AS THE morning sun reflects off the picturesque stretch of the Water of Leith that runs past RMJM's headquarters in Edinburgh, it's easy to forget that there is a financial war on.
A warm breeze is circulating around the main boardroom of the Scot
tish architectural giant and thoughts are far from the economic hailstones that have pounded down on the profession ever since the breakout of the sub-prime crisis two years ago.
Figures released by the Office for National Statistics last week revealed the severity of the crisis, with the number of architects claiming unemployment benefit hitting 1,780 in June – a 989 per cent increase on the same month in 2008.
As construction in the UK and in many other developed economies has all but ground to a halt, many architects have been surprised to find themselves among the casualties.
But if there's one sector that is used to thinking creatively, it's the architectural profession. As it has become clear that traditional sources of work such as housebuilding and ambitious office projects aren't likely to recover anytime soon, many firms have started to pour resources into niche areas such as sports design and the public sector.
One man who remains upbeat about the industry's prospects is John Pauline, one of the key architects involved in last year's Beijing Olympics, who was poached this year from Australian firm PTW Architects to head up RMJM's recently-created sports studio.
Pauline is on a flying visit to Edinburgh from China, where he has been based for the last four years, and is able to shed a rare positive light on the current opportunities for architectural practices.
"Sport is definitely a growth market," he says. "Another word I like to use as well as growth is stability. The sports market is terribly constant. There's an Olympic Games every four years, the Winter Olympics, Commonwealth Games, Asia Games and now there's going to be a World Youth Games. These events that keep going through the calendar every four years means there is a constant flow of work."
Under Pauline's watch, RMJM's sports studio has already won its first contract for a $30m (£18.5m) Olympic-standard complex in Dalian, north-east China. With China and other emerging powers keen to demonstrate their growing political and cultural might through the construction of vast, imposing sports stadia, Pauline expects there are plenty more opportunities on the horizon in the Far East as well as in several Middle Eastern countries.
It is a trend he also expects to catch on in developing countries which are keen to use sport as a way of solving social problems at the grass roots level. Pauline says: "In countries where there are drugs and other problems, governments turn to sport and leisure to direct people's attention."
The opportunities aren't only abroad either. Both the 2012 Olympics in London and the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow are providing much-needed sources of work for the battered architectural profession. He says organising committees for the two UK games plus cities such as Rio, Chicago and Tokyo, which are bidding for future Olympics, are acutely aware of the financial constrictions and the need to provide a lasting economic legacy. "Everyone now wants to avoid 'white elephant' buildings which are useless after the games are gone. By contrast there weren't too many budgetary constraints that I encountered in China. The architecture, the iconic nature, the grandeur of the Beijing Games was really about presenting China to the world, not just Beijing. London and Glasgow are different. They have a much different set of priorities. It's about being much more efficient."
Adrian Dobson, director of practice at the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), says UK architectural firms have a strong track record when it comes to winning major sports contracts. He argues that another major source of work for architects in future is likely to be from the environmental market. "Going forward we believe the whole sustainable building agenda will help to drive growth. We are going to see more and more of a legislative push in this area. In the future what we think of as 'green' design is going to become more and more mainstream."
RIBA estimates that work for British architects has fallen away by a third since the start of the economic slowdown but Dobson insists there is hope on the horizon. According to the Institute's latest survey, confidence has returned to positive territory for the first time this month.
The impact of the recession on the profession north of the Border is broadly in line with the experience of the south. David Dunbar, president of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS), estimates that around 33 per cent of jobs are under threat in the industry.
There is also a danger of a future skills shortage as students are struggling to find a position when they graduate and many are likely to look for an alternative career.
However, some smaller firms outside Scotland's main cities which have diversified in to new areas, such as the public sector, are benefiting from the downturn.
Euan Lawrence, founder of Lawrence Macpherson Associates, set up his firm in Ayr and has expanded to the east coast with the opening of a branch in Musselburgh. His business covers both planning and architecture and it has won lucrative work from housing associations in Ayrshire and the NHS in Scotland. The firm has not been immune to the recession as Whitbread, one of its clients, has put projects in Scotland on hold. However, it has managed to compensate because of the steps taken to expand the business. Lawrence says: "We have a big spread of work, but we never get complacent."
Lawrence Macpherson is in the fortunate position of still being able to recruit staff and for the first time it is not struggling to entice architects away from practices in Glasgow and Edinburgh. In recent months it recruited three female architects who had worked for major practices in Glasgow which were making redundancies. "We're now being inundated with CVs. There is no longer a reluctance among architects to commute. We don't have to be in a big city" he says.
