Would you encourage your child to pursue a career in architecture and design?

It only seems like yesterday when I dropped my daughter off at school but time flies and in just over 4 weeks she will be leaving the school gates for the last time. As a result, conversations about potential career choices and which university courses interest her are flowing at our dinner table. This got me thinking…

Would you encourage your child to pursue a career in architecture and design? (survey of 10 leaders)

Absolutely not!

Sadly, I could not in all honesty encourage either of my daughters to pursue a career in architecture…unless it was their all consuming passion. I say this despite having loved my 30 years in the profession, and having enjoyed career success and good pay. However I feel that I have been very lucky, and that my experience is not indicative of most women in the profession.

A predominantly male workforce, inflexible workplace practices, long hours and slow career progression all continue to make architecture a profession that requires tough compromise if you intend to try and balance a family and career

The fundamental needs of humanity include water, food and shelter. Architects work with other skilled people to create shelter and that’s been happening since before humans developed farming or the earliest civilisations.

As architects we continue to see buildings and places being built that could only exist because they emerged in our minds first, and as architects we experience the huge personal fulfilment of creating places where communities thrive.

At every stage of human advancement the new technology gets added to the tools available to support architects do what we do, and the profession remains the career of choice for creative, civic minded, technically adept young people who want to make a better world.

I’ve been working in the architectural profession for 50 years now and I’ve seen a steady decline in opportunities for creativity and innovation – and conversely a dramatic rise in bureaucracy and legislation – dynamics which are strangling architects and making life a misery for them. I would therefore not encourage my child to enter the profession.

Architectural education is long, challenging and extremely expensive these days. More often than not, young aspiring architects leave their architectural education in crippling student debt, embarking in a very competitive professional market, expected to often work gruesome hours whilst usually being severely underpaid. When I am called upon to advise someone in my close personal circle, I make sure they go in it with their eyes wide open.

At the end of the day it is a highly personal decision and relies on the individual’s aptitude and appetite to go down the route of architecture. There are always other avenues to “solve the world’s hard problems”, to work with hugely talented and inspiring people and to support communities, fight for climate justice, possibly through other industries outside the built environment.

Unpopular opinion, but no. Too many design firms are scrambling to take advantage of AI to remain competitive and increase profitability, and it’s hastening our demise. Instead of a traditional career path in design or any other field, I’d encourage young people to explore careers that can’t currently be solved by AI.

Better yet, I’d encourage them to develop strategies and build companies that respond to the myriad problems created by AI. I have two grown kids. I hope I’ve prepared them for what’s next.

I would not encourage my child to pursue a career in architecture. The industry is on its knees and does not look after its people well enough, both financially or emotionally. I know some places are changing that, but in all honesty it is an industry that needs significant review and intervention.

YES 100% – it is SO easy to focus on the negatives & challenges… the fear of being replaced by AI, tighter margins, more regulation – But Architecture & Design remains a brilliant and exciting industry – full of beautiful, incredible, talented people who are a joy to collaborate with… there remains no better industry to pursue !

Absolutely! Architecture and Design remains a wholly fulfilling creative career with wide opportunity for specialism and diverse opportunity to explore different typologies and interests. We should continue to inspire and encourage the rising generation.

That response isn’t without some caveats though, including realistic expectations of the day-to-day life, including salary. As long as there is an understanding that being an architect is not the grand bespectacled Hollywood image that many still think it is (if it ever was?). And whether you will be as appreciated as you think you should be, well that’s a discussion for another time….

I have three grown children, and none of them chose to pursue architecture. It was not something I encouraged or discouraged. What I hoped for is that they would choose a path that fired their imagination. I chose to pursue architecture because it was something in which I was curious about since I was 14. I loved looking at and thinking about buildings and cities.

As a suburban high schooler outside of Baltimore, as my friends were hanging out at local malls, I was thinking of excuses to ride the bus into Downtown, just to walk around, and immerse myself in the place. That passion sustained me through a rigorous college career, and the ups and downs of the economy ever since.

While I watched my clients make considerably more money than many using the counsel that I provided, it was my passion that sustained me in this field. My kids lacked that curiosity about architecture, and there’s no way that I could encourage the pursuit of this profession without that passion.

Two of kids are pursuing fields that they like, (though I don’t think there’s a passion) but pay them well. That’s the path they chose, and I totally get it. Their respective passions pay even less than architecture, and their plan is to pursue those passions later in life. The third one is pursuing a career in physics, in which he is as passionate about as I am architecture and city making. Good for him.

Predicting the future is something a fool’s errand. Thirty years ago, guidance counselors were telling students not to pursue architecture because computers would replace the profession. Indeed, the opposite happened. Yes, AI represents a different challenge, and one can easily imagine that the profession will transform, but in the end, AI is only as good as the data and the prompts. There will still be a role for decision making. There is no doubt that skill sets will evolve, but I still imagine an industry that can thrive.

What should we ask next?