when we’re up we’re great and when we’re down it’s someone else’s fault

I bought a house 3 years ago. It was built in 1890 and cost me a bit.

It’s not built particularly well, there’s no isulation in it, it’s freezing cold and a howling gale blows through every orifice. The little girl next door doesn’t sleep very well around 2-3am and I have to pay to park my car in the street outside. Now, who can I blame?

The architect? – probably dead and his PI will probably have lapsed.
The builder? – similar situation I suppose
The estate agent? – I viewed it didn’t I?
The surveyor? – told me all I already knew
The bank? gave me more than they should but I got a very good deal on a tracker that doesn’t exist anymore. I took it though didn’t I?
The builder I got to tart it up? made it a hundred times better
It has no garden – where will my kids play? – the park with other kids
It has an energy rating of G – who will buy it? – they’ve sold for 120 years, they’ll sell again

so, when you think about – the only person to blame for where and what I live in is “me”

You are right wearnicehats! You can’t blame anyone else for where you live. If the public keep on buying poor quality shoebox apartments then the developers will keep providing them. Vote with your feet and stay renting instead. You get far more for your money that way.

I also, however, took the plunge 3 years ago to purchase a small terraced house, 100 years old, no insulation, some damp, no garden, noisy neighbours, etc. but I’m in for the long term. I can save up, and make little changes here and there when I can afford it. I will insulate it as best can be achieved, update all the old services in it, put in some new windows, put in a solar roof collector to heat the water, etc.

There are thousands of properties like mine and yours all over the country which badly need upgrading. They are not going to be knocked as they make up the core of our towns and cities. This is where I see a big opportunity in the future. Making small improvements and improving the energy efficiency of all these dwellings. I’m not talking about the sort of projects you get in all the magazines (100k extension doubling the size of the house etc) but small scale jobs (10-30k) which will require a bit more imagination. This is where opportunities lie.

I was always taught at college that the real opportunities to make money were in development and somehow architects need to break into this area of the construction industry. Then you can make the decisions yourself and make real change.

Sorry hats,

But I’m not with you on this one. We trade a number of our rights to the government e.g. the right to drive at 180mph, the right to build what I want where I want (provided I own the land) and in return they are meant to act in the best interests of society as a whole. But they didn’t live up to their side of the bargain. While they were denying Sean and Sile Citizen the right to squeeze a second house into their front garden, at the same time they were greenlighting the rezoning of large tracts of land across the country. To me, this is not fair and equitable.

When you go to the doctor, you’re the one that doesn’t feel well. You’re the one that smoked, drank or eat too much. But given that, you are hiring someone with more knowledge and experience than you to examine the situation and tell you what you should do. You expect their advice to be truthful; you expect their advice to be honest. After all, you are paying for it. Whether you act on it is up to you. But you at least expect them to do their job.

When the bank regulator was telling us that everything was okay, was he doing his job?
When planners were taking bribes to rezone land, were they doing their job?
When I hired a surveyor to look at my house, if he had missed something or neglected to point a critical detail out, would that be my fault or his?

You must certainly shoulder some of the responsibility for buying your house. As must I. I just wish that the public servants that we are ALL paying to do the best for us, and that I was listening to when I made the decision to buy, had been more forthcoming with the true state of play. I can’t decide to opt out of paying taxes. I have no choice as to whether I follow the planning regulations or not. The state insists that this is what I must do.

And because of this, in return I expect that at the very least, I should be able to trust what these public officials tell me.

@massamann wrote:

Sorry hats,

But I’m not with you on this one. We trade a number of our rights to the government e.g. the right to drive at 180mph, the right to build what I want where I want (provided I own the land) and in return they are meant to act in the best interests of society as a whole. But they didn’t live up to their side of the bargain. While they were denying Sean and Sile Citizen the right to squeeze a second house into their front garden, at the same time they were greenlighting the rezoning of large tracts of land across the country. To me, this is not fair and equitable.

