13 Tips to Make the Most of Your AIA 2013 Convention Experience June 8, 2013
Posted by randydeutsch in architect types.7 comments
In recent years, as an author and speaker I’ve attended and participated in dozens of conferences around the country. Subsequently, I’ve picked up some tips along the way on how to get the most out of one’s limited time and resources.
With the AIA 2013 National Convention in Denver just around the corner, I thought I’d share a few hard-earned tactics on how to enhance your convention experience.
1. It’s not about the programs
I used to think that the formal presentations were what conventions were all about. No more. This is especially hard for me to admit because
- I love to learn – I’m energized by learning – and find the cornucopia of education sessions offered at the AIA Convention to be particularly enticing; and
- I’m presenting at this year’s convention and wouldn’t want you to be a program no-show because of something I wrote here.
But ever notice all those firm principals hanging out just outside the entry of the conference rooms – or in the lobby – while programs are in session? They know a secret that it has taken them a career to learn and that I will share with you right now:
The programs are the least important part of the convention.
It is whom you meet or see going in or out of the programs that matters. So, by all means, attend and participate in the programs – just be sure to linger on the way in and out. And when waiting for the presentation to start, introduce yourself to the speaker and strike up a conversation with those sitting nearby.
2. Don’t just sit there – participate in programs
The education programs have been designed this year to be especially engaging and interactive. No more sage on the stage, leaning on a podium, pontificating on the importance of their work. AIA has said goodbye to the old presenter’s standby and hello to Phil Donahue-style edutainment.
You should still expect to learn a lot – in fact, a great deal more than in past conventions – because each of your presenters has been trained over the past six months on how to help you learn and engage in the material, to assure learning takes place and your expectations are more than met.
3. You can’t do everything. Know your schedule and goals
There are just way too many events competing for your attention. So prioritize – and have a plan.To start, know where you’re supposed to be and when.
Author Don Peppers has some sage advice from a lifetime of “living mouth to hand.”
Before the conference starts, be clear on your goals and what you want to get our of the convention. Ask yourself:
- Do you want to consolidate existing relationships or meet new people?
- Do you want to acquire “how to” expertise or to gather industry insights and intelligence?
- From a personal standpoint, are you trying to grow your “personal brand” or make connections with others?
- Learn more in order to do your current job better, or to get to the next level?
Like AIA membership itself, what you get from attending a conference will be based on what you put into it. And as with design assignments, the time you put into the planning will pay off many times over in the end. You won’t regret it.
4. Forget networking. Just ask questions instead
The word ‘networking’ seems to put architects on edge. What it boils down to is interacting with your peers and engaging them in conversation.
Most would be thrilled to have you come up and introduce yourself, and ask a question or two, exchange cards and move on.
You never know what might become of it – and what doors may open for you on account of a simple social exchange. So, instead of networking, simply introduce yourself and ask:
- What have you been working on lately?
- Discuss your reactions to the last presentation.
- Talk about what you’re working on.
And the networking – and conversation – will take care of itself.
5. Don’t be a sponge, engage
Architects so often think of themselves as sponges. Taking-in all that surrounds them.
Stop soaking. At the Expo, don’t just look at products and play who can collect the most swag.
Instead, engage with the reps. Get to know them: they can be a fount of industry wisdom and you never know when they might come to your rescue on a project.
Look around. You might see former classmates or former colleagues.
Check out this infographic explaining what to do and what not to do when visiting the convention expo.
In terms of the exception for when you should not under any circumstances engage, here’s one word of advice:
If you see a former employer cavorting with someone who is, um, not their spouse? Turn the other way. Even if you’ve caught eyes – they will appreciate it. This has happened to me three times – with three separate former employers on three separate occasions – and each time resulted in the most awkward conversations.
The difference between a convention and conference? A convention is where conventional behavior takes place. Or it at least seems to.6. Allow for some downtime
With all of this meeting, greeting, engaging, dis-engaging and participating, you’ll need to recharge your batteries.
Architects tend to be introverts. Instead of being energized by social occasions, they’re drained by all of the energy required to meet and greet.
So give yourself a break. Better yet, several of them. Perhaps steal away to your hotel room for a short nap between events, or for a walk outdoors in the fresh air.
7. Make the most of after-hours socializing
I tend to spend the evening hours putting the finishing touches on my conference presentations. Mistake. Instead of tweaking and un-tweaking, I should be out and about taking-part in after-hour activities.
Some sound suggestions on why what goes on at night is as important a part of any conference or convention as what happens by day.
8. Get to know those you interact with on social media
You’ve probably engaged in more back and forth with some of the convention attendees – on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Architizer, (fill-in-the-blank) – than you have with your own family members.
Here’s your chance to put a face to the handle and get to know your social media buds in person. Who knows? They may be your future peers, colleagues, friends or employers – you never know.
MeetUp with Your Twitter Friends at the AIA 2013 TweetUp.
9. Can’t attend in person? Attend the Virtual Convention
Face it – conventions are expensive and not every firm can afford to send everyone they would like to have represent the firm.
Nor can individuals justify the cost of attending each year. That’s what the virtual convention is for: on demand live streaming, simulcasts and the virtual expo.
When attending virtually, you’re not peering in, spying on presentations. Speakers are trained to address and engage attendees who are participating in programs from outside the classroom.
Not convinced and would still like to attend in person? Here are some ideas for how to go about convincing the powers-that-be to give you the green light – and the green – on attending.10. Approach a big-name architect
Don’t be intimidated – they’re people, too.
I wish someone had told me that before meeting Morphosis principal Thom Mayne FAIA at a past AIA convention. He couldn’t have been more friendly and patient, doing all he could to get me from just standing there making blblblblbl sounds with my lips and index finger.
