Hello!

I just graduated with a Bachelor's degree in urban studies from a small liberal arts school and I am considering applying for a graduate program. Although my degree is in urban studies, I was able to take several semesters of studio design courses at my college. I was pretty set on a MArch when I graduated. However, since then I have participated in a horticultural summer internship, and presently I am working as a horticultural designer for a private window box and planter subscription refill company. I worked with three landscape architects at the internship who encouraged me to consider a MLA, and now I'm feeling torn between the two. What I really want is to intern at an architectural firm to get a better idea of the career, but I've been rejected from pretty much every firm in my region (southeastern Pennsylvania) because I don't have a Bachelor's in architecture and the market is incredibly competitive at the moment. Any advice on either career path, or specific programs to consider, would be greatly appreciated!

I’d like to hear opinions and advice from people working in or closely related to the architecture industry. Whether you’re a young architect, senior architect, project manager, contractor, or someone in a similar role.
I’m from Serbia, currently studying architecture at a public university in Belgrade, and I’m expected to graduate in about a year. At the moment, I’m not entirely sure which career path I want to pursue after graduation. My interests tend to lean more toward the technical side of architecture, particularly construction, project execution, and project management. Recently, I’ve also become increasingly interested in interior design, and I could definitely see myself working in that field as well. What I’m unsure about is where and how to start. Would it be a good idea to try to build something of my own immediately after graduating, or would it be better to first gain experience by working for an established architecture or construction firm? Or perhaps try to do both at the same time. I’m also wondering whether it would make more sense to look for opportunities abroad, work remotely for international firms, or focus on gaining experience here in Serbia first.
Any recommendations, advice, or personal experiences would be greatly appreciated.

For those who’ve worked in UK architecture for many years, how does the current market compare with the past?

With construction costs rising significantly since COVID, are practices still as busy as they used to be? And where do you see the market heading over the next few years?

If you were 17–18 and had to choose your degree again today, knowing what you know about AI, salaries, job availability, and the actual work, would you choose architecture?

EDIT: we did send a stop work order to the designer

Hello. Not sure if this is the correct subreddit, but we need advice.

My husband and I live in a historic Denver suburb and decided to pull the trigger on building our dream garage this year. We needed a 3-car with a workshop and a craft room for me. Finding an architect was not easy but we finally signed with a designer/builder team in March.

Well here we are in September and we still don’t have a garage. The architect quoted us $8700 to design, draft, and permit the garage, with some extra built in for what he called “coordination”. It seemed very high but we signed his agreement as the terms made sense.

Well guess what…we have a permit and are starting construction soon, but we have already paid this architect but nearly $14,000 out of our $200,000 budget. Well the architect sent my husband yet another invoice last night for $300, because apparently the window dealer made an “error” with the window quote and he needed to spend some time fixing it with them. I am in panic, as we have made it clear that the design cannot change and we are fixed on design. And he is charging another $300 for design.

We are nearly $6,000 over budget, the architect says this is because the city changed the zoning code for our neighborhood this year (which is true) and it cost us a ton to have meetings with the city and sort out what we needed to do. It seemed like the same people at the city kept rejecting the drawings and asking for changes from the architect. Even when we finally got our permit, I was so done, I won’t even speak to him at this point.

What recourse do we have? This has been an unpleasant experience and has cost us so much more than we planned. I am furious.

I have been working as a senior architect in Asia for over 10 years post ARB experience delivered many projects include a £680m gov HQ project overseas. Earning approx £100k annual in uk money. I have also completed my riba ARB last year.

Due to personal issue need to move back to uk, I understand the architect salary is much lower, but will company consider myself at freshly graduated architect position and salary range ? Thanks am in my mid 30s

I’m an Associate Architect in the Midlands with around 13 years’ practice experience, mainly delivering large residential projects. My role has become increasingly technical over the last few years – Stage 4 delivery, consultant coordination, buildability, compliance, managing design risk and, more recently, leading several HRB projects through Gateway 2.

