British Architects See a welcome Order Book Increase

British architects experienced an increase of their order book by 5% or more in the second quarter of 2012. This is the first quarter since Q2 2011 that the share of architects with an increase of over 5% has grown. German architects have been reporting an increase of their turnover since the beginning of 2010 and are performing better each quarter. France, the Netherlands, Spain and especially Italy show negative turnover developments. These are some of the conclusions of the Q2 2012 report of the European Architectural Barometer, a quarterly research among 1,200 architects in six European countries. European architects act as leading indicators for construction activity. Not only did the share of British architects with a strong increase of the order book grow, the share of stable companies (50%) did too. The percentage of companies with a decrease dropped from 28% in Q1 2012 to 23% in Q2 2012. The turnover development is also positive. One out of three architects saw their turnover increase compared to the previous quarter.


The German market seems to be less affected by the monetary crisis. Since 2010, German architects reported positive turnover developments. The last quarter of 2010 was the last time the turnover decreased, ever since the Germans are steadily growing. There are some indicators however, that might point to less positive developments. The German architects are employing less people(7,4 FTE) than the previous quarter and they also do less projects per FTE (2,2). In Q1 2012 they were doing 2.5 projects per FTE. The share of people who noticed no change in the order book (56%) and the turnover (72%) is also high. The Germans remain optimistic. At the moment, only 4% believe their order book might get empty within 12 months. These last 8 quarters, this percentages has never been higher than 5%.

However, Spain and Italy continue to show strong negative results. Ever since the start of the Arch-Vision European Architectural Barometer in Q1 2009, both countries have been reporting decreasing turnover and order book developments each quarter. Until Q1 2011, Spain experienced the strongest decline in turnover, after then the negative development did continue, but was less extreme. The Italian market on the other hand, performed poorly since Q1 2009, but clearly showed an even further deterioration from Q1 2011 onwards. The Spanish market is more likely to show improvement shortly. For two quarters in a row, the share of architects with an strongly increasing order book is 19%. This is nearly twice as high as in Q1 2011, the best quarter until then. Nevertheless the Italians are more optimistic about the future than the Spanish. When asked if they expected an empty order book in the coming 12 months 29% of the Italian and 43% of the Spanish architects confirmed that they did.

After a stable period, the French and Dutch markets are now deteriorating again. In the Netherlands the turnover development was stable from Q1 2010 to Q1 2011. After this the situation worsened. In France Q1 2011 to Q3 2011 saw no positive or negative changes. Both countries seem to follow the double-dip scenario. One out of four French architects fears an empty order book. The Dutch are even more pessimist (31%), but they were able to keep their order book duration stable at 6.3 months

These and many other results and trends of the developments of the European construction market can be found in the European Architectural Barometer, an international research conducted among 1,200 architects in Europe. This study is conducted in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom and the Netherlands by Arch-Vision four times a year. Besides indicators to forecast European building volumes, a specific topic is highlighted each quarter. The topic in Q2 2012 is “Architectural Design & Technology trends” Architects can be used not only as a reliable source for future building volumes information, but their role is very important as they have great influence on how projects are built and which materials are used.


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