Or upon approaching Peter Eisenman FAIA – suddenly at a loss for something to say – asking him to deconstruct his signature for me (he did, without hesitating, as though he were asked to do this a hundred times a day.)
Or the time I saw architect Scott Simpson going up the escalator while I was going down. Instead of catching eyes and saying hello (and gushing that I’ve read all of his articles in DesignIntelligence including this and this and this and this and this and this and this and even his books) I just kept my head down and pretended that I didn’t see him (on second thought, maybe that was best.)
Some sound advice on how to approach (and how NOT to approach) your hero.
Here’s some great tips on how to be confident, even when you’re not.
11. Leave your work at the office
You are here to learn, to engage, to converse and to have fun. And there is nothing less fun than to see a colleague doing office work at the convention – and no better way to alienate your peers. They are just not impressed that you are so busy that you can’t set your work aside for a few days.
Taking a call from back at the office now and then is unavoidable – but be sure to make every effort to plan specific times when you can address questions from your team or fires that need putting out – to assure you are getting the most from attending the convention.
12. Look for an opportunity to get involved
The convention is perhaps the one time and place where you are exposed to all the AIA does for members – and the public – and an ideal time to recalibrate your level of involvement.
Find a knowledge community to meet with upon your return from the convention. Make a commitment to get involved.
My initiation to AIA was attending knowledge community meetings, which led to serving as a local director, then vice-president, and so on. Step up your involvement a notch this year – you never know where it can lead.
13. What to do as soon as you return home
Within the first few days back, send each of those you met at the convention a brief hand-written note or email, reminding them
that you met them at the convention, saying:
- how much you enjoyed meeting them,
- how much you enjoyed their presentation (especially if they presented,) perhaps asking them for a copy of their presentation – or
- just let them know that you enjoyed your conversation with them.
You do this because you authentically care about them as a person – but it also helps them remember you and your name the next time you see them.
It would be a fascinating exercise to fill-out a program for the convention – after the fact – based on how you really spent your time. Most of you would be surprised. Let me know if you have tips of your own that you’d like to share.
– Randy Deutsch AIA, LEED-AP
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Learn more about the AIA 2013 National Convention here and here.
Download the AIA 2013 Convention App for iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch, Android BlackBerry/Windows Phone.
Learn what’s new at this year’s convention.
Download a PDF version of the 2013 convention guide to review the daily schedule, exhibitors, and more.
…
On June 20, 2013 at the AIA 2013 Convention in Denver, I will be leading a early morning session on how to lead in the new world of practice – live in person and also on-demand for the virtual convention. To learn more, please click the link below:
TH107: (Re)Learning to Lead with BIM and IPD
2013 AIA National Convention
Thursday, June 20, 2013 | 7:00 AM – 8:00 AM
Denver, CO Convention Center, Room 201
Earn 1.00 AIA LUs + GBCI
http://eventscribe.com/2013/AIA/TwitterPres.asp?Pres=33487
…
Also, in July 2013, I will be leading a 2-day Harvard GSD Executive Education seminar. To learn more, please click the link below:
BIM: Lessons in Leadership
July 8, 2013 – 9:00am – July 9, 2013 – 5:00pm
Gund Hall, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA
Earn 14 AIA/CES
http://execed.gsd.harvard.edu/programs/bim-lessons-leadership
Can You Be an Architect and Still Have a Life? June 2, 2013
Posted by randydeutsch in architect types.Tags: architecture, architecture education, design studio, studio culture, work-life balance
18 comments
Probably the biggest surprise for me in university teaching is how much studio culture has changed in the last decade.
Ten years ago, when I co-taught a graduate level integrated building science design studio, no matter what time of day or night, students would be in studio, working away at their drawings and models.
Not so anymore. While there are exceptions to this, my peers in the teaching profession back this up.
Fewer students are working in studio outside of class time.
Why is this? and Why is this important?
From a design professor’s perspective, there are several reasons that working in studio is critical to the development of the emerging architect and design professional:
- Collaboration is increasingly valued not only in our profession, but many other industries
- Learning is accelerated when learning from others
- Bounce ideas off one another. Fellow students serve as sounding boards, providing a constant source of feedback
Additionally, working alone in one’s dorm room or dining room table can encourage silo mentality and bad working habits.
It also can increase competitive behavior – the designer surprising everyone back in studio with the magic they cooked up at home. This leads to the “white knight syndrome,” where the architect whisks into the office or meeting at the eleventh hour with the design decision intact, whole-cloth, undermining the efforts of all those who stayed up late working on alternative solutions.
I tell my students my concerns – but it has little impact on their behavior.
First School, Then Practice
Architecture students no doubt work very hard, are pulled in a number of increasingly divergent directions, all of which make demands on their time and attention. My students are no exception.
When asked, students inevitably say they don’t feel safe driving home when tired, walking home at night from studio, or don’t like to have to rely on others walking with them or giving them a lift.
Some just feel more comfortable working from home, where they are in familiar surroundings, surrounded by people they know, pets they care for, and all the media they can access at once.
And they’re right. For a long time, the studio student experience had a number of strikes against it.
Much has been researched and reported on the need for a redesign of studio culture.
And many schools have strict policies on studio culture, many of which build on these reports.
One comprehensive background and overview of the subject, Design Juries on Trial – reissued recently and now also in the form of related iPhone apps – by my university colleague Kathryn Anthony.
In her research, Anthony gathered comments from students at schools throughout the U.S. through surveys or student diaries, and also conducted extensive interviews with academic colleagues and architects. Well worth a read.
Work-Life Imbalance?
Among all advanced nations, the United States ranks 28th in work-life balance –barely better than Mexico, says the says The Atlantic.
The U.S. may be tops in housing access and family wealth, but in terms of work-life balance? Ninth from the bottom.