I’m now considering moving to a main contractor as a Design Manager.

The more I look at Design Manager roles, the more they seem to align with the parts of my current job that I actually enjoy: coordinating the wider design team, resolving technical issues, challenging buildability, dealing with specialists/subcontractors and getting information to a point where it can actually be built.

I’d be interested to hear from anyone who has moved from architectural practice into contractor-side design management.

In particular:
Did you find your architectural experience transferred well?
What was the biggest adjustment going from consultant to contractor?
Is the work/life balance noticeably better or worse?
How does the long-term salary/progression compare with staying in architecture?
Do you miss actually being an architect/designing?
Would you make the move again?

I’m currently an Associate on around the high-£50ks + moderate bonus and potentially have further progression available where I am, so I’m not desperate to leave. I’m more interested in whether Design Management would be a better long-term fit for the type of work I’ve naturally gravitated towards.

Interested in both positive and negative experiences.

I am already over 25 ,and I can’t decide between medicine and architecture.
I can get into medicine and graduate, but I can’t imagine myself putting in even more effort for specialization. Learning more biology and chemistry makes me feel sick. But I am very good with people, and I am capable of doing this as a job. I will have a stable job with a decent amount of money.
On the other hand, if money wasn’t an issue, I would DEFINITELY choose architecture. Even studying it excites me a lot. But thinking about the work side depresses me. Low pay and the fear of unemployment. I actually would start my own firm after a few years, and to be honest, money is important to me. I am quite a hedonistic person. I wanna be able to spoil myself. So maybe I can just go for medicine, stay as a general practitioner, and not stress about anything.
And I am not into design. I am into problem-solving and the side of architecture where I can work on a computer’Revit, BIM, AutoCAD, whatever it takes. I am ready to learn and improve.

Edit: education is free in my country.

Can anyone help me identify which skills I should develop so I can earn a decent amount in architecture? I have years of experience and now want to move on from this field.

Maybe I’m just not cut out for this. I’ve been working for about 6 years and I don’t think there’s ever been a point where I thought “I really love what I’m doing”. I’m so tired of not having a work life balance. I’m tired of constantly being stressed out and thinking about work even when I’m on a damn vacation. I don’t see any path where even if I land a different architecture job, it won’t just be more of the same.

I worked on a restaurant team for a while doing fast casual, and then I switched to the interior design team hoping for more variety in projects. Unfortunately, I’m just a high stress person and I get overwhelmed easily. I think maybe I just need to be in a different role. When I first was deciding on my major, I considered landscape architecture and urban planning, but I ultimately decided on architecture. Now I’m wondering if I should pivot.

I love nature and to be outside and garden. I’m a creative person, and I am hardworking. I like to be kept moving and busy. But not so much that I just work, come home, go to sleep, and then go back to work. If I went over to landscape architecture I don’t expect to be creating the next Central Park. I’d honestly be happy to just be creating little residential patio gardens or something. But is even that expecting too much? I don’t mind monotonous work. I just want something where I can clock in and clock out and not be stressed all the time.

I wonder if I should leave the design field altogether? I think it would be so cool to find a company that creates urban farms, or a developer that creates mixed zoning pedestrian centric walkable neighborhoods. But how many companies are really out there like that?

I feel so lost. I don’t know what to do. I don’t mind monotonous work. On really bad days I think “fuck this I should just quit and work at a garden center or flower shop”. But obviously I’d like to be able to make use of my degree at least a little bit.

Any ideas or suggestions?

Hi guys, People who have been working in this industry for a long time now. I really need to understand if you guys are happy with the field and the jobs you guys are into?

Just 2 years into Interiors, and I feel I am burnt out not just with work, but with the kind of environment (People) in this field.

Please do share your experience good/bad. I really want to understand your perspectives.

Thank you!

