Archigraphie 2018 Meeting challenges through collaboration

The decline in commissions between 2008 and 2009, then between 2011 and 2015, corresponded to a reduction in the workloads and income of architects and a decrease in the number of practices.
Since 2015, in relation with the renewed activity in the building sector and the economic recovery in general, there have been signs of improvement in the situation of architects; in particular, an increase in their workloads driven by private sector commissions, and this despite the 8% decline in public commissions between 2015 and 2016.

Architects have maintained their market share in the construction sector and the number of architects in practice is relatively stable. Practice in firms continues to increase such that the number of architects in partnerships is almost equal to those of sole practitioners in 2017. This is the first choice of young architects who practice increasingly as partners in architectural firms. Experienced sole practitioners are less inclined to change their form of practice.

Based on a survey conducted by CREDOC among architects registered with the Ordre, this latest edition also highlights the transformations within the architectural profession and the recourse to new working relationships.

Changes in the architect's position within the project design team, the impact of digital technology on professional practice, the diversification of the architectural profession and issues related to climate change are the most cited challenges for the future of the profession. In this context, changes are taking place within the profession, particularly through the development of new working relationships.

Nearly half of the architects surveyed, today work in a firm that collaborates with other professionals outside the project design team. These collaborations can involve very diverse consultants such as public relations professionals, citizens and end-user associations, botanists or sociologists. These collaborations can take several forms: the use of professional forums, coworking, social networks and Building Information Modelling (BIM). Although the use of these new working relationships differs according to the form and location of the practice. However, it does mark a real awareness of the need to open up to other professionals and continuing education, as architects have done and continue to do for the challenges of energy transition.

Confided to CREDOC by the Ordre this year, Archigraphie is therefore a valuable tool to understand the profession and its changes.
 

Archigraphie 2018 summary
Archigraphie enables to better know the architectural profession and this edition aims to analyse the different challenges and changes at work to anticipate the actions needed to support and boost activity in the sector.
In this latest edition, the focus is on the transformations of the architectural profession and the new working relationships used by the profession through a survey conducted by the CREDOC of architects registered with the Ordre.
Archigraphie is divided into four parts:

1. The first part is dedicated to the socio-demographic evolution of the profession (based on CNOA and Pôle Emploi data), their incomes (from CIPAV, ARAPL, UNASA data) as well as data on architectural practices and their employees (Actalians and OMPL data);
2. The second part deals with the professional integration of young graduates based on data from the Ministry of Culture survey;
3. The third part analyses the main trends in the construction sector and their impact on the architects workloads through general data on the building industry (FFB, INSEE), data that concerns the activity of architects (MAF) and data that concerns their client characteristics within the specific market of the private house (EPTB survey of the Ministère de la Transition Ecologique et Solidaire);
4. Finally, the fourth part highlights the transformations of the profession and the new working relationships of architects through a survey conducted by CREDOC for the Ordre.

The following highlights the main features of the architectural profession and its recent characteristic developments.