Want work-life balance? Don’t become an architect. Move to Denmark.
If only it was so easy.
It is impossible to talk about studio culture without delving into the larger topic of work-life balance, but I will try to keep this discussion focused on what I perceive to be a behavior among students that can potentially affect not only practice, but their work satisfaction, for years to come.
We’re living at a time where many of the work-life trends have taken-on an unfamiliar look, one that seems counterintuitive:
- American leisure time has been increasing for decades (for most people)
- American men work less today & have more down time than ever recorded.
While it is seldom wise to generalize about demographics, I believe it is fair to say that Millennials – the current generation of emerging design professionals – want work/life balance.
They have made this clear not only in many class discussions in the courses I teach, but also in their behavior.
Students today have seen the negative impact overwork has had on their parents – and on their marriages – and they don’t want to perpetuate this by repeating what they feel are mistakes of their parent’s generation.
Including the side-affect that working too much makes one boring.
And unhappy. One recent study indicates that between 20 and 40 percent of architects are dissatisfied with their rate of pay, practice management, promotion prospects, working hours and opportunity to use their abilities.
Like everyone else, architects want to be happy.Work-Life-Work Balance
Architect Andrew Maynard points out that many women leave the profession due to the difficult combination of poor work cultures, long hours and low pay. He writes:
“But these conditions affect everyone – women and men – as well as the viability of the profession as a whole.”
He calls this situation in architecture Work/Life/Work balance, and that we must “stop deluding ourselves that architectural employees are anything other than a contemporary exploited labor force.”
The seeds of this Work/Life/Work balance trend begins in school.
In other courses, I have students who won’t do the course reading because, they say, it is boring, too long, takes up too much time, they can’t concentrate for long periods of time required to read the assigned chapter, don’t see the relevance, because reading is not among their preferred ways to learn.
Often, I see their unwillingness to do the reading as a symptom of a larger, overriding situation: a lack of balance between school work and life outside school.
Work-Work Balance
I have been told that I have a great work ethic. Even by my family.
Except my family translates a great work ethic with “you work too much.”
They would describe what I have been able to accomplish day-in, day-out for over 25 years as a Work-Work Balance.
After all, while my neighbors three floors below are loading golf gear into their car trunks, I’m up in my garret posting on Work-Life Balance.
The result is a noticeable all-work-and-no-play imbalance.
Can architects achieve a work-life balance?
Since high school, I’ve abided by the Zorba the Greek approach to life.
Zorba, who famously gave his work 100% of his effort and attention when working and life 100% when living.
In other words, give everything you do 100% when you’re doing it.
Achieving work-life balance takes, well, work, requiring time management, technology management, change management, stress management, leisure management (!) and self-management.
Can architects achieve a work-life balance? Yes.
But it takes work.
And at the heart of work-life balance is the value of “balance.”
Not everyone believes balance is achievable.
Some critics argue against work-life balance, not believing it is achievable.
And, as importantly, not every architect believes balance is desirable.
They feel that architects are artists and there’s no room for balance if they’re going to achieve their dreams.
And so, they ought to go about living life at extremes, burning their candle at both ends.
Want work-life balance? Work for a firm dedicated to upholding values that support a work-life balance.
Or create one of your own.
– Randy Deutsch AIA, LEED-AP
…
On June 20, 2013, I will be leading a early morning session on how to lead in the new world of practice, at the AIA 2013 Convention in Denver – live in person and also on-demand for the virtual convention. To learn more, please click the link below:
TH107: (Re)Learning to Lead with BIM and IPD
2013 AIA National Convention
Thursday, June 20, 2013 | 7:00 AM – 8:00 AM
Denver, CO Convention Center, Room 201
Earn 1.00 AIA LUs + GBCI
http://eventscribe.com/2013/AIA/TwitterPres.asp?Pres=33487
…
Also, in July 2013, I will be leading a 2-day seminar. To learn more, please click the link below:
BIM: Lessons in Leadership
Harvard GSD Executive Education seminar
July 8, 2013 – 9:00am – July 9, 2013 – 5:00pm
Gund Hall, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA
Earn 14 AIA/CES
http://execed.gsd.harvard.edu/programs/bim-lessons-leadership
…
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Professional Practice Makes Perfect May 27, 2013
Posted by randydeutsch in architect types.Tags: architecture, technology
16 comments
I was asked recently to teach Professional Practice to first year architecture grad students.
This would be in addition to the architecture technology courses I normally teach.
Despite its reputation for being at best a necessary evil and at worse a bore, I enjoy teaching ProPrac – as it is affectionately known.
The standard course content includes an overview of contracts, delivery methods, finances, marketing, business development, communication, people skills.
All add up in most students’ minds to equate with “not design.”
For some, the course might as well be called “ARCH 501: Not Design.”
In fact, it is a well-known assumption in architecture education that once undergraduates are indoctrinated into their first courses of architecture studies, having tasted the sweet nectar of design studio, they hence split their courses into two categories: design and everything else i.e. not design.
While I do teach design studio, the bigger part of my academic attention – teaching and research– is in architectural technology, construction, fabrication, building science, construction management, digital technology.
In other words: not design.
And yet, in order to keep the content in these courses engaging, I’ll try as often as possible to filter the topics through my 25 years of experience as a designer.
And so, wherever practical, I will talk about ProPrac in terms of design. This at least gets student’s attention.
Ideally, Professional Practice wouldn’t need its own course. The course content would be covered in design studio and the “everything else” courses: building technology, structures, history and so on.
These course instructors would walk over to the white board to illustrate a practice point.
They’d have a ProPrac corner for a ProPrac moment or perhaps even ProPrac break-out sessions.
May You Practice in Interesting Times
I have a sense of what sticks and what doesn’t stick from having previously taught ProPrac for many years to architecture grad students at UIC in Chicago.
