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.

As Channel News Asia (CNA) reports, fee scales for architects in Singapore were abolished in the early 2000s when competition legislation was introduced; a step which architects say has correlated with a rapid decline in fee levels.

For Singapore’s architects, a widespread pessimism about their future in the industry is not just about money. Some lament the heavy legal burden placed on architects. “If anything happens to the building, even in 10 years to come, it’s the architect’s fault,” one graduate told CNA. “I am liable for so many things but paid so little, then what for?”

Others are frustrated by the relationship between architects and clients, such as over-optioneering, abortive work, and clients seeking to lead the design process without the depth of training to do so. “We already try to give our best, and it’s normal for people to ask for more, but clients nowadays are doing unlimited asking,” one graduate said.

In an effort to circumvent competition laws, the Singapore Institute of Architects is currently working on a “value articulation framework” which sets out the responsibilities of an architect, and how much it costs an architect to undertake a commission, from salaries to software to liabilities.

“We hope to illustrate the breadth of responsibilities and liabilities that architects take on in every project and the value we bring, so they understand better how to charge for these to create a commensurate fee structure,” the institute’s president Melvin Tan told CNA. Such a framework is also intended to be an education tool for clients, which architects can use to justify their fee levels.

Meanwhile, the Institute is urging firms to invest in their staff and practice by increasing the percentage fee for every project. It estimates that for every 1% point increase in fees, applied to the available S$15 billion worth of projects, will generate S$150 million annually and this would equate to about US$1800 per architecture worker per month.

However, CNA notes that architectural graduates remain sceptical about how effective these measures will be, suggesting instead that more effort needs to be made to educate the general public on the role, expectations, and importance of architects.