Niall McLaughlin has warned of a skills gap facing the profession as young architects spend less time on site.

The multiple Stirling finalist said it was crucial to get hands-on experience in order to design well – but that the rise of design-and-build contracts meant many architects were only working to RIBA stage D and not seeing their details being built.

It was a bigger issue for the profession than the “polarised” divide between practice and profession, he said in an interview at BD Live last week – though he also had things to say about that.

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