And yet, this time around will be different, because I’ll be teaching the course at an interesting time.
A time marked by the advent of new technologies and new delivery methods and a reshuffling of whose in charge in the profession and industry.
Due to these circumstances, this raises some questions to ponder:
- How do you teach Design-Bid-Build when you recognize that its use is declining year by year, while at the same time more integrated methods – such as Design-Build, CM@Risk and IPD – are becoming the go-to choices for improved results?
- How do you discuss construction documentation knowing that the majority of firms now work in models, not drawings, making fuzzy the line between design intent and dictating construction means and methods?
- How do you cover the architect’s standard of care when BIM puts that term into question?
- How do you make the content relevant to all students when you know that 50% of them will go on to non-traditional practice?
I’ll often hear practitioners complain that architecture school doesn’t teach students about running a practice, about the importance of attaining business skills or even how buildings are put together. You might have heard similar complaints – or perhaps even agree with these yourself.
The thing is, sometimes I would hear these complaints from firm principals, for example about the dearth of business knowledge in recent graduates, only moments after returning to the office from having taught just these very subjects in my courses.
Students are exposed to these practical topics – especially in professional practice courses. They are either just not making this known to their employers – or they aren’t carrying-over what they learned in school into the office, the proverbial academic/practice gap.
Is it that the information learned in courses such as professional practice doesn’t “stick,” or because it isn’t put into immediate use, doesn’t resonate with them – and so it is soon forgotten.
Some of this has no doubt been covered in the extensive reports collected by The National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB) for their 2013 Accreditation Review Conference (ARC13) July 17-19, in Snowbird, UT. Following the conference, the NAAB will revise The Conditions for Accreditation with a new edition scheduled for release in 2014.
Learning Professional Practice from Books
I attended school before professional practice course content was required for accreditation. I learned everything I needed to learn about practice from reading: books such as The Architect’s Handbook of Professional Practice (look for the new 15th edition Nov. 2013) and lesser known but equally impactful books, such as The Executive Architect: Transforming Designers into Leaders.
Architect and educator Andrew Pressman has written some excellent books including a new book due out January 2014, Designing Relationships: The Art of Collaboration in Architecture. Look for it.
But I recognize that students have different learning preferences and perhaps due to the forces of digital technology and social media, reading is less and less one of them. What worked for me won’t necessarily work for them. Reading gets relegated to the supplemental.
In my own courses, I emphasize the importance of people skills and in order to make the material memorable as well as actionable, I try to use a variety of learning tools – storytelling, role playing, break-out sessions, hands-on exercises – so as not to reduce the learning of course content to rote memorization from a sage on the stage.
As it is, students tend to compartmentalize knowledge – what happens in building science stays in building science – instead of applying what they learned in non-design courses to what they are working on in studio.
In the comprehensive Capstone studio I taught last fall – teaching both design studio and technology courses – I had the unusual perspective of realizing that my students could not perform tasks as seniors that I had evidence of their performing as sophomores. Instead of accumulating knowledge, or building on what came before, it is as though the information learned in one part of the curriculum remained inaccessible or dormant – as though left behind in some unused sketchbook.
For ProPrac course content to have any resonance, meaning and import – it has to find a way to be applied across the curriculum.
What, if anything, do you recall from your professional practice course?
What would you recommend to change about how professional practice is taught to make it more relevant for emerging design professionals?
– Randy Deutsch AIA, LEED-AP
…
On June 2013, I will be leading a early morning session on how to lead in the new world of practice, at the AIA 2013 Convention in Denver – live in person and also on-demand for the virtual convention. To learn more, please click the link below:
TH107: (Re)Learning to Lead with BIM and IPD
2013 AIA National Convention
Thursday, June 20, 2013 | 7:00 AM – 8:00 AM
Denver, CO Convention Center, Room 201
Earn 1.00 AIA LUs + GBCI
http://eventscribe.com/2013/AIA/TwitterPres.asp?Pres=33487
…
Also, in July 2013, I will be leading a 2-day seminar. To learn more, please click the link below:
BIM: Lessons in Leadership
Harvard GSD Executive Education seminar
July 8, 2013 – 9:00am – July 9, 2013 – 5:00pm
Gund Hall, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA
Earn 14 AIA/CES
http://execed.gsd.harvard.edu/programs/bim-lessons-leadership
Strategies for Architects Who Want To Design January 29, 2012
Posted by randydeutsch in architect types.Tags: A Few Good Men, Andrew Pressman, Annie Hall, Autodesk, Case Design Inc, Designing Architecture: The Elements of Process, Herman Hertzberger, Michael J. Crosbie, The Universal Traveler, University of New Mexico, Woody Allen
1 comment so far
When first starting out in architecture, I felt that I needed direction.
As I was about to enter this age-old profession, I did what a lot of would-be architects did and turned to people for counsel.
And books for inspiration.
But not just any books.
I wanted to know how architecture fit into the larger scheme of things.
Into the worlds of art and creativity and nature.
So I turned to fundamental, foundational, books that dealt with core concepts of design, the design process or the secret language of nature.
They were all also exactly 10.8 x 8.5 x 0.5 inch paperbacks and fit nicely together side by side on the shelf.
One of my favorites at the time was The Universal Traveler: A Soft-Systems Guide to Creativity, Problem-Solving, and the Process of Reaching Goals (that I have written about before.)
Another was Herman Hertzberger’s ever-popular Lessons for Students in Architecture.
Once I left school and entered the working world, I turned to books that addressed more of the specifics of day-to-day practice: how to find clients; how to treat clients; how to deal with difficult clients; how to get paid by said clients.
But also: how to develop a design philosophy; how do you give a design critique.
And, well, yes – what baking bread had to do with designing buildings.
None were more valuable to me than the books written by Andrew Pressman.
