Why are all architects twats?

[JustFromExperience]

Just that really.

GENERALLY They seem to be jumped up, know it all, entitled, twats. The worst person to have to deal with on site. Separated from reality. The person that no one on site wants to deal with or respects.

Does anyone have any thoughts?

(I have a lot of experience of working with architects)

I've posted on here about our architect before, he was incompetent & negligent. But I also know architects socially and have no problem with them so am not permanently biased!

I think the problem is many people don’t understand the role of an architect or the expertise it involves. It is one of the professions it takes longest to qualify in, most cases about 7/8 years. Many people watch day time property shows and think they can easily do what an architect does so they resent paying the professional fees.

Is this another of those threads like 'all nurses are uncaring bitches' ?
Ignorant and prejudiced, op

We've had a brilliant architect - knowledgeable, pleasant, charges a fair price

Collective noun 'a disappointment of architects'

(Not seriously, my term), but (D)H and all his friends are architects and I have never met people that think they are so superior in all my life.

Yet are constantly disappointed at the world, how lacking in style and intelligence it and its population is.

We can't understand

Thry all have furniture with 'names' also. 'Careful of my Mies bla de bla' Yes, yes, we know you have superior taste.

There is an undercurrent of god complex. I didn’t go to arch school in the UK so might be different here, but I think it comes from the ‘design will save the world’ train of thought. None of the ones I know (and I know loads!) are nasty though.

Idiotic generalisations.

I think this viewpoint is rubbish, and I'm not an architect.

Had a consultation with one recently and the draft plans he subsequently sent me for my extension had zero similarity to what I had asked for!

I know 2 really lovely ones, genuinely clever and stylish but down to earth. I know one arrogant architect who thinks he and his family are the smartest, most cultured, most 'right on', most talented and everyone else is just average. They really aren't that remarkable but their egos are extraordinary.

@Cocomarine

Going to throw out a theory without having any proper data to substantiate it...

• you need good grades to get on the course, good academics correlate with well off families
• you need confidence to go after a sought after course, confidence correlates with well off families
• you generally need family financial support to get through an unusually long course... you see where I’m going with this!

I’m going to theorise that the profession has more “white male middle class privilege arrogance” in it than many others.

#notallarchitects

Oh this!!!

I know a couple.

They're really not all that... but they think they are, and yes, all white middle class and now, generally very hipster men.

Of course, the internationally famous amazing architects are something else. They are artists. I love architecture.

Hipster posers who can't use CAD properly make up the rest of 'em.

t comes from the ‘design will save the world’ train of thought
Most end up designing extensions and plain office buildings. Dull.

@NormaFoster

I'm not a twat

I disagree.

The actual Norman Foster (well his company anyway) were meant to be building a bridge in my town. When we saw the drawings we all looked at where one end would be and it was just fudged.
Now this bridge had to be high enough to let ships go under but shallow enough for cyclists and pedestrians.
All of us looking at the plans could see that there was no way the bridge could work on one side. For the gradient needed it would be too long. So either the bridge would need to be longer than needed or the ground higher.
This didn’t slow them down and people had compulsory purchase orders on their houses at the end of my road!
We still all said it wouldn’t work, that the ground was too low. Still they went on pissing money away on this bridge.
Then someone noticed that our side of the bridge was going to be 6 metres up in the air so they were going to have to shut down a load of business, buy a load of houses, divert a river and destroy part of the park to make it fit.

Fortunately we had an election and the new mp shelved the idea straight away.

Anyone living in Ireland reading this will be thinking of one man right now.

My first job when I left school was at an Architect's and there was a pretty much 50/50 split between twats and lovely people. Those who were twats though were higher level twatty.

@Flyingdr

t comes from the ‘design will save the world’ train of thought Most end up designing extensions and plain office buildings. Dull.

Well, yes, but it doesn’t stop some of them (us?) thinking they’re the next Frank Lloyd Wright

Lol I studied architecture but now work in planning. architects sometimes think they are god. They think that they are the creators of the universe and that their work is a piece of fine art. Many don't care about local communities or what lay people think. It's about them and Impressing other architects. I also think it makes the. Feel better for studying for 7 years to earn less than a primary school teacher and far less than all the other consultants.

That said there are some wonderful architects. Ones that really care about their clients and the places the built. You will still find that they dress in all black and port thick framed glasses though ... possible with coloured socks for contrast.

Would like to see how long this post would last if the profession was teacher or nurse.

Purely anecdotal, but I have a doctor friend whose husband is an architect. When she returned to her job in a hospital after mat leave, her DH was meant to take over dropping their twins at the childminder since his hours are more regular. She offered for him to do some trial runs in the week before she started back at work, but he thought that was a silly idea since how hard could it be to get everyone out of the house, right?

On her first day back, she left early for work and called when she had a break to see how things had gone. Turned out they hadn't even left the house and her DH had told his work he couldn't come in due to a "family emergency" . He did get better at it, but they switched to a nanny (which he'd previously argued would be too expensive) fairly soon afterwards since he found the mornings too stressful. But from what my friend says, he can be a bit of an arse... not sure he's necessarily representative of his profession .

@NormaFoster

I'm not a twat

Aww.

I’m sure you’re lovely.

Plus you’ve just reminded me of one of my favourite ever MN things (his article and the thread):-

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/mumsnet_classics/757299-Tim-Dowling-for-example-is-a-twat

‘Not all architects’ of course but I temped at a practice some years ago doing admin for a few months. Many of them were demanding nightmares. I used to make big cafetières of tea and coffee with jugs of milk for meetings for people to make their own drinks. One of them thought it was ‘impersonal’ so would ask me to take individual orders for his guests to make using the single coffee machine - sometimes up to 10-15 people per meeting - espressos, cappuccinos, americanos - obviously it took ages to make all of them one by one which also annoyed him. Almost like the pre-made jugs were used because it was quicker!

Another used to refuse to take calls when I tried to put them through to him, but then would get annoyed when he realised he’d missed someone he wanted to talk to.

And just generally they were quite abrupt with the Architectural Assistants and ordered them around, sometimes outrightly rude or aggressively. I was quite shocked but one of the assistants told me it was pretty standard in the industry (no idea if that’s true).

They weren’t all like that of course, and I know every profession has its dickheads and it’s lovelier people - but I have worked in a range of industries/offices and never saw anything else like it. Maybe it was just a particular toxic practice!

@Dailywalk

Would like to see how long this post would last if the profession was teacher or nurse.

There was a long thread recently about nurses being over-educated dirty incompetent bitches who didn't care about their patients

They act like it's their own house they are building and you are just funding it!

This

I have a lot of experience with architects via my work and they certainly aren’t all twats, although there are some common traits which might be so described. 😀

Plus, my first husband was an architect. Now, him on the other hand.... 😂

@Blimeyoreilly2020

Oh yes - afraid I do agree.....we got totally fleeced by a guy who designed a project that, when it was costed, came to SEVEN times the budget we had said we had. These days I just go to a surveyor who specialises in design and ask them to do it....architects are not worth the money I’m afraid!

Same. It was sickening.

DH does it all himself now, and does a much better job.