Negroni Talk #42 -Fees F:or Free: The Divide And Conquer Of Architecture?

How many times have we heard the phrase “race to the bottom” when it comes to architects discussing fees and design quality. With practices closing their doors and citing the undercutting of their fees as a key factor, competition seems to have defeated camaraderie and we have to ask if the profession is eating itself? We want clients (both public and private) to respect the quality that an architect can bring to a project, but how can we do that when we don’t respect ourselves? Now that we’re in a ‘cost of living crisis’ and material prices are rising around the world, we are told that profit margins are tighter than ever. But the architect’s fee is often a drop in the ocean compared to the rest of a project’s budget, and is it not the case that a really good quality design can actually save money (and time) if an open-minded person with experience and knowledge is leading the process from an early stage? It is also depressing to see a public sector that places such a large emphasis on fees in their tendering processes, which surely signals to architects how they are valued and how best to win work by incentivising them to Go Low or instead Go Home! How can we alter the perception of the ‘architect’ so that people recognise design is worth investing in? How can we communicate to the architectural profession that you’re not doing yourself any favours by charging a fee drastically lower than your fellow architects? And what of the organisations and royal institutions set up to protect and promote architects, architecture and schools of architecture? Would a change to both the curriculum in education and a legislative return to the mandatory fee scale in practice, produce a future with architects having a less immature approach to business and an environment whereby the best designs and not the lowest fees become a new benchmark? In a world where creativity has increasingly become complicit with a controlling commercialism, how should architects better protect the spirit and ideas that can be upheld by progressive building design, as well as themselves and each other as a local, regional, national and global community? Speakers: Angharad Palmer, Landsec Britta Siggelkow, THINK:BUILD Eleanor Jolliffe, Allies and Morrison London Practice Forum amongst others….