Mixed fortunes for Europe’s architects

Europe’s architects are starting to see signs of recovery, with British architects enjoying their best quarter since 2008. Almost 60% saw an increase in their order books for the third quarter, ended 30 September 2013, according to the latest market research survey from Arch-Vision.

Arch-Vision predicts a 2% rise of the UK market in 2013 and an increase of 1% in 2014 and 2015.

The Q3 2013 European Architectural Barometer report also saw 35% of architects in the Netherlands reporting growing order books, while France and Spain also showed slight indications of improvement. All three markets are expected to recover by 2015.

A third of architects in Belgium posted order book growth in Q3 2013, while 26% of Polish architects also reported growth. Some 42% of Polish architects did report declines in their order books, with 31% expecting an empty order book within the next 12 months.

Germany continued to offer the best market conditions, with 31% of architects reporting growth, while at the other end of the scale Italy had a very difficult quarter again, with only 6% of its architects seeing growth. Arch-Vision predicts the Italian market will shrink by as much as 14% in 2013.

The European Architectural Barometer report is a quarterly research among 1,600 architects in eight European countries.