The "Sector Study 2012", prepared by the Architects' Council of Europe (ACE) reveals that the mainland architecture market stood last year at about 15 billion EUR, down 32% compared to 2008. The largest markets are Germany (4.2 billion EUR), Italy (2.8 billion EUR), United Kingdom (2 billion EUR), France (1.3 billion) and Turkey (857 million EUR). According to the estimates included in the ACE analysis, the architectural sector of our country was evaluated in 2012 to 90.1 million EUR, recording a growth of over 40% from the value of 63.5 million EUR in 2010, when it reached the lowest level from the years of the economic recession. Interestingly, the highest revenues which resulted from the architectural activity, were obtained in 2008 when the market in Romania stood at 112.6 million EUR. As it can be seen, the financial crisis has affected significantly the volume of the design segment, which decreased by almost half in the first two years of the recession. If we compare the size of the local market of architecture with the one from the neighboring states it is clear that the design sector in Romania is higher than the similar areas in Hungary (60.5 million EUR) and Bulgaria (26.8 million EUR). The ACE study shows that almost 31% of the domestic architecture market is represented by the works for individual housing projects, while the segment of residential centers contributes with 15%. Also, the design of industrial objective represents 8% of the architecture market, and the office buildings around 6%. The plans for public works (housing, schools, kindergartens, hospitals etc.) contributed with 17% to the total. The workload for architects was provided primarily by individuals (44%), companies (19%) and real estate developers (10%). Unfortunately, the proportion of work for state institutions was only 18%. The distribution of the types of services provided by Romanian designers was: architecture for buildings (61%), design for interior (9%), feasibility studies (9%), project management (5%), etc. The estimates in what concerns the evolution of the architecture market in Romania are optimistic, given that 31% of designers surveyed by ACE have indicated an increase, 49% standstill and only 20% decrease. For further information and a detailed analysis of the current Agenda Constructiilor issue click here!