Architecture

Architecture in transition: of sustainable importance

The spatial design of the living environment is almost automatically tied to social issues. How do we ensure that our building culture is aligned with a sustainable future? How can designers contribute to urgent transition tasks such as the nitrogen crisis, the development of a circular economy or the tight housing market? And how does a new project relate to increasingly stringent building regulations such as the Environmental Performance of Buildings (MPG) and the requirements for Nearly Energy Neutral Buildings (BENG)? And how do we address the inclusiveness of public spaces and the diversity of the city?

Architects and designers of the spatial environment are increasingly presented as experts on change - the Design page addresses the same development regarding designers. In the Annual Report 2021: Analysing the spatial design sector, for example, architects are seen as ‘socio-spatial problem solvers’, a term adopted from professor of architecture Flora Samuel (Kempen et al. 2021, 20). In the foreword to the Action Programme Spatial Design 2021-2024: Design Connects, former ministers Kajsa Ollongren and Ingrid van Engelshoven state that architects, urban planners and landscape architects are ‘an important instrument’ to make changes such as climate adaptation and the switch to circular agriculture successful (BZK and OCW 2020, 3).

This involves not only design, but also design research: the joint imagining of the future and spatial interventions through research and experimentation (Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie 2020). The 'City of the Future' project, for instance, developed a new thinking framework and vocabulary for the redevelopment of Utrecht's eastern urban periphery. After all, how can the city of the future be shaped when sticking to existing paradigms? The incentive programme launched by the Creative Industries Fund NL as part of the Action Programme Spatial Design 2021-2024 also offers space for such design research, to tackle extensive transition processes and improve the spatial quality of the Netherlands. The platform De nieuwe ruimte (the new space) brings together the (interim) results of the incentive programme.

The upcoming Spatial Design Action Programme 2025-2028 focuses specifically on strengthening design research. Although the College van Rijkadviseurs (CRa) supports this objective, it believes that the focus is too narrow, as the CRa reports in Designing transitions: Six recommendations for the Spatial Design Action Programme 2025-2028. The CRa emphasises that, in addition to design research, other forms of spatial design are also essential for promoting environmental quality, with strategic design and operational design as examples. Additionally, too strict a focus on design research could lead to “the means becoming more important than the ultimate goal: a sustainable, just and high-quality living environment” (College van Rijksadviseurs 2024, 7).

In the current range of architecture and its appreciation, transition tasks are also clearly recognisable. For the Best Building of the Year election - organised annually by the Branchevereniging van Nederlandse Architectenbureaus (BNA) - there is a lot of focus on sustainability and climate. In 2022, for example, Museum Singer Laren was voted Best Building by both professional and public juries and praised for the reuse of existing building parts on which solar panels were installed - invisible to passers-by (Hannema 2022). The the rules of the Best Building of the Year 2022 also state that buildings that excel in sustainability or circularity have an advantage with the professional jury.

An example at the international level is the Nieuw Europees Bauhaus (NEB), an initiative launched by the European Commission in January 2021. Its aim is to implement the European Green Deal in a cultural, sustainable and inclusive way. The NEB is presented as an interdisciplinary platform where artists, designers, engineers, scientists, entrepreneurs, architects, students and other interested parties can share their ideas for a green transition. Cash prizes will also be awarded to further develop these ideas. In addition, the NEB aspires to engage citizens, experts, businesses and institutions in a dialogue on future-proof living.

Closer to society

The Environment Act - which came into force on 1 January 2024 - also seeks to increase cooperation between citizens, businesses and civil society organisations at the national level. The idea is to bring spatial projects closer to society and promote participation within projects. An example of such cooperation is the new public space of the Berlijnplein in Utrecht, which will be developed by BOOM Landscape in co-creation with residents and completed in 2025.

This ties in with the importance and rise of so-called city makers (stadmakers): residents take matters into their own hands and think for themselves about how their living environment can be improved. Here, city makers are the link between citizens and municipalities, connecting different interests. As the Council for Culture also describes: ‘the trend (...) calls for a new role of designers. Besides initiators, they are often directors, developers and connectors in these kinds of processes.' (Raad voor Cultuur 2018, 14).

Assignments, selection procedures and exclusion

Besides direct commissions from clients, architects gather new commissions through tenders. In these, architects (firms) can tender for an offered commission, after which the client selects the contractor from the total number of tenders. Interestingly, the enthusiasm for participating in such selection procedures has declined among small-scale agencies and independent designers (Atelier Rijksbouwmeester et al. 2020). Although clients are legally obliged to offer a reasonable tender fee - compensation for the costs incurred to submit a tender - this is not always proportionate to the efforts required from potential contractors.

