It will be more procedural type generative systems and linked into social networking- architects will need to know programming - there is no way around it put down the col-erase and learn python - Because of rapidly increasing technological changes, the keyplayers will be in their 20s and 30s pretty much like what you see at facebook today will resemble the studio 3 - 5 years from now and in 10 years

Mergers and acquisitions, restrictions, greed, poor economy etc, etc, will continue to eat away at what once was a great industry, career, way of life. In ten years Target will have Zaha designed toilet plungers and brushes, people will have to replace their sustainable green bamboo finishes, red sharpies will be replaced with blue beam or whatever the mark up du jour is.....because the universities still will not educate how to waterproof and detail, and people will still want granite countertops.

But, I could be wrong..

I agree with X, although I think that there will still be roles in architecture that don't involve programming. There will be much more emphasis placed on science and math backgrounds in education leading to more intensive studies of materials and construction methods throughout the design of the building, as well as putting a greater emphasis on exploring cost. The more that developers and design/build become the norm the more we will have to become competitive at projecting the costs ourselves and exploring them through rapid iterations of designs. 

  I think that this can actually be a boon to architects especially those who are in their forties and fiftes. This is if they have that kind of background. I think the days of being able to throw your hands up in frustration and refuse to adapt every time a new program gets adopted are coming to a close. As long as you stay adaptable and on top of software changes I think ageism won't be a greater problem than it is in most other scientific professions. The issue of being let go because your pay rate is too high during an economic downturn is a problem that I'm not sure any profession has solved.

As to social networking that will also be a huge factor in finding new work and maintaing good working relationships with your collaborators. As design includes collaboration between all the disciplines at earlier times in the process, communication in terms of firm to firm project/work updates and even finding new work will become embedded into a designers daily work. I think architecture will be booming again some day, it's just going to be more technical and there will be a greater emphasis on quanitifiable design throughout the process.

-MB

Architecture really needs to be on the same technical par as engineering - I think Cal Poly is moving that direction with the appointment of a Civil engineer as Dean.

Some really great answers. I think it's interesting to think about in the context of "10 years from now".  People who are currently in their late 30's and are familiar with the social media scene will be approaching 50. Despite ageism seemingly being pushed by the younger generation who want the old folks to retire--it's sort of scary to think that we may be saddled with so much debt only to be considered "too old"  well before we're ready to retire.

start caloric reduction, vegan diet + fish, meditation, lifelong learning(w/o the loans) and exercise and one can extend their operational lifespan

xenakis, you're telling architects to become programmers and engineers that will quite possibly face ageism in our industry.  are we sure we want to extend our operational lifespans?

curtkram

What do you have in mind?

for 10 years from now?  i bet things don't change much at all.  what's the difference between where we're at now and 10 years ago?  (for those who may have forgotten, 10 years ago was not the 90s.  it was 2002.  you know who you are).  for me that was in my last year of grad school, so i've been through a long job search, unemployment, employment, and grown a bit more cynical and bitter but i think i've leveled off in the past few years.  otherwise, we've gone from styrofoam strip malls to styrofoam strip malls.  autocad 2002 to autocad2012 didn't change how i practice, though i think saving creates a bit smaller files now.  revit still sucks (i think autodesk bought revit in 2002).  lots of people still think revit doesn't suck.  simpsons is still on sunday at 7. 

i bet in 10 years my back hurts more than it does now, and i will still be paying down my student loans.  hopefully i'll still be employed in either this industry or an industry i like better.  there's a pretty good chance i'll still be more worried about details that keep moisture out of the building envelope and adequate slopes in roofs than i am about computer generated design concepts.

This is subject to us surviving past Dec 21, which odds are we won't.  Some event could dramatically change on an individual level too, like getting married and having a kid or getting a camaro or getting a terminal illness or something like that.  if we lose medicaid, medicare, social security, etc., then maybe just live fast, die young, and leave a good looking corpse.  good luck!

I thought they figured out that the Mayan Calendar when beyond Dec.21st. If not, the question is moot. Otherwise, maybe the title should have been "Architecture in 25 years....".

I thought they figured out that the Mayan Calendar when beyond Dec.21st

That's just a conspiracy theory ;)

It may be best to think of programming and scripting as part of a stylistic trend. It has only become popular recently due to a handful of architects who actually require it to design what they are  unable to draw. 

augmented reality as part of professional practice.

Autodesk AR 2025

That is after AR is purchased by Autodesk, and after inflation you'll be paying $20k a license?

Here are my predictions:

Revit, etc. will get easier and more intuitive.  Simultaneously the level of documentation required from the construction side will get more intense.  Sophisticated GC's will do more and more of the technical design, will continue to hire architecturally educated tech-school and CM program students to do the detailing, will continue to receive pressure from their clients to reduce the overall cost of projects, and will reluctantly begin to hire architects to do design.  The architects thus hired will add high design aesthetic to a world that desperately needs it.  The world of building construction will be enriched by the addition of architects.  This will be a good thing. 

