Scotland loses out as architects go for gold at London Olympics

Published on Sunday 10 June 2007 00:12

IT GAVE the world William Adam and his son Robert who, along with Glasgow's Charles Rennie Mackintosh, put Scottish architecture on the map.

But the country that has traditionally produced a stream of world-renowned architects is now suffering a severe shortage in one of its most revered professions.

Up to 40% of the young architects now graduating from Scottish universities are being lured to the southeast of England to take part in the construction boom leading up to the 2012 Olympics.

After spending seven years learning their profession they are attracted by the higher salaries being offered on the big-money projects that will precede the 10bn games.

And now architectural practices across Scotland say they are experiencing severe difficulties in recruiting recently qualified architects. Large infrastructure projects will be affected, as well as the house extension market, with home- owners facing longer waits for their dream additions.

Douglas Read, president of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS), said the whole range of architectural work would be affected.

"We are faced with an incredible construction boom at the moment in Scotland, as well as elsewhere, and there are not enough architects to go around.

"Then we are faced with the Olympics down south, which is drawing increasing numbers of our recently qualified architects away.

"This will affect everyone, from the big multi-million-pound projects at the top to the home extension market at the other end."

Architectural practices were having to turn work away because they did not have enough staff, Read added. Practices were being "run off their feet", which meant clients having to find other architects or wait longer for their plans to be drawn up.

"One of the problems is the effect of Changing Rooms and other TV makeover programmes. People see projects completed in very quick time and it raises their expectations. With practices finding it more difficult than before to recruit, they may now have to wait longer."

Some 200 architecture students graduate from the gruelling courses at Scotland's six architecture schools every year.

Peter Wilson, the director of the Manifesto Foundation for Architecture at Napier University, which monitors trends in the profession, said: "Up to 40% of graduates now leave for London as soon as they qualify, attracted by the higher wages and sheer volume of opportunities. The problem is, once they are down there, very few ever come back."

Major housing projects - such as Glasgow Harbour, Edinburgh Waterfront and the 1.2bn Ravenscraig new town - could also be hit by the architect exodus.

According to Alan Dunlop, of the Glasgow practice Gordon Murray and Alan Dunlop, experienced architects are also being targeted.

"What we are short of is people with around five years experience and up to 10 years. They can get between 45,000 and 50,000 down there, compared with 30,000 to 38,000 here."

Allan Lundmark, director of planning at the umbrella group Homes for Scotland, said the shortage would affect plans to double the number of new houses being built in Scotland to meet demand.

"People know there are shortages of plumbers, plasterers and brickies but what they don't realise is there is a shortage of skilled professionals as well," he said.

"There is now a shortage of architects working on housing developments. As it already takes two to three years to get new developments through the planning system, a shortage of architects can only make it worse."

Some practices have tried to fill the gap with architects recruited from other countries such as Germany, Spain and Poland. Others have bought architecture firms in eastern European countries so that more routine work can be carried out before being e-mailed back.

Read said: "A lot of them are very competent people, but the problem is there is not enough of them to fill the gap and there won't be for the foreseeable future."

One further problem for homeowners is that if they do secure an architect, the team of builders and craftsmen they employ to build extensions may also have gone south. Read said: "Architects like to work with certain people they trust. If they disappear to England then the situation could get even worse."

Mother of all building sites raises bar

The 2012 Olympics will be the biggest construction project in British history with, first, the preparation of a 246 hectare (2.5 sq km) site in East London as the Olympic Park and then a series of major building schemes.

The planning application includes plans to construct five permanent sporting venues: the Olympic stadium; aquatics centre; velo park, handball arena; and Eton Manor - as well as three other temporary venues.

Plans also include homes and office space to be used after the games extravaganza.

There already 500 building workers on the Olympic Park site with a figure expected to peak at 9,000. But the London Development Agency estimates that as many 30,000 additional workers may be needed for Olympics-related projects.

The overall budget for Olympic-related preparations and regeneration costs has now more than tripled from the original estimate to 10bn. The budget for venues, regeneration and infrastructure alone has climbed from 2.4bn to 5.3bn.