Work-load fluctuations and design quality: better buildings in boom times, or worse?

Some relationships between work-load fluctuations and quality of building design are explored. Designers' experience of temporary overstraining and slackness indicates divergent views, associated with level of responsibility. There follow implications for building quality in boom (such as that current in the United Kingdom at the time of writing) and recession. Designers' maximisation of advancement and enjoyment, with respect to different stages of projects, is proposed as an influence on building quality.