Simultaneously, the schools will continue towards the esoteric.  Graduates will continue to emerge from school armed with knowledge of software systems and modes of design that aren't readily applied outside of academia.  Only the most talented of these will find jobs in the big high-design firms.  The rest will retrain themselves in conventional practice, if they can find a foothold there, or more likely will spin off into other industries.  Architecture will cease to be known as a specialized degree.  The successful schools will offer courses in other artistic esoterics - game design, music production, fabrication, etc.  The world of artistic expression will be enriched by the addition of architects.  This will be a good thing. 

I think BIM will migrate more toward use by facility managers - so there will be increasing demand for BIM experts and experienced architects by the larger property owners and institutions.

the advancement in software has greatly reduced the need for production staff, so I think the days of throwing 20 people on a big project are over (which is a bit dubious for recent grads).

the extreme standardization that is currently happening among government projects will mean that the number of firms who are qualified to do this sort of work will be greatly reduced.

and agreed with tim sadler - firms will continue to complain about the number of recent grads without basic building science/systems knowledge, and design/build outfits will take on larger projects and will start absorbing the roles (and people) of traditional firms.

In regard to BIM and Programming experts, you only need one "expert" or a small team. The larger numbers wouldn't be as affected as some people seem to think.

architects might just have started to make their own tools instead of relying on others...

Not going to happen unless they can create greater financial worth for themselves. All software we use has been created for engineers or some other profession because of their profit potential. Architects don't create enough profit to create their own software and distribute it, and no one is going to create some from scratch from us.

hence 'might'.

The best problem architects can work on right now, is to analyse from the client's perspective how to transform the dip (see Seth Godin) between the excitement of the beginning of a project and the satisfaction of the end,  from one of the 2nd or 3rd most stressful and expensive exercises anyone will ever have to go through, into one of the most pleasurable.

Rand H

Not going to happen?

Well these 2 write their own software

http://www.oparch.net/projects/main.php

Xenakis

I'll let you know when a firm I'm at uses it then.

I see the industry staying the same. I am a second year college student (major is in Architectural Design and Engineering), and the amount of education it takes to become even an average Architect is ridiculous. I think young architects need to fully listen to the older, much wiser architects who have seen success and failures, but I think the younger architects need to establish a style for this era. I think that would include a much more energy efficient plan. Solar energy is becoming a huge part of everything and I think that if this industry grabs it and takes off with it, we could inspire the world to become more green. Let's face it, the natural resources aren't what they used to be, their is a limited supply of everything and we don't know how much is left. What we do know is that we have the technology to produce energy from the sun, and someday we might have more advanced technology where we can get energy from the sun and not have those big, blasphemous solar panels on top of every house. I think that this era of architects can really set a new style and set a new standard of architecture for years to come if we just put our brains together and come up with something exquisite. I'm sorry if any of you found this statement off topic, but it is just my formal opinion. 

we'll be abandoning the surface and learning to design caves. finally, swoopy random parametrically-generated design approaches will come into their own - but out of necessity, not aesthetics/desire. architecture will have merged with civil and geotechnical engineering: carving stable structures out of the ground ain't easy!

instead of the tallest of tall skyscrapers, we'll be watching the 'Architect' headlines on our ipads cheer 'how low can you go?!' (because hubris won't have gone away, despite our mistakes to date.) 

the surface will become the site of solar and wind farms owned by bp and shell, hotly contested territory with access restricted, enforced militarily. 

...ok, so maybe it's 20 yrs...

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/global-warmings-terrifying-new-math-20120719

As a new student-- I am most concerned with the possibility that architecture is becoming less of a neccessity. I may be way off here, so feel free to correct me if i am wrong, but the following seems to be taking place: More and more people are taking on roles in design as ameteurs. I believe some people have even used variation of the title "Architect" without actually be licensed, so for the people that are interested in design will likely hire others in the field, or do the work themselves. In addition, society places a premium on engineering and function over aesthetic (especially when the economy is down). At one time the Architects job seemed to sort of amalgomate certain elements of engineering and design, but it seems that on both sides of the coin, there is less of a need. I had one architect tell me that only like 10% of all construction is done by an architect (not sure if that's true).

On the other end, maximization of utility--as it pertains to space will be come increasingly important, and if the actual title of being a "Architect" held more weight, meaning that buildings and construction required architects approval, than architecture could once again be a lucrative profession. If i'm wrong, please let me know.

Want to bet against something like this happening to architecture?

Your concerns about the amateurisation of architecture - aided by the rise of the machines - is justified... but not all bad news if you like change.

everything will go Revit, companies shrunk to max 5 persons, one principle/designer, one production architect/powerful software user, one construction administrator, one intern and receptionist/office manager

if offered job for which was recently interviewed, I'll learn Revit and finish licensing exams

i disagree with thinking that companies will shrink.

the opposite will happen.

projects will become larger, and more urban. a greater degree of specialization is and will always be a net positive, and only a larger firm can exploit specialization in such a way to keep a competitive advantage over smaller firms.

an office manager that isn't managing more than 10 people is kind of a waste of resources. and the principal designer/power user functions will converge. the advantage granted by software tools can only be exploited by people who fully understand software and fabrication.

if anything, i can see the CA role being outsourced even further in order to allow for a greater competitive advantage for those firms with heavy knowledge of construction who are unable to afford talented designers, because those talented designers are going to become a lot more expensive in the future. when architects are finally required to be proficient programmers, architecture firms will finally have to compete with software firms, and that's going to create a upward drag on designer salaries.

how is CA can be outsourced? plumbers or hair designers can't be outsourced to India or etc.

