The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has published the results of its 'Working With Architects' survey, highlighting how architects are perceived by construction clients. The findings provide a snapshot of clients' views regarding the design qualities of their projects and the services they received from their architects.
"These findings are a vital body of intelligence for the profession and the RIBA," commented Stephen Hodder, Former RIBA President and current RIBA Ambassador for Clients. "The results show the need for even closer collaboration between our profession and our clients; they present positive learning points for agile architects."
Top findings of the 'What Clients Think of Architects' report include:
Clients were overall pleased with their projects
Clients were highly satisfied with their buildings. Three-quarters of private domestic and commercial clients, and 51% of contractors, were either 'very' or 'quite' satisfied with their projects.
Architects were more highly rated than non-architects
Architects achieve higher client satisfaction ratings than non-architects in all performance measures, particularly for developing and interpreting the brief.
Architects' design skills were highly rated
Clients were highly satisfied by their projects' aesthetic and other design qualities (such as levels of daylight, room dimensions, ease of circulation, and so on) and their architects' abilities to meet the brief.
Process management skills were less highly rated
Clients consistently rated architects' process management skills lower than their design skills.
Architects selected through personal recommendation were highly rated
Architects selected through personal recommendation or because the client had used them before were rated significantly higher than architects selected in other ways.
Follow up rated highly
Architects who followed up after the end of the project, especially when not contracted to do so, were more highly rated than architects who did not.
Private domestic clients most satisfied
Private domestic clients consistently gave the highest ratings on all satisfaction measures.
Contractors least satisfied
Contractor clients consistently gave the lowest ratings on all satisfaction measures.
The Summary Report will be available to download from RIBA for Clients website.