Larger firms are better able to withstand the financial risks that selection procedures entail, which means they are more likely to participate in tenders (Atelier Rijksbouwmeester et al. 2020; Koetsenruijter and Kloosterman 2018; Rutten et al. 2019). Research by the BNA shows that in 2021, approximately 88 percent of the largest architectural firms (more than 40 fte) participated in selections, while that share was only 5 percent for the smallest firms (up to 8 fte). As main reasons for not or occasionally participating in selections, (interviewed) agencies mention the small chance of winning the commission and the high costs and requirements (BNA 2022).

In the discussions with the sector that were held for this domain page, the above is seen as a certain form of exclusion. For example, by setting high demands on the contractor's portfolio as a client, small agencies may find it more difficult to qualify in advance. In order to improve the tendering practice, an adjustment of the Tendering Act is being considered and the application of the Tender Cost Reimbursement Guidelines is being evaluated (BNA 2022).  

The Creative Industries Fund NL also offers smaller architectural firms and independent designers various means to develop, for example through the Architecture Regulation and the Open Call for Collective Knowledge Development Architecture. In total, the Fund provided 5,6 million euros in architecture subsidies in 2022 – in 2015 this was still 1,4 million euros.

Fragmented profession and increase in self-employed workers

Looking beyond the labour market relationship between client and contractor, it is striking that the architecture industry as a whole has become more fragmented due to reductions in scale. This fragmentation is a consequence of the financial crisis in 2008: the architectural industry's turnover fell from over €1,6 billion to €725 million in 2012 (Heebels and Kloosterman 2016; Raad voor Cultuur 2018). As a result, a large wave of layoffs has reduced existing firms to one-person businesses while architects without jobs have gone into business for themselves (Koetsenruijter and Kloosterman 2018). Consequently, the increase in self-employment within the sector is significant: from 19,5 percent self-employed in 2010 to almost 32,2 percent in 2018 (Kempen et al. 2021).

Because of all these sole proprietors, the profession is fragmenting, several industry advocates fear. In economic terms, self-employed architects are more vulnerable and have relatively few resources to invest, making it harder for them to compete in tender selection procedures, for example. It is also noted that the increase in the number of self-employed architects has a negative impact on the quality and professionalism of the field. Fragmentation also affects the strength of both the self-employed and the sector as a whole, as the collective organisation of the profession is hampered (Koetsenruijter and Kloosterman 2018).

Diversity and equality in the labour market

When looking at gender distributions among those registered in the Architects Register, women are usually in the minority. For the title of architect, the ratio of women to men in 2021 is 24 percent versus 76 percent, respectively. Only the title of interior architect is held by more women (57 percent) than men (CBS 2023a).

Differences between women and men in the labour market are also reflected in the type of employment contract and pay. The Annual Report 2021: Analysing the spatial design sector shows that the higher the gross salary, the lower the proportion of women. And even though women are overrepresented in the discipline of interior architecture, here too there is inequality in terms of part-time and relatively lower gross (monthly) wages (Kempen et al. 2021). The architecture sector is thus no exception: in the overall Dutch economy, a gender pay gap still exists. In 2018, the unadjusted wage gap in the business sector was 19 percent, and 7 percent after adjustment. In part, this wage gap is related to the fact that 80 per cent of women work part-time compared to 33 per cent of men. And a part-time job, on average, pays less per hour than a full-time job (CBS 2020).

At the European level, the Netherlands also comes off worst in terms of gender ratios in the architecture sector. Indeed, the European average in 2022 is 46 percent women architects - up 10 percentage points from 2012 - compared to 30 per cent in the Netherlands. Scandinavian countries do a lot better: Norway 45 percent, Denmark 48 percent, Sweden 53 percent and Finland tops with 54 percent women (Mirza & Nacey Research 2023).

Initiatives such as Mevr. De Architect, a section of the online architecture magazine A.ZINE, or the ‘Women Design’ theme of the Almere Architecture Prize (APA) 2022 helps make the women in the sector more visible and offers them a platform. Moreover, since 2018, almost half of university Architecture and Urban Planning graduates are women.

Of course, diversity is about more than gender relations in the labour market. However, the architecture domain currently lacks systematic monitoring and data collection to look beyond the binary women-men distribution.