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Italy: the home country of poets, saints, explorers?
Not at all - Italy is the country of architects! Web statistics of Archieuro
website by the National Council of Architects, Planners, Landscape planners and
Conservators (CNAPPC) show the fact that 29.3% of European architects
are Italian. Or one out of 3.41, as you like it. Such data - when transposed
onto Italian territory - show an average of one architect every 548.8 inhabitants,
which is amazing if one remarks the United Kingdom average of one architect every
7413 inhabitants, the French average of one every 3165 inhabitants and the Dutch
average of one architect every 2039 inhabitants. The anomaly of the Italian context,
where a huge number of building surveyors along with different kinds of professionals
do the same job, and where obsolete professional orders permit even electronic
engineers (besides building and civilian engineers) to perform the same work,
changes the hue of this record making it into a Greek tragedy rather than a grotesque
comedy.
The situation is unfortunately far beyond any acceptable threshold;
however, if we consider the data relating to students attending European Faculties
of Architecture, we realize this is a growing trend: in Europe one architecture
student out of 2.7 is Italian. Even when compared to the United States the
situation does not change. On the contrary, the students are 76000 versus 45000
in the US, and this leads to 6000 new architects every year for Italy against
8356 in the States.
Work opportunities are scarce, fees are low because they
must be competitive with respect to building surveyors, and the quality of buildings
is poor due to the little professional experience and the inability of universities
to fully educate and prepare the architect.
This is the scenario. Let us
go back and start from scratch, that is from universities, and try to understand,
step by step, the path to be taken by anyone who wants to become an architect.
First question: how long does an architecture student take to get a degree in
Italy?
My research is based on data available on the website of the Ministry
of Education, of University and Research (MIUR).
I examined and compared statistical data about all Faculties of Architecture in
Italy. The result is clear from the beginning - a disaster! 58% of the students
get their degree at least 4 years after the end of the study course legal duration.
This means their studies last 9 years.
This general indication hides several
different situations. There are small faculties, like Ascoli, where 88,2% of the
students get their degree at the latest 2 years after the end of the study course
legal duration, some exceptions 3 years later, but no one later on; on the other
hand, faculties like Pescara hold the negative record: the same percentage of
students - 88,2% - are still studying 4 years after the end of the study course
legal duration! Same situation for 86% of the students in La Sapienza of Rome.
Then comes Federico II of Naples (81,6%) and Florence, "only" 77,3%
of the students being still at university 4 years after end of study course legal
duration.
The sum of the four faculties accounts for 37,6% of architecture
students. Therefore, more than one third of Italian architecture students remains
at university until the age of 30. This alone shows the gravity of the situation.
Let us break down the data
faculty by faculty.
As a first thing, Faculties working well, with
a low percentage of students getting their degree after the end of study course
legal duration (up to 30%, which is nevertheless a significant range) are small
faculties (max. 1000 students). Exceptions are Politecnico of Milan, the Faculty
having the greatest percentage of students, only 23,8% thereof getting their degree
later on, and on the other hand Pescara, with 63,6 % of students still at university
after the end of the study course legal duration (which despite being a medium-to-small
faculty only comes after Naples having a terrible negative record of 76%). Considering
the five-year study course as dictated by the old rules, these data become 87,4%
in Naples and 79,1% in Pescara.
In general, leaving aside these case stories,
the situation generates worry. Small faculties are not statistically significant
and except for Milan and (partly) Venice and Roma3, the remaining Universities
count at least 50% of the students still there after the end of study course legal
duration. As a result, the Faculty of Architecture ranks last in the education
scenario, since more than a half of the students get their degree between the
age of 30 and 34. Students are growing old and universities are overcrowded: the
Politecnico in Milan has alone more students than the whole United Kingdom (13000
versus 7948 students). Every year 3000 students enter the Faculty though the new
three-year study courses are fighting against this trend. As a consequence, one
gets his degree at the age of 30 and since you do not find a job, you go on and
attend a master.
These are more and more every year (besides becoming more
and more expensive). In some cases they are only a marketing strategy by some
other architect who invented this solution for working in the top-class education
niche, not having found a job as an architect. The results are often disappointing.
Another parking lot for graduates waiting to find a job is the doctorate: here,
the candidate often prepares lessons for the relevant professor, instead of doing
research, because the professor himself is busy in his practice. Summing up, after
10 years spent at University, either you attend a master or a doctorate, you are
now 33 or 34 and still do not have a job, still investing in education. You spend
tens of thousands of euros without getting any. Working opportunities are few,
because of the great number of candidates, and the laws (like Merloni law) favour
big practices leaving practically no room for small ones. No way, then.
What
else can you do in the country of architects, where the ratio architects-to-inhabitants
is the greatest in the world, and where also an electronic engineer can build
buildings? No blame on those who go to work abroad: how many can afford not to
work at the age of 34 or 35? The government cannot ignore such situation, it is
far too late. We have to start back from Universities and to change laws, abrogating
Merloni law. Tax amnesty solves neither the job problem for architects nor the
financial problems of the country: arranging services for buildings which obtained
the amnesty for infringement of building regulations will cost much more than
the cash flow generated by tax amnesty.
Gianluigi
D'Angelo
translated by Michela
Lucchini
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