Architects pessimistic as work gets harder to come by

The RIBA’s Future Trends survey results for January suggest work for architects in the commercial and public sectors will be harder to come by as the year progresses.

Private housing is the sector that architects are feeling most confident about as 28% of those surveyed expect an increase in work, up from 20% in December, while just 17% of practices expect an increase in commercial sector work.

Overall, just 1% more practices expect workloads to increase, compared with those expecting falling workloads, indicating that there is no clear consensus on when a sector-wide recovery will take hold. Adrian Dobson, director of practice at the RIBA, commented: “Large practices now seem to be detecting prospects of growth.”