When you go to the doctor, you’re the one that doesn’t feel well. You’re the one that smoked, drank or eat too much. But given that, you are hiring someone with more knowledge and experience than you to examine the situation and tell you what you should do. You expect their advice to be truthful; you expect their advice to be honest. After all, you are paying for it. Whether you act on it is up to you. But you at least expect them to do their job.

When the bank regulator was telling us that everything was okay, was he doing his job?
When planners were taking bribes to rezone land, were they doing their job?
When I hired a surveyor to look at my house, if he had missed something or neglected to point a critical detail out, would that be my fault or his?

You must certainly shoulder some of the responsibility for buying your house. As must I. I just wish that the public servants that we are ALL paying to do the best for us, and that I was listening to when I made the decision to buy, had been more forthcoming with the true state of play. I can’t decide to opt out of paying taxes. I have no choice as to whether I follow the planning regulations or not. The state insists that this is what I must do.

And because of this, in return I expect that at the very least, I should be able to trust what these public officials tell me.

I don’t disagree with your gist at all

My point, however, was more directed at those who bought somewhere and are now moaning about its quality or amenity. Moreso those like Keating who bought somewhere “dark and drafty(sic)” – is this someone who bought without viewing (mad)?, someone who bought off plans (foolish or a speculator) or bought somewhere that they never intended to live in but now have to because they can’t shift. But even moreso because people like Keating seem to be taking pleasure in the demise of an industry and the pain of its dependants, driven by this begrudgery

I don’t shoulder some of the responsibility for buying. I shoulder all of it unless I can prove the negligence of advice of others and, who knows, maybe someone will have the nerve to sue a bank, a governing body in the future

@massamann wrote:

When planners were taking bribes to rezone land, were they doing their job?

I think that might have been Councillors, rather than Planners, massamann!

Planners are going to have enough of the brown stuff heaped on them in the next few days (and rightly so), without getting hit with the ‘brown envelopes’ accusation as well.

Fair point.

I kinda meant city planner(s), but I do admit that I was hoping to tar them all with the same brush. Such is the deep, dark depth of my bile….

someone told me reddys are down to 15 people – can’t be true surely?

@wearnicehats wrote:

someone told me reddys are down to 15 people – can’t be true surely?

Well they do have a Big ‘Office to Let’ sign outside their Dublin office.

Heard a very similar rumour about O’M+P……
But in Reddy’s case is it just their Dublin office that is affected? Have they transfered their opperations to their other offices?

So are there any jobs out there in Ireland for architects at the moment or is it all completely doom and gloom in every part of the land – I’ve suddenly been made redundant and wondering where to start?!?!

go and sign on;)

Your best bet is to up skill or change careers unless you have the option of 2 poles.
Everyone is undercutting each other while some practices work for free…
Even if you are working on secure projects you may be replaced by someone cheaper and better… If your young you have the whole world before your eyes but you could of course join the church of architecture and say a little hymn 😀 There are still big 30 year contracts out there yet to be awarded which bear no risk to the tax payer/architect…

amen;)

@archie83 wrote:

So are there any jobs out there in Ireland for architects at the moment or is it all completely doom and gloom in every part of the land – I’ve suddenly been made redundant and wondering where to start?!?!

Douglas Wallace have gone into administration.

The word is that Reddys are about to do the same

@wearnicehats wrote:

Douglas Wallace have gone into administration.

The word is that Reddys are about to do the same

😮

@wearnicehats wrote:

Douglas Wallace have gone into administration.

Looks like the pre-aged copper industry will follow shortly then.

I guess just as its reckless to build an economy on one sector, its reckless to build a practice on just one major client (edward)

@zelemon wrote:

HI, i am th first in my firm to be cut, have been here for over three years.
Unfortunately all the places i was banking on like Dubai & Abu Dhabi seem to be stagnant, does anybody know where on this planet there is work for us Architects?