Well, actually one was, but that was written by his doppelgänger, Andy Pressman (more on that below.)
The architectural triumvirate + 1
Andrew Pressman’s writing was always top-rate. His books were all extremely readable, entertaining and especially important in our field, accessible.
His own design work as an architect was – compared with that of other architectural publications at the time – modest, in scale and budget.
This was important. No one picked up a monograph of the work of Helmut Jahn and said I could do that, as in I could do that later this week.
Reading Andrew Pressman’s books, you could imagine yourself going out on your own and doing what he did – designing, building what you designed, teaching and writing books.
To some, that was the architectural quadrumvirate.
It was for me.
Which brings me to his latest offering in this line of inspiring design guides:
Andrew Pressman FAIA’s new book, Designing Architecture: The Elements of Process.
Touted as much as a useful design tool as a book, Designing Architecture was written for both students and emerging architects who are starting out in formulating ideas, transforming them into buildings and interested in making more effective design decisions.
For architects who want to design
There are a couple features that separate this book from other preliminary design offerings:
Designing Architecture promotes both integrative and critical thinking in the preliminary design of buildings.
The book itself is integrative in that it includes input from a number of sources – both present and past – as well as some from film and other media.
The Foreward by Michael J. Crosbie PhD AIA is inspiring and thoughtful – setting the tone for the remainder of the book.
Chapter 1, and introduction to the design process, opens with a relevant quote from the Woody Allen film, Annie Hall.
And a bit later, in a section on strategies to inform preliminary design thinking, Pressman quotes at length dialog from what amounts to an architect-variation on a scene from A Few Good Men.
The book’s essence lies in its integrated and holistic approach
The book is divided into four sections:
- Introduction to the design process
- Influences and inspiration
- Doing design, and
- Case studies
The book answers a number of questions that architects ask themselves when first starting out (and a number of architects continue to ask themselves throughout their career.)
These questions include:
- What is good design?
- What are considered to be strong architectural concepts and why?
- How is the design process like research?
Balancing the practical and aspirational
Chapter 2 immediately (and smartly) grounds the conversation about influences and inspiration in the world and thinking of the client and other stakeholders.
This is where Pressman is strongest and most impactful – where he balances the practical with the aspirational. The content in this chapter is a perfect example of this effect.
Chapter 3 is where you, the reader and designer, put it all together.
Aptly entitled “Doing design,” this portion of the book contains useful design tips, mistakes to avoid, and addresses tools at the architect’s disposal – from pen, ink and marker to physical models, to building information modeling (BIM) software.
On this last tool, the in-depth sidebar written by Autodesk’s Phil Bernstein and Joy Stark, profiling the digital design work of Case Design Inc, is a stand-out of the book.
This chapter also delves into the subject of building systems integration and quotes from one of my favorite books on the subject, Integrated Buildings: The Systems Basis of Architecture.
This section alone is worth the price of the book – and given how affordable Designing Architecture is – and a whole lot more.
The last section, containing the case studies, at first feels light in terms of content, until you really dig into the cases.
One of the case studies, for example, is of Autodesk’s HQ. I featured the same project in my own book and found that I still learned a great deal in the way Pressman went about describing the project from a design standpoint.
All-in-all, I highly recommend Designing Architecture: The Elements of Process by Andrew Pressman FAIA, no matter where one finds oneself in their career.
About Andrew Pressman FAIA
Principal of his own firm since 1983, Andrew Pressman FAIA, Architect, and Professor Emeritus at the University of New Mexico, he received a MDesS from Harvard University Graduate School of Design and currently teaches Professional Practice at the University of Maryland where he’s been since 2009.
Andrew Pressman FAIA has authored several books, all classics:
Professional Practice 101: Business Strategies and Case Studies in Architecture
The Fountainheadache: The Politics of Architect-Client Relations
Architecture 101: A Guide to the Design Studio
Architectural Graphic Standards, 11th Edition
And, as Andy Pressman, he co-authored what is my favorite of his books (I wore through two copies):
Architectural Design Portable Handbook
Pressman has also recently authored several important, extremely well-written articles, all published in Architectural Record
Integrated practice in perspective: A new model for the architectural profession
Good leadership helps practice, the profession, and society
Creating a firm culture that supports innovative design
and
It’s a very good time to develop your firm’s collaboration skills
The Architect (2012) January 8, 2012
Posted by randydeutsch in architect, architect types, architecture industry, BIM, change, employment, marginalization, technology, the economy, transformation, transition.Tags: academy awards, BIM, CAD, George Valentin, Hollywood, oscar contender, Peppy Miller, silent films, The Artist, the oscars
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Last night I had the opportunity to see Oscar contender, “The Architect,” a film whose story begins in the late-CAD era.
“The Architect,” whether you consider it a screwball comedy, a sentimental melodrama or a spoof, is a 2D black-and-white film that has received a great deal of praise from critics.
The story is a simple and familiar one
The story focuses on a declining male starchitect and a rising starletchitect, as CAD grows out of fashion and is replaced by BIM.
A valentine to early computer-aided design and drafting, “The Architect,” stars leading man Jean Dujardin as a CAD-using starchitect named George Valentin.
At the top of his profession, Valentin meets eager would-be starletchitect Peppy Miller.
She dreams of success in architecture, invests time in learning BIM, and as her demand rises in the industry, Valentin’s shine is eradicated.
Architect Valentin faces untold obstacles: the fickleness of the public’s changing taste, the adoption of disruptive new technologies, waning powers that come with age, competition from fellow industry professionals and unemployment, among others.
Faced with the economic insecurity of the Great Recession and technological change that threatens to make him obsolete, George is being crushed in a vise grip all too familiar to mid-career architects.
Refusing to adapt to the onset of BIM, he puts all his money into one last CAD production.
