Influential

Abstract

Although formed by thousands of individual practices, the field of architecture is represented in media by only a narrow group of offices that gained a significant influence throughout their career. On highly visited internet websites such as ArchDaily, or Dezeen, we recognize a reoccurring pattern of these influential offices with their most recent projects or theories. The frequency and visibility of their work provide them with the power to set up trends and directions within the field, thus becoming an interesting subject of research. This paper focuses on what makes these world-renowned offices stand out from the average via parameters provided by architectural councils' annual reports.

The research is limited to US and EU markets only, for the reason of quick data accessibility and the presence of mutual current and historical influence on each other. Furthermore, a time frame was chosen between 2008, at the time of the last great financial crisis, and 2020 at the time of the covid pandemic. Both crises had a significant influence on the capital and workability of individuals, larger corporates, or even countries, thus including the building industry. On the contrary, between these two terms, a stable rise of economies around the world was occurrent, allowing architecture to flourish providing valuable data for the research.

The key sources became study reports by architectural councils in the US and EU bringing exact data about the markets. This data was then compared to interviews with renowned offices and a theoretical body about management in the field of design. At the end of the paper, conclusions are made about what are some of the keys to a successful architectural practice and what problems stand against that endeavor. Such info then serves as an inspiration for other offices, talent-seekers, investors, governmental institutions, scholars, and new generations of architects in the field.