Cómo afecta la crisis a la construcción...
Dos amigos en México que trabajan en despachos muy grandes de arquitectura me contaban que han despedido un 60% aprox de los empleados pues ese mismo porcentaje de proyectos es el que les han dejado en stand by...
suerte!!
Lord Foster, Britain's most successful architect of recent times, is to lay off almost 350 employees as his global design empire feels the bite of the economic downturn.
The designer behind the Swiss Re "gherkin" skyscraper in London, the world's largest airport at Beijing and plans for the first ever zero-carbon city in Abu Dhabi has abandoned his pledge that his practice would not cut staff.
Offices in Berlin and Istanbul which serviced the firm's growing portfolio of work in Russia and Kazakhstan will close completely and redundancies are expected at many of the other 15 offices around the world. The 1,000 staff at the Thameside office in west London could be hard hit. Only the branch in Abu Dhabi is still growing and looks likely to be spared.
The announcement came in a letter to staff which reported "a significant decline in work within the practice". For example, the Foster-designed 600m tall Russia Tower in Moscow was halted recently due to lack of funding.
Mouzhan Majidi, chief executive, said: "A number of our international clients have fallen victim to the current economic climate and as a result some of their projects have been delayed or cancelled."
The cuts came as a shock to staff, especially as Foster said in October that he did not foresee any job cuts at the company. "It is a horrible atmosphere," one member of staff said.
The cuts are the biggest yet in the UK architectural profession, which is reeling from the recession. Architects are signing on for jobseeker's allowance at a faster rate than any other occupation, according to Building Design. In the last quarter of 2008, 870 architects claimed jobseeker's allowance for the first time - more than six times the number a year before.
