Project 27 visits 27 countries and interviews 27 architects


Good Times, Bad Times
Architects have a tendency to offer a design solution for every social and economic problem. It doesn’t matter whether the issue is energy, food, water, congested cities or even sparsely populated areas. It doesn’t even matter whether it occurs in Angola, India, China, Brazil or Russia. All over the world, architects eagerly tackle problems and dream up snazzy studies and imaginative spatial solutions on their computers. The problems are then presented in exhibitions and during lectures, and everything is documented for future generations in wonderful books, preferably published in various languages. The world simply couldn’t manage without architects, you might think.

Architects in Europe operate within sectors affected by big problems, and their position is coming under severe pressure. We see that in parts of the continent there is no money left to build, while elsewhere people are trying to limit financial risks and prevent the property market from collapsing. Almost no money is borrowed to complete building projects. Architecture, it turns out, is no longer indispensable after all, and this appears to be painfully confirmed by the volume of superfluous or unused architecture found all over the continent. Many architects have difficulty with any uncomfortable analysis of their role in recent decades, and they appear to have no interest in applying confrontational solutions to deal with their profession’s difficulties.

While the European economy continues to shrink and the baby boomers reach retirement age, a new generation of architects are just embarking on their careers. The Euro crisis has hit these architects hard and, as a result, they have to review the profession they are entering. Does the crisis influence their ambitions, dreams and ideals?

European architects
The most recent survey of the industry by the Architects' Council of Europe (ACE) in 2010 painted a rather gloomy picture of the future. Between 2008 and 2010 the volume of building production declined by 15%. The architecture sector came off worst with a drop of 22%. This decline had a serious impact on the income of architects. Average annual income dropped from almost 35,000 to 29,500 Euro. Architects in small offices in particular saw their incomes fall sharply. Despite the economic downturn, the interviewed architects from all over Europe still believe firmly in what they are doing and are optimistic about the future. Naivety and creativity obviously go well together. A healthy opportunism makes people happy, but how far can this go?

The architects Benoît Jallon and Umberto Napolitano of the French architecture office LAN, together with producer Antoine Cayrol and director Pierre Zandrowicz of FatCat Films, are carrying out a study of architects in Europe. Under the simple yet crystal clear name ‘Project 27’, they are visiting 27 architecture offices in the 27 member states of the European Union in what they themselves call ‘a journey to the heart of contemporary European architecture’. These 27 different architects build within the context of the regulations, views and traditions that exist in each of the 27 different cultures. Though the 27 architects are not representative of the 470,000 architects who work within the European Union, Project 27 can offer us a vivid description of the field of architecture in the future.

Facts and figures
The figures from the ACE make clear what that field now encompasses. The data is confronting, the differences clear, and the averages fascinating. Here are some of those facts: there is less than 1 architect per 1,000 Europeans (0.9 architect per 1,000 inhabitants). The greatest number of architects, some 145,000 in total, live in Italy. That works out at 2.4 architects per 1,000 inhabitants. More than 50% of young architects (younger than 40) live and work in Poland, Italy and Greece. In Slovakia, Austria and the Netherlands the architecture branch is very masculine, with men accounting for over 80% of architects there. At just over 50%, Greece, Bulgaria and Slovenia have the highest percentage of female architects. The type of work done by architects also varies greatly among European member states. Over 60% of the market in Belgium, Greece and Bulgaria consist of private houses. The public sector makes up the largest portion, 40%, in Denmark, Sweden and Finland. Commercial real estate accounts for 50% of the market in Romania and Slovakia.

The value of the total architecture market in Europe is about 14 billion Euro. Germany has the biggest architecture industry by far, worth some 4.1 billion Euro each year. In Slovenia, at the other end of the scale, the market totals just 10 million Euro annually. In the Netherlands an architect can earn an average of 51,000 Euro a year, more than in any other country. This is in sharp contrast with the (corrected) salary of just 8,200 Euro that a Romanian architect takes home each year.

Fieldwork
The figures from the ACE represent the architects who make a contribution to the shared space we call Europe. Project 27 picks up the thread with a multimedia study. During a lunch, dinner or city walk, Benoît Jallon and Umberto Napolitano talk to their guests about the meaning of architecture, and the opportunities, dangers and challenges faced by the profession in the current climate. The conversations are informal and offer an honest and relevant look at contemporary European architecture. At the same time, everything is filmed professionally, there is a fancy website with teasers, and the cities, guests, hosts and film crew are photographed extensively. In addition to making short web documentaries and a number of television productions, the makers are organising events in Paris and other European cities. The ultimate aim is to produce an exhibition, a book and a feature film of 92 minutes.

What is remarkable about the project is that architects themselves took the initiative to hold these conversations. It wasn’t a pedantic curator or a gasping critic from some institute or another who wanted to tell the architecture world where its place is. No, here we have two practising architects who funded their own journey to take stock of the state of affairs among European colleagues. And we should be thankful for their initiative. Featuring Bjarke Ingels and Julien de Smedt prominently among the first of the portraits makes you suspect that the project leans towards star fucking. Don’t we already see and hear enough from such internationally operating architects? These are precisely the type of architects that this project doesn’t need. Instead, it is much more interesting to study and compare relatively small offices working at a national or regional level. Fortunately, the line-up of offices that have already agreed to take part includes many such offices.

Project 27 doesn’t spring from any urgent need, but there is an irresistible romanticism about this new take on the grand tour. In the process, Project 27 can paint a penetrating portrait of what is really in the minds of European architects: beyond naivety and opportunism.

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