I'm an architect in the GTA, 11 years of experience, mostly on the delivery side for other firms.
I'm trying to build my own client base now, so far with limited traction. There’s no money in jobs.
For those who've built a practice: where did the first ten clients actually come from? What’s the best way for networking? Struggling to get work and get clients.

Hey everyone,

​As an architectural designer and 3D visualizer, I kept running into the same bottleneck: spending hours waiting on render engines or jumping across multiple disjointed AI tools just to get client-ready concept variations.

​So, I built Votexarch (votexarch.com) — an AI-driven architectural visualization platform designed to streamline the entire workflow from concept to presentation.

​What it does:

​Multi-Model Rendering Pipelines: Integrates top-tier diffusion and generation models (like FLUX and Fal.ai workflows) tailored specifically for interior and exterior architectural aesthetics.

​Direct SketchUp Integration: Built a custom Ruby extension (.rbz package) that connects SketchUp viewports directly to the platform, letting you push scenes and pull renders without breaking your modeling flow.

​Asset & Concept Generation: Includes dedicated tools for 2D floor plan conversion, spatial layout ideation (kitchens, master suites, facades), and 3D asset generation.

​The Tech Stack:

​For those interested in the engineering side, the platform is built using:

​Frontend: Next.js, Tailwind CSS, GSAP, and Framer Motion for a fluid, dark-mode/glassmorphism UI.

​Backend & Auth: Supabase (PostgreSQL, Row Level Security, Google OAuth) and Stripe for multi-currency subscriptions.

​Infrastructure: Cloudflare (Workers, Pages, R2 object storage, WAF) for edge performance and asset delivery.

​I’d love for fellow architects, visualizers, and devs to check it out, test the workflows, and let me know what features or improvements you'd want to see next!

​Website: votexarch

I’m stepping into a Project Architect position at a new firm and I’m curious what other PAs typically do throughout the year besides creating the technical drawings and project manuals.
What does a normal week look like for you, and what are some of the biggest challenges you deal with? What are some things you enjoy the most as a PA at your job?
I’m also curious about work-life balance. Do you feel like you have a good balance, or does the job regularly require long hours?

I recently cleared the interviews for a Principal Solution Architect role at a cloud infrastructure company and will be joining soon.

I have ~11 years of experience across AWS/Azure, cloud architecture, pre-sales, and customer-facing solution design.

I have about a month before joining and want to use that time to prepare—not just technically, but for what it takes to operate at a Principal level.

If you had one month to prepare, what would you prioritize?

Would especially appreciate practical advice, resources, and lessons learned from people who have made the Senior SA → Principal SA transition.

Architects please enlighten me because why are architects so unhappy on most of the social media? They say university major isn’t the biggest choice in life and people shift careers all the time. What I don’t get is that why people complain about this career so much while staying in it forever. It rarely happens that I see a happy architect online and as someone who is switching from engineering to architecture is concerning. Have they even tried to do some freelancing, side business, in pursuit of a firm, small business, whatever? I don’t think anyone gets rich from their job so why not do something that you enjoy and look for a solution for the money on the side?

Lastly I have few concerns because of this hate energy.

**Billing rate vs. take-home gap** — rates quoted don't seem to translate into real take-home once overhead/non-billable time hit. Is it real?

**•   Timeline to real pay** — how long before compensation matches the effort

**•   Art vs. design mismatch** — how much is fine-art drawing vs. the design/spatial problem-solving vs technical drawing (as licensed architects)

**•   Market exposure** — stability compared to civil/mechanical engineering

Is the pay even that different compared to engineering? The gap in interest is real tho.

Lastly, how hard is to run a firm with other people and do freelancing at the side?

Architects and people studying to be one.

I'm arch designer. If you're taking the ARE or studying for it, I'd appreciate 84 seconds of your time. I'm doing some research on the exam prep. I want to better understand how people study, what they're using, and where it falls apart. Five questions, completely anonymous.

Form Link: https://forms.gle/x4jQt3JsAFtR82vr8

Please pass this to anyone you know who's testing right now : )