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“Architects Are Bad at Business:” Here’s Why and What We Can Do About It
CategoriesArchitecture

“Architects Are Bad at Business:” Here’s Why and What We Can Do About It

By Zarkon Group,

Evelyn Lee is the Head of Workplace Strategy and Innovation at Slack Technologies, founder of Practice of Architecture, and co-host of the podcast, Practice Disrupted. She will serve as the 101st President of the AIA in 2025.

Every architecture and design firm is a business first. It’s easy to forget while celebrating our design awards and the stories of our contributions to the communities where we live, work and play. But to pursue the work that brings us so much joy, it is, first and foremost, essential to have a profitable and agile business that continues to adapt to the changing nature of the economy.

Architects aren’t necessarily known for being good at business or even enjoying having conversations on business operations. We would rather spend our time talking about the projects, the impact of the design, the materials that went into them, and the changes made within the project delivery process to make it so successful.

But the phrase, “Architects are bad at business,” has become a crutch, if not an excuse, to continue to be bad at business and avoid the conversation altogether.

So why are we this way?

OrfiSera by YERCE ARCHITECTURE

Architects are often more focused on the creative aspects of their work rather than business ones.

The problem with focusing only on creativity often means losing focus on things like project management. This means we spend so much time focused on only one aspect of the business, but businesses are systems, and every aspect of the system needs attention to be successful.

Architects are not trained in business practices.

Anyone who went through an accredited degree program could tell you that the one-hour seminar on professional practice taught students more about avoiding lawsuits while practicing than it did about running a business effectively. And even if it was the class was more broadly focused, there’s too much to learn in a single class to be effective.

What’s more, the ongoing education of individuals, once in practice, is often more focused on project work and does not extend beyond that.

Architects are often reluctant to change.

In today’s rapidly changing business environment, it is more important than ever for businesses to be agile. Agility is the ability to adapt quickly to change, and it is essential for businesses that want to stay ahead of the competition (especially the growing competition coming from outside the profession). However, architects, no matter how innovative we are with our projects, are otherwise stuck in our ways and resistant to change.

Good business operations require continuous improvement, and it not only takes a change mindset but a commitment of resources, both time and money, to examine what is and isn’t working.

OrfiSera by YERCE ARCHITECTURE

Architects are not good at selling their services.

How often have you heard an architect say, “The work speaks for itself.” Sure, there was a time when architects were discouraged from advertising their services (from the late 1800s to the early 1960s), but even with advertising being off the table, there are many different ways to sell services that most architects are not using.

Architects don’t like to ask for help.

While it’s easy for us to be good at what we are good at, it’s often harder for us to realize what we are not good at and, more importantly, to not stand in the way of letting other experts do their thing. I don’t know how often I’ve heard an architect say about a business operations consultant, “They just don’t understand what we do and how we do it.”

In many ways, we make ourselves out to be so unique that we get it in our heads that no one else can understand what it is we do and how we do it. We then put it on ourselves to do everything, and in essence, nothing more gets accomplished.

OrfiSera by YERCE ARCHITECTURE

So what can better business operations do for our architecture and design firms? There are many benefits, including:

  • Better communication and collaboration: Well-designed business operations can improve communication and collaboration within an architecture or design firm. This can lead to faster decision-making, better problem-solving and more efficient use of resources.
  • Streamlined processes: By streamlining processes, firms can reduce the amount of time and effort it takes to complete tasks. This can lead to increased efficiency and productivity.
  • Automated tasks: By automating tasks, firms can free up their staff to focus on more strategic and creative work. This can lead to increased efficiency and profitability.
  • Better use of technology: By using technology effectively, firms can improve their efficiency and productivity. This can include using project management software, cloud-based collaboration tools, and other technology solutions.
  • A focus on continuous improvement: By focusing on continuous improvement, firms can identify and implement changes that will make their business more efficient. This can lead to a sustainable competitive advantage.

In addition to the benefits above, better business operations can also help architecture and design firms to:

  • Attract and retain top talent
  • Increase customer satisfaction
  • Improve profitability
  • Expand into new markets

OrfiSera by YERCE ARCHITECTURE

Design thinking has taken hold in many different areas, and architects often share their desire to own the space. I think there’s an opportunity to raise our value there, but to showcase what we can do, we first have to start with what we can do within our firms.