George has owners in the palm of his hand, at least until BIM arrives
It turns out George isn’t well-suited for BIM, not least because of his mindset and attitude, dependence on 2D CAD and archaic drafting style.
But BIM is perfectly suited to a vivacious ingénue named Peppy Miller, who crosses paths with George, first as a fangirl, then as an intern in the office of his firm.
In 2009, just after Wall Street crashes, George’s studio stops making CAD documents.
The studio head announces the end of production of 2D CAD documents, but Valentin insists that BIM is just a fad.
It’s fitting that the next time he meets Peppy, on Rapidograph Studio’s main stairway, she’s on her way up and he’s on his way down.
When the studio head lays-off all his 2D CAD starchitects, George decides to open his own office where he could work in CAD.
His project is submitted on the same day as Miller’s new BIM project, and Valentin is ruined.
His wife kicks him out and he moves into an apartment with his valet, while Miller goes on to become a major 3D starletchitect.
“If that’s the future, you can have it!”
However reassuring excursions into bygone golden ages may be – whether drafting in pencil or CAD – they carry with them the potential for revisionism, soft-focus complacency and the refusal to embrace uncomfortable but necessary change.
This is why some critics are grumbling about “The Architect,” which has won a cache of critics’ awards and looks to be a contender for the Best Picture Oscar.
Whereas naysaying design professionals can appreciate the fond look back at the medium they adore with equal devotion, they inevitably see “The Architect” as an all too-comfortable 2D nostalgia trip that represents stasis rather than genuine innovation, provocation or artistic risk that working in 3D enables.
Those skeptics may be missing a modest but meaningful truth buried under “The Architect’s” surface and story, which is that George’s plight could easily be transposed into any modern-day profession or industry.
In one of “The Architect’s” most poignant scenes, George plays a character sinking in a cement pour, an aptly desperate metaphor at a time when so many architects feel they are in over their heads.
It’s a film that taps into our anxieties as we encounter seismic economic and technological transformations.
Having just witnessed his first BIM model, George says at one point:
“If that’s the future, you can have it!”
He could be speaking for an entire generation of architects who feel as if they’re in mortal danger of being left behind, forced into early retirement they can’t afford — literally or psychologically – or leaving the profession altogether.
At the risk of revealing a spoiler, it turns out all is not lost for George.
Disappointingly, it involves a work-around – when everyone recognizes the only way out is the way through.
“The Architect” may be drenched in the romance and visual values of CAD’s bygone era, but it’s a motion picture uncannily of its time.
(Apologies to critics of “The Artist,” which – like this post – is a shameless pastiche.)
Architects 2Zebras Top 10 Posts for 2011 December 31, 2011
Posted by randydeutsch in architect, architect types, BIM, books, career, change, education.Tags: AIA, architect, architects, architecture, influence, knowledge, Michael Graves, Myers-Briggs, Richard Foqué
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Architects 2Zebras ended 2010 on a down note and readers let me know it, many of whom came to Zebras expecting positive, uplifting posts.
Not walks down reality lane.
You made it clear: there are plenty of reminders of how hard it is out there for architects and no one needed reminding.
You needed encouragement, resources and guidance.
I heard you and responded with a year’s worth of what I hoped would be more helpful posts.
Here are the ones you responded most positively to.
Thank you for sticking around, engaging and helping to make this another great year at Architects 2Zebras!
In Search of another Type of Architect
https://architects2zebras.com/2011/01/29/in-search-of-another-type-of-architect/
A response to an article entitled “A Difficult Character” about how, when a leadership consultant reviewed the Myers-Briggs tests of 100 architects, he discovered there really is an “architect type” — and maybe a difficult one.
Architecture’s Star Making Machinery
https://architects2zebras.com/2011/04/17/architecture’s-star-making-machinery/
In Princeton in the ‘80s, I twice lived in – or next to – Michael Graves home and office. Here’s what it was like.
49 Ways to Increase Your Influence as an Architect
https://architects2zebras.com/2011/02/26/49-ways-to-increase-your-influence-as-an-architect/
The End of the Architecture Firm?
https://architects2zebras.com/2011/08/27/the-end-of-the-architecture-firm/
This post received a very strong response, in part because – despite the title – its message was ultimately positive and empowering for architects.
Doctor, Lawyer, Architect, Fail
https://architects2zebras.com/2011/02/
Ask not what our profession (and AIA) can do for us. Ask: What can we do for our profession?
The Architect’s New Titles: to Use or Abuse
https://architects2zebras.com/2011/05/14/the-architect’s-new-titles-to-use-or-abuse/
Re-titling it turns out is no longer just for cars. Architects, in an effort to distinguish themselves in a competitive market and work environment, have started to call themselves different things.
Architecture’s Two Cultures (AND a Crucial Third)
https://architects2zebras.com/2011/05/01/architecture’s-two-cultures-and-a-crucial-third/
The Gifts of a Son of an Architect
https://architects2zebras.com/2011/03/13/the-gifts-of-a-son-of-an-architect/
Why Didn’t You Teach Me How to Practice?
https://architects2zebras.com/2011/11/21/why-didnt-you-teach-me-how-to-practice/
A Lifeline for a Profession Adrift
https://architects2zebras.com/2011/05/07/a-lifeline-for-a-profession-adrift/
In-depth review of Building Knowledge in Architecture is a new book and lifesaver by architect, educator, researcher, scholar and poet, Richard Foqué.
Why Didn’t You Teach Me How to Practice? November 21, 2011
Posted by randydeutsch in architect, architect types, career, change, education, employment, IDP, pragmatism.Tags: architecture education, architecture school, bridging the gap, education, IDP, Intern Development Program, law school, lawyering, training
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What architects don’t get from architectural education has to be made up in practice.