Gibralter
there are jobs around the world.. you just have to look..
I would only be looking for permanent contract, personally as I would not be moving to a country and realising theres no jobs there.

@wearnicehats wrote:

Douglas Wallace have gone into administration.

The word is that Reddys are about to do the same

Examinership to be precise for Douglas Wallace, I believe. Gives them some time to see if they can remain trading. Prague and London still ok.

Yes it’s examinership, there is no administration in Ireland, but it is roughly the UK equivalent to it

As a young unemployed graduate architect, I feel that the inaction on the part of the RIAI is nothing short of disgraceful. They seem to be nothing more than an old boys club protecting the intersts of their “fellows”. A graduate architect can not even call himself an architect anymore and Associate membership of the club is a thing of the past.
If this Institution was of any use they would be campaigning the government to introduce an internship system for graduates whereby they can stay in the country and obtain the experience neccessary to sit the professional exam to gain membership of the club. Or maybe they dont want us being members as the young architect is far better positioned to provide a more efficient and complete service for his clients in these changed times. SHAME ON THE RIAI

@paul101 wrote:

Or maybe they dont want us being members as the young architect is far better positioned to provide a more efficient and complete service for his clients in these changed times.

I understand your frustration, but I think that sort of comment is a lttle naive!

Not trying to defend the RIAI in any way but they are not in any way a powerful body in terms of lobbying – it took 100 odd years to get registration in the first place.

@paul101 wrote:

If this Institution was of any use they would be campaigning the government to introduce an internship system for graduates whereby they can stay in the country and obtain the experience neccessary to sit the professional exam to gain membership of the club.

That’s a really amusing example of a perfectly self-contradictory sentence, almost as good as the famous “I don’t care to belong to any club that will have me as a member” by Groucho Marx. Why would you want to gain a membership of such a useless club?

Don’t get me wrong, I also understand your frustration. But I cannot agree with your conclusions – you chose your career yourself, why should you be getting anything from anyone for free? Why should the state, which already paid a lot to educate you pay even more to detain you in the country?

Can I ask that if you’re reporting a firm closing, you try and reference a link to the story. Just to prevent malicious rumour-mongering and potential legal action against archiseek.com

TV PROGRAMME
CALLING ALL ARCHITECTS

We are currently working on a three part TV series focussing on the global economic downturn with economist and TV presenter David Mc Williams. In one of the programmes we are concentrating on the human impact of the downturn and talking to people whose lives have been affected by the worldwide crash. We understand that a large number of Irish architects have been affected through job losses and ideally we are hoping to talk to someone, on camera, about their current situation, the affects of unemployment on the family, change in lifestyle and current job prospects. If you are currently unemployed and would like to take part we would love to hear from you. You can email us at cridge@tyrone-productions.ie or phone Yvonne Kinsella or Claire Ridge on 01 6627200.

Contrary to the rumour about Reddys closing

“todate, no offices of the Reddy Architecture and Urbanism Group have closed. We continue to have offices in Dublin, Cork, Kilkenny, Sligo and Belfast.”

pretty scary if it turns into reality?

http://www.irishconstruction.com/page/2178

Dennehy & Dennehy design in Cork seriously reduced to a part-time skeleton staff.Badly exposed to the housing and apartment market slump.15 gone and the balance on the precipice.Unfortunatly hearing that further lay off’s in the pipeline for other long established practices in Cork.

Scary is one word that you could use allright as its continuing to get worse.

noticing (2) architecture firms ads on tv…

@lostexpectation wrote:

noticing (2) architecture firms ads on tv…

Who are they? What are they advertising?

😮 http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2009/0919/1224254861255.html by Barry O’Hanlon in today’s Irish Times

Almost 150,000 jobs in construction lost since 2007, says study

CLOSE TO 150,000 builders have lost their jobs since the construction industry went into recession in 2007, according to Government figures released yesterday.