Stay tuned for our upcoming articles offering specific guidance and steps to design and implement better business operations.

In the meantime, we encourage you to download Practice of Architect’s Agile Practice Resource. This free living resource is designed to equip you with the knowledge and tools necessary to bring more agility to your practice.

Architects: Want to have your project featured? Showcase your work through Architizer and sign up for our inspirational newsletters.

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“Bad news is still good information”
CategoriesSustainable News

“Bad news is still good information”

By Zarkon Group,

A recent University of Cambridge study that cast doubt on the long-term effectiveness of insulating UK homes is not as bad news as it first appears, argues Insulate Britain campaigner James Thomas.

On 20 January, Dezeen reported on an academic paper by Cambridge University researchers looking at the long-term effects of energy-efficiency retrofits in the UK. At first glance, the Dezeen story and/or the paper might seem “anti-retrofit”. I want to bring a counterpoint to that knee-jerk reaction.

Bad news is still good information. Information in the form of empirical primary research by qualified professionals with track records in the relevant field, backed up by well-established research institutions, peer-reviewed and published in a respected academic journal – with all parties having a strong incentive not to get caught out doing bad work – is better than most.

At first glance, the Dezeen story and/or the paper might seem “anti-retrofit”

So when such a source presents information that, at first glance, seems to be at odds with what we want to hear, or what we were expecting to hear, we should take a calm moment and listen anyway; we might learn something.

The study is one of the first to use a large dataset (55,154 homes) looking at the impact of real-world retrofits in the long term. The clickbait conclusion is: empirical data shows that energy savings from retrofitting disappear after about four years.

Although the data is new, this finding is not unexpected. Economic theory predicts a “rebound effect” in energy usage following retrofits. A retrofit amounts to a reduction in the (financial) cost of warming your home – so you might well find yourself keeping your home warmer after your retrofit than before it.

Another not-unexpected finding from the paper is that retrofits have a significantly lower impact on energy consumption in homes in deprived areas, which are suffering from fuel poverty. We can assume that households in this category, pre-retrofit, were already spending up to the limit of what they could afford on heating, and that this was insufficient to keep their homes at a comfortable temperature.

After a retrofit, the same level of expenditure on energy would be enough to make such a home comfortable. So the energy usage would stay about the same – but the lives of the people living in that home would be vastly improved.

Two other significant factors contributing to the worse-than-predicted performance of retrofits, not discussed at length in the Cambridge paper, are the variance between buildings and quality control issues in retrofit installation and design.

Poor design or slapdash installation can entirely negate the performance benefits of an expensive retrofit

Different types of houses require different retrofit solutions, as might different houses of the same type. Poor design or slapdash installation can entirely negate the performance benefits of an expensive retrofit. Both of these factors point at the same thing: the need for consistent and reliably high quality in the design of retrofits and their installation.

But what stood out for me most from the Cambridge study, and from everything else I know about retrofitting, is the need for something much better than a retrofit-and-forget programme. A whole-house retrofit transforms your home from a passive pile of bricks and timber into something more like a machine, integrating multiple interacting passive and active systems.

You need to know not to throw open your windows when you’re surprised by how warm it is. Your retrofitted house is a machine; you need to learn how to drive it. You might even need to take a driving test.

The study authors say it their way: “Our results call for the urgent need to fully incorporate human behaviour into ex-ante modelling of energy use and to complement financial and regulatory energy efficiency policy instruments with soft instruments to promote the behavioural changes needed to realise the full saving potential of the adoption of energy efficiency improvements.”

In short, the rebound effect, and other effects identified by the Cambridge study, can be compensated for if the retrofits are delivered via the vehicle of an intelligent, progressive, integrated national policy. Such a programme would include comprehensive training for engineers, installers and end users, monitoring of both installation quality and post-installation usage, and refresher training where necessary.

Another possible tool, dare I mention it, could be rewards and/or penalties to incentivise sensible use by residents post-retrofit. Controversial, but it exists in many other areas of life where one person’s behaviour could have a negative impact on others. Nobody freaks out about the fact we have driving tests and driving licences – as well as fines for bad driving.