But can it?
That’s certainly the intention of Intern Development Program (IDP), the comprehensive training program created to ensure that interns in the architecture profession gain the knowledge and skills required for the independent practice of architecture.
Setting aside the validity in today’s economy of an independent – as opposed to integrated – practice of architecture,
Is the office the best place to train to become an architect?
In firms, these days, almost everybody draws.
And everyone is as close to 100% billable as humanly possible.
No more can architects consider themselves “knowledge workers,” unless that knowledge includes working knowledge of such software programs as AutoCAD or Revit.
With many architecture firms pared down to skeleton staffs, training is a luxury few can afford.
And teaching recent grads on a client’s dime is something most clients will no longer tolerate.
Building clients have never warmed to the idea that they are footing the bill for an intern’s education on the job.
As one senior designer said to me over coffee, rather loudly with an emphatic pounding on the table:
“Work is not school! Not school! Not school!!!”
Tell that to any firm that has set-up and administered a corporate university.
Building bridges
Neither academia nor practice, we’re beginning to see emerging entities that are starting to fill-in the gap, gaping hole or (for those attending Cornell) gorge between architectural education and practice.
Hybrid education. Just-in-time education.
Enroll in the equivalent of a four-year lunch-and-learn.
Don’t pass go don’t collect 200 dollars go straight to jail.
At the same time, we’re seeing bridge students who take-up architecture and engineering; or engineering and construction management; or architecture and an MBA, to help segue between academic and real-world pursuits while presumably making themselves more attractive to an employer.
Perhaps it is best that training – whether in continuing education or in practice – stay outside academe’s ivy walls.
Training is still seen by some as parochial, vocational.
In some academic circles “practice” is a dirty word.
Why sully your pristine education with practical consideration?
Some architecture schools won’t have practitioners on their faculty so as not to infect their student body, as though practical considerations were a disease.
This, despite the fact that practical knowledge is a job requirement on the road to becoming a full-fledge professional, every bit as much as residency is for a doctor.
Before building-up $150,000 in student loans, would-be architects – in most states – know that they will have to pass through an apprenticeship prior to sitting for the licensing exam.
Remind me: What exactly did you get for your $150,000 education?
Learning in school vs. learning in the gap vs. learning on the job
Architects like to think that they are alone in many things, not the least of which is their inadequate education and training in the face of a constantly moving picture of practice.
They are of course wrong: they have plenty of company.
This is evident in the many parallels with other areas of study.
Just consider these quotes:
“What they did not get, for all that time and money, was much practical training.”
“Schools have long emphasized the theoretical over the useful”
“Professors are rewarded for chin-stroking scholarship”
“They are (practitioners) in the sense that they have…degrees, but they aren’t ready to be a provider of services.”
First-year associates at one…firm “spend four months getting a primer on corporate (practice.) During this time, they work at a reduced salary and they are neither expected nor allowed to bill a client. It’s good marketing for the firm and a novel experience for the trainees.”
“This has helped to hasten a historic decline in hiring.”
“The essential how-tos of daily practice are a subject that many in the faculty know nothing about — by design.”
“One 2010 study of hiring at top-tier…schools since 2000 found that the median amount of practical experience was one year, and that nearly half of faculty members had never practiced…for a single day.”
“The academy wants people who are not sullied by…practice.”
“Where do these students go?…There are virtually no openings. They can’t hang a shingle and start on their own. Many of them are now asking their schools, ‘Why didn’t you teach me how to practice…?’ ”
These are just a few quotes from the New York Times article, “What They Don’t Teach Law Students: Lawyering.”
They sound remarkably – and uncomfortably – close to what architecture students go through.
What is one thing you wish recent graduates, interns or emerging professionals were taught in architecture school?
- A better understanding of ___________
- Greater familiarity with ____________
- Deeper knowledge of _____________
- Basic skills, like how to perform ______
- A stronger grasp of _______________
Let us know by leaving a comment.
The Heights Report November 16, 2011
Posted by randydeutsch in books, infrastructure, technology.Tags: BIM and Integrated Design, David Macaulay, Kate Ascher, The Way Things Work, The Works: Anatomy of a City
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Here are 17 very good reasons to read Kate Ascher’s new book, The Heights: Anatomy of a Skyscraper.
1. You might recall Ascher is the author of The Works: Anatomy of a City, the book that made city infrastructure alluring, visually appealing and fascinating.
2. You can find the book, The Heights, 39% off here
3. As with her previous book, The Works, the chapters are divided into sections but are presented in a building “directory.” Here, the sections are represented by elevator buttons, in reverse order, with the later chapters at the top and the intro at the bottom of the page; the section titles (“dreaming it,” “building it”) are helpful and especially, clever.
4. The pages have lots of white space – not cramped with info the way some reference books are (that understandably remain on the shelf.) Here the white space allows you to make connections, between the words and images, and between the images. It also frees your mind up, allowing it to dream up ideas of your own.
5. At first blush, the graphics in particular may remind you of those reference books in the 00’s section of the Dewey decimal system in the library. Ignore this association: it is false. The book opens with an acknowledgment of the current economy, placing the subject firmly in the present without dating it. And that perhaps is the strength not only of the text, but the nearly-realistic images: they serve to make the contents of the book feel both timely and timeless. Hard to do – this book pulls it off.
6. The range of skyscrapers that are studied and analyzed is mindboggling. Sure, there are the usual subjects – but the most contemporary examples of this building type are also represented.
7. People who follow my blogs know that I love to ask questions. This book is chockfull of them. And best of all, Ascher does a remarkable job of responding to them:
- How are these services-considered essential, but largely taken for granted- possible in such a complex structure?
- What does it really take to sustain human life at such enormous heights?
- How do skyscrapers sway in the wind, and why exactly is that a good idea?
