After the property boom, lean times for Spanish architects

Architects who reigned supreme during Spain's housing boom, presiding over fast-changing skylines, are picking up the pieces from the country's property crash.

No longer tracing the lines of new towns and gleaming new towers, many look back on the housing frenzy with regret, and some are fleeing the country to find work.

Housing activity in the recession-struck country has declined by about 90 percent since the bubble burst in 2008, said Alexia Maniega, secretary general of the Spanish Architects' Union.

Unemployment in the sector is close to 27 percent, she said, topping even the nation's overall jobless rate of 25 percent, which is the highest in modern Spanish history.

The slump is all the more difficult because of the heights that architects once reached.

The anonymous brick-coloured housing developments that mushroomed around Spain's cities for more than a decade were among the most striking symbols of the bubble.

Architects were able to give full rein to their creativity with each town vying to put up its own emblematic building.

"You would send your CV to studios you wanted to work with, but the others would call you and make you an offer," remembers 35-year-old architect Laura Gonzalez.

At the time, spending at least seven years in university to become an architect seemed like a good investment.

No longer.

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After the property boom, lean times for Spanish architects