Nobody, least of all Insulate Britain, ever said national-scale retrofitting would be easy or cheap

That’s why Insulate Britain calls for something akin to the NHS for retrofitting: a National Insulation Service. Such an institution could provide other crucial benefits like trust and a service ethos, consistency across geography and time, data-sharing on what works and what doesn’t.

To free-market diehards that baulk at the notion of the less-than-optimal commercial efficiency that could come with delivering retrofits via a large state service effort, consider how we don’t marketise core state services like healthcare, education, defence. Aren’t providing energy security, eliminating fuel poverty and avoiding climate death also core?

Thanks to the Cambridge study, we now know for certain that a retrofit-and-forget approach won’t make the energy savings from retrofits stick. The Royal Institute of British Architects, and the Construction Leadership Council, and the Architects Climate Action Network have all called for a comprehensive national retrofit strategy. The report academics say it their way, Insulate Britain say it our way.

Nobody, least of all Insulate Britain, ever said national-scale retrofitting would be easy or cheap. But it’s still easier and cheaper than any other carbon mitigation intervention – if it is delivered in the form of an intelligent, progressive, integrated national policy to include not just money, but also action to support trust, quality control and behaviour change.

James Thomas is a British architect, environmental economist and campaigner. He led the team that designed Extinction Rebellion’s pink boat Berta Cáceres and spent two months in jail for blocking the M25 motorway outside London as part of an Insulate Britain protest calling for a national retrofit scheme.

The photo is by Benjamin Elliot via Unsplash.

Reference

Bad design “at the heart of our destruction” says UK’s top climate adviser
CategoriesSustainable News

Bad design “at the heart of our destruction” says UK’s top climate adviser

By Zarkon Group,

Designers might have had a hand in causing climate change but they are also key to solving it, according to the chair of the UK Climate Change Committee, who addressed the Design Council’s sustainability conference as it kicked off alongside COP27.

“In the past, we have created great wealth through remarkable design, from Newcomen’s steam engine to the very latest in nuclear technology,” John Gummer, also known as Lord Deben, said at the Design for Planet Festival.

“The trouble is we didn’t recognise that what we were designing actually had within it the ability to destroy.”

Design for Planet festival graphic
Lord Deben spoke at the Design for Planet Festival

Gummer, a Conservative former environment secretary and top climate adviser to the UK government, said this means that designers now have both the responsibility and the unique ability to reimagine products in a way that doesn’t harm the planet and its people.

“Sustainable development demands good design,” he said. “We won’t win the battle against climate change unless we design the solutions.”

“It is good design, which will enable us to use the smallest amount of our resources as is possible, that will enable us to reuse, that will enable us to extend, that will enable us to be flexible, that will enable us increasingly to grow – but to grow in a way that is not at the expense of others and the planet.”

Products can be beautiful and sustainable

Gummer made the comments in a virtual address during the Design Council’s Design for Planet festival, which is taking place this week to coincide with the UN’s COP27 climate conference in Egypt.

The two-day event in Newcastle aims to encourage and support designers in taking an active role in solving the climate crisis.

This should involve making sustainable low-carbon designs that are still beautiful and easy to use, Gummer argued.

“I don’t think being attractive is something to be ashamed of because what it means is that we create things, which people want to use and want to use properly,” he said.

“One of the fundamentals of beauty is now going to be that they enhance, extend and enable our lives rather than being at the heart of our destruction.”

Designers “fed up” with industry’s lack of action

Gummer is the chairman of the UK’s independent Climate Change Committee, which is responsible for advising the government on emissions targets and monitoring its progress in achieving them.

Last week, Gummer warned that the UK’s attempts to tackle emissions have so far been “appalling“, leaving the country “off track” for meeting its climate targets.

This has been echoed by experts including Cambridge University engineering professor Julian Allwood, who argued that the UK’s net-zero strategy is as unrealistic as “magic beans fertilised by unicorn’s blood”.

The UK’s design industry had a similarly slow start, launching its Design Declares campaign a full two years after architects, engineers and other creative industries declared a climate emergency.

Announced in September as part of London Design Festival, the initiative hopes to unite studios that are “fed up with a lack of industry momentum”.

The Design for Planet Festival is taking place from 9 to 10 November at the V&A Dundee. See Dezeen Events Guide for information about the many other exhibitions, installations and talks taking place throughout the week.

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