fee's

[manc]

I'm interested to hear how fees work for architects in other countries and the pay levels of architects compared to other professions.

I tried to get a better deal on my student account last week as the banks offer deals to trainee doctors, solicitors, dentists, vets etc but i discovered, not architects.

Is the answer to be an architect and something else or does the architect need to become a percieved necessity than a luxury.

The architect seems to be taken advantage of in the UK by developers who allow the architect to take on risk but not share in the reward. I know a developer friend who laughs at the fact architects fall over themdselves to do speculative work for him...........

My idea is that the architect should be payed in relation to the value added to a project overall not just the part of the construction process that we are involved in...any thoghts?

[congellous]

The builder/developer has always held all the cards in this country since the crown and the wealthy built most of it
The important developers built most of london. Architects plans in georgian times where simple proportion of facade and layout of rooms with maybe a bit of decoration from coade stone and that was it

It has to be in writing to get any uplift in fees after say, recieving planning
and because of the fact, as you stated, about most architects falling over them selves to speculate, developers mostly squirm at anything contractual, even a blooming appointment
You need to work back from how much you can afford to do it for, the RIBA scale fees are pretty much out the window these days if you want to be competitve
Efficiancy is where to make money. A small efficient team can do more than 20 architects, at different stages, pushing lines around on CAD all day.