bear-a-bull

I've had my pay frozen this year. I work as an architect and I keep getting told that I'm lucky to still be in work. I don't believe them. Morale is the lowest I've known it and I'll be out of here within months.

Brilliant Sounds a bit like the film "blame it on the bell-boy"!

I was just trying to annoy Pete.HPC by being as pious and sanctimonious as I could. I could go on but I think I'd end up sounding like a prize asshole. I'd love to ditch the car. One day maybe. Sophia - soaps!! They seem the most pointless programmes out there. I can't believe that people get hooked into watching something that will never ever end. At least with some short-run dramas there's an actual story-line, rather than ambling, random drawn-out never-ending stories about nothing. Who on earth would subject themselves to something like Eastenders?!

Damn, got me. Mind you, I need it to get to my second home It certainly is interesting, as Badger said, that there seem to be a fair few people on this site who have rejected TV / technology for varying reasons. It seems there are some core values with regards to society here. Some perceived "alternative" ideas seem to run through here without being ridiculed, as they would elsewhere.

Try me. Non-smoking, non-beer/wine/coffee/tea drinking, vegetarian architect with no TV or mobile. To me, you are all proles

Good on you OP. Sounds like a lot of posters here have done the same, or want to. We scrubbed the TV a couple of years ago. Almost as satisfying as ditching the mobile phone! Books and paintings take up the space where the TV "should be" in the living room. Much more entertainment value. Whenever we go to the in-laws the plasma is always running, regardless of what's on. It's painful Enjoy your new life with much more time and worthwhile things to do

yay - I always wanted to live in Ford Kuga town. Would be ace

It's definitely on everyone's minds here for arrchitects in London. I wouldn't say it's devastating and I have only heard of large culls second-hand - I would say only one in ten that I know personally have been affected No-one that I've seen made redundant has managed to find another job at all. But none seem to be too concerned. I would be shi**ing myself but people seem to be moving abroad, taking the oppurtunity to travel, or starting their own practices and falling back on private work. I can only think of one person that has taken up menial work and none that have signed on. None have lost houses or seem to be in difficulty. It's a bit strange for a lot of the architects I know though, as they mostly come from well-off backgrounds and have a massive buffer to allow them to sit around contemplating their next move. One thing's for sure - there are NO jobs in architecture in the south-east. All qualified architect's from my office, that may have otherwise been in trouble, have been sent to the middle or far east. Pretty tough for those with a family. Grinding to a halt and there's a massive black cloud on the horizon. No real devastation yet but only the best will remain and new grads have almost no chance at all. Not pretty but not a bloodbath.

We got the email (nice personal touch there) saying ours is frozen. Only in "extreme" conditions would it be otherwise. This is in a company of roughly 4000. I'm surprised it's only 10% too.

Mid 2007, I was offered the chance to lead a team on a monster Dubai project led by a top British architect. It was such a ridiculous project that I turned it down and made the decision to jump ship and join a firm of architects not too interested in such excesses. Found out last week that the whole project's been shelved, leaving a fair few people twiddling their thumbs. And thumb-twiddling is not so fashionable at the moment! Also, another project in Dubai that we were in line for last year, but rejected on ethical grounds, has left the current design team high and dry. Seems like the ones that didn't get blinded by the bling of Dubai, will fair better IMO.

I went to one of Kevin Warwick's lectures a couple of years back. He really was a disturbing man that was very keen on elitism by the sound of it. Some of his experiments were a little bit suspect to be honest and don't think they hold much credibility. He did however show a clip of an experiment carried out on a mouse - a chip linked into the nervous system that made it possible to control its natural instinct of running away from danger. They made it possible to "steer" the mouse through a course and I think it ended with the death of the mouse. Nice. This is going to sound extremely tin-foil-hat-ish but I think that we're extremely close to that point without having any chips inserted. Our social behaviour is being controlled and pushed further and further into the virtual, moving away from the need of anything physical - facebook, texting, "reality tv", etc. Dreadful way to go. I'm with Thod on the mobile phone front. Although, I used to own one but realised what was happening socially so got rid. There's not many of us about.

Also appears in the film Fight Club - where he cuts in pictures of nobs into children's cartoons. ho ho ho. hmm, I thought I was a conspiracy theorist! Anyway, back to the topic in question. Yes, I am finding this as well. It's been covered on a few threads but I'm discovering a lot more people shopping now. Maybe it's the sales, maybe it's the subliminal advertising. There's still a lot of tin foil on the shelves so maybe the herds haven't taken the necessary precautions and are being controlled to shop! I'm certainly buying a lot more. But only for my "armageddon store" mwahaha

Thanks for the info on insurance. I was considering taking some out but thought it might just be best to stick some money in a pot every month. psj - you're cousin seems very very lucky. Or hugely skilled. I'm sure there's no end of talent out there at the moment and if firms are in a position to do so, they can cherry pick the best. Just heard more news that one of the big big firms in London has chopped 20% of staff Poor bastards. It's getting tougher out there. Will keep you updated of any more developments. edited for sepllign

I'm two of the above - an owner occupier with a mortgage on one house, and a non-STR renter on another. I bought a "second home" before the first, found this website, pulled out of buying a main house and rented. Odd and not very clever scenario but it's working out fine for now. I'll be keeping the house in the country no matter what happens with the value and will hopefully buy a main house when the market's at the bottom.

Yes, we've cornered a few education jobs but they won't pay their way for us like the commercial stuff we're used to. Our fate lies in securing a middle east job. If we can get that, we should sail through but if not... I never thought that I'd actually consider moving to Dubai for work. Like everyone my age, I've only ever seen the boom years and don't know what to expect in a recession. Some sat it out in the far east during the last recession. I hope there will be a safe haven somewhere this time! I used to be a structural CAD monkey. I thought this would be a good fallback if the architecture career went TU. Looks like all my eggs are in one very flimsy basket!

This past few weeks has got me worrying for my job quite a lot. Work is certainly drying up in the UK for architects. I think it's obvious why but it's really starting to hit hard in the practices, from relatively small firms to some of the big names. Every day I hear of another practice calling everyone into the office to make the dreaded announcements. All spending is being cut back. There's a desperate scramble for projects outside of Europe. Last summer I was getting a little suspicious why the big hitters were after jobs in odd places - Kazakhstan, Maldives, more UAE work etc. It seems they were being clever and insulating themselves against the downturn in the UK and work after the chinese olympics. Don't know how this is turning out for them but no-one seems safe. The spread seems to be across the range - qualified, part-qualified, senior and in-experienced. I'm worried that this may just be the first vertical slice of removing numbers. There is a huge atmosphere of fear in the industry. There is very little commercial work. Conservation architects seem to be doing the best but they may get sucked in too. From what I've seen, graduate intake numbers have been cut hugely and it's close to impossible for part 1s and 2s to get jobs. If the axe falls on me, I think it'll mean a move out of the UK. Not a great situation. My partner and I are both architects so it may hit us very hard.

I went to view this a couple of weekends back. Noisy location. The land had been trashed and there weren't any trees of significant note that hadn't been hacked to pieces. Someone had tried to replant some odd plants in a line but the whole site looked in very poor condition as a piece of woodland. I'm surprised it went for this much. We didn't even want to touch it for anywhere near guide. I'd imagine that one of the neighbours was the winning bidder.

That's a Penpol development isn't it? Their development of "surfpods" on the cliffs seems to be taking forever and I seem to recall that they're trying to sell off all of their plots that aren't seeing construction. I think they've only managed to get 1 development out of the ground. I would be quite happy to see developments like these not going ahead.