White paper on creativity - ebla center

Chapter 12consider the data for the dominantmodel of architectural firm in Italy. Wehave the largest number of registeredarchitects in Europe – 128,083(CNA) lxvi – and of technical firms –253,377 (Eurostat 2007), i.e. one forevery 228 inhabitants. But there areonly 27 large firms, i.e. with more than250 employees (CRESME 2008); 135medium to large firms (50-249employees); 343 average firms (20-49employees), and 1,074 with 10-19employees. There is a large number ofsmall firms (29,866 with 2-9employees) but the vast majority aresole practitioners (221,932 accountingfor 87.58% of the total), which lowersthe national average of the employeesper company to 1.4 – not much morethan 1.This widespread model means thatarchitectural and engineering firms aremainly of a small size. Most architectsaspire to having their own individualpractice. Multidisciplinary firms ofarchitecture and engineering are rareand at most there are firms ofassociated architects.For a brief comparison we can look atthe models in other Europeancountries. France, which has a similarpopulation size to Italy, has 27,000registered architects, less than a quarterof Italian architects. There are 130firms with more than 250 employeesand 526 medium-large firms (50-249employees), which is four times theequivalent number in Italy, and theaverage employees per firm is 5.6.In the United Kingdom there are30,600 registered architects, 128 largefirms, 566 medium-large firms, and anaverage employees per firm of 6.3.Table 12.2 – Firms of architecture, engineering and related activities in EuropeEmployees Firms PopulationFirms/PopulationTurnover(million €)Employees/FirmUK 384,731 58,724 60 1,021.7 47,554 6.6France 333,657 80,600 60.6 751.9 45,752 4.1Germany 416,587 91,688 82.5 899.8 36,409 4.5Italy 361,439 253,377 58.5 230.9 27,367 1.4Spain 265,097 100,236 38.2 381.1 20,605 2.6Netherlands 111,579 17,125 16.3 951.8 11,827 6.5Sweden 72,668 31,189 9 288.6 7,908 2.3Denmark 39,135 5,917 5.4 912.6 6,437 6.6WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 282