Many architects’ plans intend to improve the quality of life for those using their buildings, and to nurture good mental and physical health. But designing and building these spaces can take a serious toll on the wellbeing of everyone involved

hile architecture is considered by many as a dream job, a 2016 Architects’ Journal student survey revealed that one in four architecture students in the UK has been treated for mental health issues. The rate increased to one in three when the survey was conducted again in 2018. In the US, a 2012 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention used data from 17 states to determine that Americans in the architecture and engineering professions are the fifth most likely to commit suicide compared to other occupations.

Those who carry out the backbreaking work of bringing an architect’s vision to life were at an even higher risk of suicide, according to the CDC study. Construction workers were in second place compared to other lines of work, followed by those working in installation, maintenance and repair at number three.

And according to an article by Talha Burki in the Lancet Psychiatry journal, from 2011 to 2015 1,419 people working in skilled construction and building trades in England took their own lives. The rates of suicide among low-skilled construction workers were three to seven times higher than the natural average during the same period.

The number-one worry for nearly half of 469 UK-based student respondents of the 2018 Architects’ Journal survey was the cost of completing an architecture education, which can exceed £100,000. But even those lucky enough to fund and complete seven years of architecture school go on to face mental health challenges in the workplace.

Designing a better balance

Kirkpatrick recommends that architecture schools hold mental health workshops for students, train teachers to encourage more positive communication with students and revoke 24-hour access to studio facilities – often touted as a perk by schools – to encourage work–life balance.

If those teaching the next generation of architects don’t change the culture, “students will take their bad habits and expectations of what life should be as an architect into their working lives and things will never really change,” Kirkpatrick says. “But it doesn’t have to be that way.”