Across cultures and geographies, in small studios and large firms, in the offices of anonymous designers or celebrity architects, one condition seems to unite us all: precarity. It manifests itself through permanent internships, short-term contracts, freelance work, and meagre pay. Job security seems like an elusive dream, especially for young professionals. Precarity is like a dark shadow that looms over creativity. It impacts performance and innovation, taking a toll on mental and physical well-being.

Over the past few months, we at Bnieuws reached out to you, asking for witness reports on real precarious events that have happened to you on the work floor. In this special issue, we took these stories and sewed them together into a play, The Competition. This issue does not aim to solve any problems. We do not make conclusions. We do not appoint culprits. We do not know the answers, if there even are any. This issue merely reports on the precarious working conditions we are oftentimes greeted with. Some of these stories portray a simple annoyance, others portray outright criminal offences. Do you recognise the absurdity of the situation? Or are you perhaps part of the problem? All firms show precarity at its finest. Can you spot all the red flags?