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Turnover almost halved at architect Make in 2009 and the practice lost nearly 拢1m because of bad debt in the Middle East.

Revenue fell from 拢18.5m to 拢9.8m while pre-tax profit tumbled from 拢521,000 to a 拢890,000 loss in a troubled week for UK architects.

Ken Shuttleworth, founder of Make, said that the practice would have made a profit were it not for bad debt. 鈥淲e have had one Middle Eastern client who hasn鈥檛 paid us,鈥� he said.
Barry Cooke, finance director, declined to name the scheme, but said it was a 鈥渂ig commercial job in the Middle East, that was spread over a number of places鈥�. He added that the fees had been written off.

UK revenue was particularly badly hit, falling from 拢16.5m to just 拢6.6m in 2009, which Cooke attributed to a lack of work across the private sector. 鈥淚t was across all the private sector - it was very down last year,鈥� he said.

But he said turnover was about 50% higher this year than in 2009, largely thanks togrowth in mainland China.

Directors鈥� pay remained steady, with 拢1.36m split between the four directors, including 拢643,963 (2008: 拢673,980) to the highest paid director, presumed to be Shuttleworth. Staff numbers dropped from 138 to 109 in 2009, but have risen to 120 this year.

The news comes after last week鈥檚 announcement that Archial had been bought by Canadian engineering and architecture group Ingenium after going into administration over unpaid taxes.

Aukett Fitzroy Robinson also announced that it was 鈥渃onsulting with some staff regarding a small number of redundancies鈥�.

However, there was better news at Populous, formerly HOK Sport, which increased its turnover by 拢1.1m to 拢16.7m in 2009, and made a 拢1.3m profit after hiring 50 architects in the year, taking the total to 125.

Separately, Charles Young, the former Europe director of Aukett, who left Aedas as business development director about a month ago, is understood to be in talks about joining Woods Bagot.