The ifo Architects’ Survey

The quarterly ifo Architects’ Survey was begun in 1980, with the aim of generating an early indicator for the economic development of building construction in the Federal Republic of Germany. The rational was that, as the planning order is usually sent to the architect before the building permit is issued, the building construction planning volume could be recorded earlier via a survey of German architects than with the data from the building permit and incoming orders statistics (Gluch 1981; Neisen 1979; Oppenländer and Poser 1989b). The most important results of the survey appeared in the journal Deutsches Architektenblatt.

From 2003 to 2017, the ifo Institute conducted the survey in cooperation with the German Federal Chamber of Architects. For this purpose, the architects were surveyed with regard to contract conclusion, planning volumes, and the current and anticipated order situation. Results of the survey were published in the ifo Schnelldienst by Gluch from 2003 to 2017. However, in 2017 this project was discontinued. The survey participants were integrated into the panel of the ifo Business Survey in the service sector. Since the 4th quarter of 2017, the ifo Institute has continued reporting on the basis of this monthly survey. The results are published on the website of the Federal Chamber of Architects and occasionally in the ifo Schnelldienst (Brandt 2019, 2020a; Demmelhuber 2022; Zeiner 2018)