PHOTO BY: TAMEEK
09 / INSIGHT
NATIONAL DESIGN SURVEy Barry Lupton shares data from the recent survey carried out in conjunction with HortiTrends.ie
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incere thanks to all who took the time to complete the national survey of Ireland's design and design and build sectors. As anyone in the domain will attest, getting reliable data from design professionals is a difficult task. It is a notoriously secretive profession. Why? There are a variety of potential reasons: our tendency toward business secrecy, fear of competition, and of course, professionals don't want to reveal their data, because to do so would require admitting they are not running a viable business. So thanks again to all. Less than a hundred professionals completed the survey. This number may seem small, but when viewed in context with the scale of the sector, barriers and awareness of the survey, it still represents a reasonable sample. It is not our intention to provide a detailed insight into the sector. The data and opinions shared here are intended to provide a start point, a talking point and a point of reflection for the wider business community. Some percentages do not total to 100% and this reflects some outlier responses.
LANDSCAPE AND GARDEN DESIGN IN IRELAND The design of outdoor space for the leisure purposes of the general public is a relatively new phenomenon in Ireland. As such, the profession is still finding its feet, figuring out its identity and trying to find a stable place in the perception of the Irish mind. The profession does not have a firm footing, it lacks historic understanding, appreciation and value in the
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THE BREAkDOWN ✽ 60% male, 40% female ✽ Location: 69% Leinster, 17% Muunster, 11% Connacht, 3% Ulster
✽ 72% are employers, 28% are employees ✽ Scale of business: 64% small, SME 22%,
7% large, 7% other made up of start ups, a carpenter and separate design and construction businesses
✽ Type of business: sole trader 54%,
limited company 35% and others made up of partnerships and education sector respondents
✽ 30% design only, 70% design and build ✽ Years working in the sector: 23% 1-3
years, 15% 3-6 years, 15% 9-12 years, 38% 18 years plus, one respondent said they'd been working for over 38 years
mind of the Irish population. It has a limited educational base, no recognition or regulation, and the market is saturated by poorly informed, trained and under-experienced designers. Highly trained and experienced designers are in the minority, fighting to differentiate themselves with crowds of horticulturalists who find themselves with little else to do but set themselves up as designers, or contractors, or both. It's not all bad. The newness of Irish design affords opportunity, creativity and an explorative, experimental environment unburdened by centuries of tradition. Irish design is starting to define itself, helped in no small part by Bloom in the Park and other regional events. Designers’
HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticulture.ie / Summer 2015