One thing about American designers can be changed

some companies design for China , India, SA but soon the local architects will be fully competitive and much cheaper

where do you work?

have you seen how it works in major cities? the architect of record right now does 5% SD/DD 45% CD work and 50% CA work.

it makes very little financial sense to keep CA in-house past the CD phase when you can crank out CDs extremely fast with right tools.

I work in Maryland, originally from Easter Europe

I was senior designer for big company before crisis, 50% of their work from abroad

Before I've worked for MD company which specializes on residential and k-12 projects, many in Washington DC, did SD, CD and CA

the reason to have in-company CA is to control implementation of initial design, otherwise construction company tend to screw your design, make things easier for tham

but finally architects blamed for ugly buildings

Well if everyone who says that architects will be required to learn how to program-- If in 10 years, this becomes a generally accepted principle, It stands to reason that this will be great for architect salaries. Software engineering and computer programming are one of the most lucrative fields to enter (aside from the medical profession). I would imagine that an architect with a creative streak and a knowledge of programming would be quite an asset to other organizations, thus architecture firms will have to raise salaries...yes?

The inertia is towards architect as pretty picture drawer. I think it will continue and others will continue to to take up the leadership and technical roles. Sorry if that sounds pessimistic.

Green 34

everything will go Revit, companies shrunk to max 5 persons, one principle/designer, one production architect/powerful software user, one construction administrator, one intern and receptionist/office manager

already happening - you just described the office I work in - I am the the Revit production architect/3D designer/graphic designer guy 

Jordan99

When I was at Skidmore, there was one guy who was a Revit API(C# and VB.Net) guru who along with another 3DS Max Software guru were the firm-wide go to guys, 

In NL, there has been a lot written lately as of the future of architecture. Note that "scripting" is absent from these discussions:

- How to stimulate bottom-up initiatives, private and collective housing projects, when there is less subsidized rental housing being built.

- How architects can initiate small, local projects without waiting for a client to come along, and how these can contribute to the quality of the urban space.

- How to build more energy efficient, better insulated homes, to reduce heating costs, still maintaining architectural quality.

- What to do with the surplus of office space that has been built the last 10 years. It's too expensive to be torn down, but creates big desolate public spaces.

- How to strengthen regional (architectural) cultural heritage and thereby promoting local tourism. 

etc.

Xenakis-- Sounds like those guys were lynchpins. That's definitely helpful to know.

does being that firm-wide go-to guy create a glass ceiling and ultimately limit your opportunity for advancement and salary?  it seems from my limited viewpoint on the world that the IT type people are still somewhat looked down on, or least not valued, and if i happen to be quite clever and capable at 'computers' (since it's all the same thing) then there's sort of a separation between me and people who think they can design.  This is the source of much of my frustration related to what an 'opinion' is.  when i have 6 people telling me what color the sky should be in a rendering, i always think the client's opinion is #1, my opinion is #2, and the rest should go screw themselves, but it turns out other people don't see things this way.  i believe those people want their opinion recognized so they can stroke their ego, which is not a respectable trait in a person. 

curtkram - you nailed it - thats me

true in my case - I am at the top of a short ladder - I do most of the 3D production but am regarded as a BIM wit

From my experience Architecture as a career is not changing rapidly. The only thing I can foresee is the higher levels of technology and programming skills needed. I wouldn't be surprised if in ten years time there are positions labelled Architect Programmer.

Holland And Green Architectural Services

that's the only way I can go really  -It's really an extrapolation of all my previous careers

"Zenakis we don't see you as an architect - you are too much of a computer guy and that's were we want to use you" How many times have I heard that? - Time to pull the Python out of it's cage.

Technology comes in three generational waves. The first generation are the first to know the technology, and as a result are highly demanded but limited to that particular aspect. The second generation have learned from the teaching of the first generation and are still valued highly, but are not required to be teaching others. The third generation knows the program as a basic tool, and it is no longer a high demand skill since many many others know it. 

Happened with CAD back in the early 90s, we are in the second generation phase right now for Revit, and still in the first generation for scripting.

So rand-- Using your theory, about how long do these phases generally last?

Till people learn them, I said nothing about learning curve. Scripting has been around a while, but still isn't mainstream. 

I guess one could look at CAD or Excel and say generally 15-20  years or so from introduction to widespread use (where the anyone in said profession must know software) as a minimum barrier for entry.

Yeah I understand, but Cad has been around before the 90's as well, and excel the 70s. I mean from the time where the use of these applications becomes apparent in any given profession.

The party is over.  Last man out, turn off the lights.

Haha. Just look for the international sign for "PARTY OVER HERE" - Family Guy. When one party ends another begins.