A new website has been set up to offer support to Ireland's growing number of unemployed architects.

Following the devastation wrought on the profession by the economic crisis, Archipocalypse was started by architect Jan McIntyre earlier this month.

"You read about job losses where factories close down but there are so many people being made redundant in architecture firms and no one seems to be aware of it," McIntyre said.

"I don't know very many architects who are working full time. It's all happened so quickly, nobody seems to be commenting on it. Things are so bad that when one architect I knew got a job recently, I told everyone about it."

Of the 220 architects who took part in a survey for the website, 34% had been laid off in the past 15 months while only 28% of respondents felt that their jobs were secure for the next six months.

More alarming is that only 37% had not considered changing career.

"You study for five years and you expect you will have a little more of a hint of what's coming ahead. It's very demotivating for people," said Hawke.

The UCD graduate has learned that Irish architects are travelling as far as Australia, the US and the Middle-East to find work.

"A lot of architects went to Australia a year ago but work has pretty much dried up there too. Dubai has quietened down a lot as well. From emails we have had to the website, it seems there really isn't anywhere in the world Irish architects can get work at the moment."