Outsourcing Architecture - the Value of Innovation (V).

Innovation Part V: More and more firms discover the financial potential of AEC (Architecture, Engineering and Construction) services. "Let the architect design - we make the money"! They simply aim for the remaining 80% of architect's fees. In Austria more or less about ten companies share the market of architectural services while a lot of small and emerging architectural practices live from hand-to-mouth. Do design inovations really have no values compared to construction documentation and tendering?

But now there is an alternative: Outsourcing architectural services. After the digitalisation of architectural production, transferring architectural services to places where they cost less is the next logical step. Soon it's cheaper, more simultaneous (get them when you need them, avoided the load of high rates of pay) and more flexible (imagine, you can have a 24h office..) to outsource architectural services.

In an optimistic sense the Domus magazine (900) predicts a good future:

It (outsourcing) could be a way for young architects who don't have the capital to expand their own practices to enter successful bids for very large projects. Outsourcing could potentially liberate a lot of people with ideas from constraints and obstacles of running large, expensive practices. I (the author) believe this could have a profound effect on the architecture we see around us today. J.G (Domus 900, February 2007, page 35)

See the Indian service provider Satellier:
Satellier is the "work-share partners to the AEC industry

or read Domus #900.