How Singapore’s architects are responding to low wages and fees

2022-07-04T13:30:00-04:00

As Archinect has explored through numerous feature articles, the U.S. architecture profession faces deep ongoing challenges surrounding salaries, fee levels, and work-life balances. In a sign that such conditions are not confined to the U.S., recent years have seen architectural worker movements emerge elsewhere, including the formation of unions and worker-led activist groups in the United Kingdom.

In Singapore, where only 7% of young architecture graduates say they are likely to stay in the profession in the long term, the state’s architecture body is taking action to avoid an “alarming” brain drain.

Like the United States, Singapore’s competition laws prevent architects, or architectural institutions like the Singapore Institute of Architects, from establishing fee scales. As we outlined in our recent feature on unionization in architecture, such restrictions are a primary factor in supressing fees and wages in the profession.

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How Singapore’s architects are responding to low wages and fees