The Department of the Environment’s Construction Industry Review and Outlook states that the recession in the sector is deepening, and predicts that the sector will contract to its mid-1990s level by the end of 2011.

The report, written by Annette Hughes of DKM Economic Consultants, estimates that direct employment in the industry fell to 167,000 by the end of August, implying that 107,000 jobs were lost since 2007.

“Including an estimate for indirect employment, the total number employed was 233,800 at the end of August – a reduction of 147,000 jobs since the peak,” the report adds.

The value of the industry last year fell by €6.4 billion to €32 billion, a decline of 16.5 per cent.

The report predicts that it will fall to €20 billion this year, a decline of nearly 33 per cent on 2008.

As the economy is unlikely to begin growing again for two years, the building industry’s value is set to fall to €13 billion in 2011, the report says.

At that stage, it will account for 10 per cent of the wealth generated in the Republic that year, compared with 25 per cent in 2006.

In volume terms, the industry’s output – what it builds – will have halved since 2006, reducing its scale to that of the mid-1990s, the report says.

It warns that there are risks that the industry’s value could fall even further over the next two years. If public spending on infrastructure were to be cut by €13.3 billion over the 2009 to 2011 period, construction output could drop to €11.7 billion, less than one-third of its peak in 2007.

Added to that, further falls in house prices would hit residential building, forcing output closer to €10 billion.

The report states that measures are urgently required to sustain investment in the industry. “The Minister for Finance, in his budget speech, indicated that there is scope to explore alternative options for funding public infrastructure,” it says.

“With the industry already heading for its most severe contraction in 30 years, such initiatives need to be urgently brought forward to protect jobs, retain the skills base and provide much-needed infrastructure.”

The report adds that, given the spare capacity in the industry, there is a good argument for incentives to boost energy efficiency in existing buildings.

a time for building stations…

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2009/0919/1224254844386.html

Dept of Environment, Heritage and Local Government publish Annual Construction Industry Review 2008 and Outlook 2009-2011

On 18 September the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government published the Annual Construction Industry Review 2008 and Outlook 2009-2011. This report independent report prepared by DKM Economic Consultants. The report can be downloaded from http://www.environ.ie and http://www.dkm.ie.

The report forecasts that the volume of construction output will decline by 23.8% in 2010 and by 8% in 2011. Thus over the period 2008-2011 construction output volumes are forecast to decline by 52.5% or by an average of 22% per annum. Thus volumes by the end of 2011 are expected to return to where they were at in the mid-1990s.

Key highlights:

* The construction recession is deepening and the recovery is a long way off
* Construction jobs hit hardest by the recession – a total of 147,000 direct and indirect jobs lost since Q2 2007
* An unprecedented increase in corporate failures in construction
* The housing supply overhang in residential market will discourage new building activity for next four years with only 10,000 completions per annum forecast in 2010 and 2011
* Public sector construction is suffering from the deterioration in the public finances
* Key measures urgently required to stem the deepening recession
* A strong construction industry is essential to support the recovery

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2009/1008/1224256167417.html

More bad news
http://www.businessworld.ie/livenews.htm?a=2543046;s=rollingnews.htm

@roskav wrote:

More bad news
http://www.businessworld.ie/livenews.htm?a=2543046;s=rollingnews.htm

yeah but we’re not feeling the pain you know

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/property/2010/0128/1224263284187.html
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/property/2010/0128/1224263283909.html

Nice to see someone doing well out if it.

ONQ.

just to get back to the original thread, what are all the unemployed architects and technicians doing now? Any of you out there? I am one of those still clinging on (short time working as well), but the office where I work is now less than half the size it was when I joined. I think it will get worse before it gets better.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqDhkBaBY74

1:14

@missarchi wrote:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqDhkBaBY74

1:14

Is that nonsense the long anticipated Movie version of “Fair City” ?

http://www.planonline.ie/page/274