- How can a modern elevator be as fast as an airplane? Are skyscrapers in Asia safer than those in the United States, and if so, why?
- Have new safeguards been designed to protect skyscrapers from terrorism?
- What happens when the power goes out in a building so tall?
- Why are all modern skyscrapers seemingly made of glass, and how can that be safe?
- How do skyscrapers age, and how can they be maintained over decades of habitation?
8. According to an interview, Ascher says that The Works: Anatomy of a City was inspired by David Macaulay’s The Way Things Work. You can see how the Heights might have been inspired by another David Macaulay masterpiece, the 1987 book, Unbuilding.
9. Compare The Heights with another work on a similar subject: Skyscraper: The Making of a Building by Karl Sabbagh which worked primarily because it told the story of a single skyscraper, at a particular time and place, and was the subject of a PBS series. The Height’s strength is that it provides both a more general overview while at the same time delving more deeply into specific topics related to the building type.
10. I was a skyscraper designer for many years and taught the subject in an architecture masters university program. The bottom line: Ascher knows her stuff.
11. Readers of my other blog BIM and Integrated Design – and book by the same name – know that I can go on and on about all things integrated, especially integrated building systems. Heck I even taught and integrated building science and design studio for many years to masters students. I mention t his because Ascher’s book explores the integrated and interconnected systems “that make life livable in the sky.”
12. Reading the book about high-rises is a lot less risky than trying to design or build one. Especially when you can read an excerpt of the book here.
13. The author will be giving a book talk in NYC on Dec 1 and its always better to have read the book (plus you can have her sign your copy)
14. Check out this Kate Ascher Book talk featuring The Heights: Anatomy of a Skyscraper at the Skyscraper Museum in NYC or, if in California, you can see her here a few days later (and get a sneak peek of the super-tall author)
15. The author, Kate Ascher, is an urban planning and development expert – not a structural engineer OR a journalist. Ascher has a Ph.D. in government from the London School of Economics and a B.A. in political science from Brown University. You are benefitting from a big-picture view of the skyscraper that helps the reader see how every part of the building is interrelated.
16. In The Heights Ascher talks about the many issues that engineers must take into account when delivering a tall building. Had skyscraper engineer, William J. LeMessurier, the engineer at the center of the fascinating case study (“What’s an engineer’s worst nightmare?”) The_59_Story_Crisis, had a copy of The Heights – maybe the Citicorp near-fiasco never happened?
17. Curious about what prevents you from falling to your death in an elevator? There’s a fascinating chapter on elevator safety.
Even if you suffer from vertigo or have a fear of heights, read Kate Ascher’s new book, The Heights: Anatomy of a Skyscraper. It’s a whole lot safer than building one and a lot more informative and fun.
Interdisciplinary Education for the AEC Industry October 3, 2011
Posted by randydeutsch in collaboration, education, problem solving.Tags: Architecture + Construction Alliance (A+CA), California Polytechnic State University, Chicago, crossdisciplinary, Howard Gardner, InSB, integrated school of building, interdisciplinary education, multidisciplinary, transdisciplinary, wicked problems
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Fact: Of the 154 accredited schools of architecture & 61 degree programs in construction, only 14 contain degree programs in both.
We’re about to do something about that.
More on that in a moment.
Interdisciplinary education is essential for would-be professionals to address complex problems in the built environment.
Problems design and construction professionals face are intractable, complex and – as Howard Gardner attests – “wicked.”
Problems that are difficult or impossible to solve because of incomplete, contradictory and changing requirements.
Problems that require the vantage of many players – working openly, sharing information.
Problems that occur in rapid succession, often simultaneously.
An interdisciplinary education helps students to see these problems from multiple perspectives, resulting in quicker and more assured responses.
The goal with interdisciplinary education is to teach the whole architect, engineer and contractor – in the end creating more-complete, well-rounded, T-shaped design and construction professionals.
Coming closer to a Total Design education that considers learner’s needs, interests and abilities vs. fragmented competence in subject matter: the threshold of current thinking and teaching.
Interdisciplinary Multidisciplinary Trans-disciplinary Cross-disciplinary Education
Part of the problem is knowing what to call it when the A, the E and the C work together.
In school – there’s teamwork and collaboration.
In practice – there’s Integrated Project Delivery, Integrative Practice and Integrated Design.
Here’s how I explain the difference in my book, BIM and Integrated Design:
Terminology can admittedly get confusing. There is integrated design, integrative design, integrated buildings, integrated design process, integrated practice (IP) and integrated practice delivery (IPD.) To understand the difference between IPD and integrated design in its simplest terms, one, IPD, is a delivery method; the other, integrated design or ID, a larger concept and process—free of contractual identity—that contains IPD.
Simply put, to integrate means to combine or coordinate separate elements so as to provide a harmonious, interrelated whole, organized or structured so that constituent units function cooperatively.
In school the challenge is that you need to have a base to work from before you can integrate or collaborate effectively.
Undergraduates – certainly in their first two years of schooling – can’t be expected to collaborate well since they have yet to develop a thorough understanding of how their disciplinary specialty fits with others.
A more in-depth look into this topic can be found here.
Architecture + Construction Alliance (A+CA)
7 years ago, deans and department heads of the accredited schools of architecture, degree programs in construction and those containing both programs, began to meet to discuss ways to collaborate, establishing working groups to share perspectives and showcase best practices for collaboration of architecture and construction programs.
It was soon determined that their gatherings were not sufficient to create the closer connections and joint endeavors necessary to sustain such efforts.
Thus, the A+CA was born.
The mission of the A+CA is to foster collaboration among schools that are committed to interdisciplinary educational and research efforts between the fields of architecture and construction, and to engage leading professionals and educators in support of these efforts.
An example of such a program is the PDCI San Luis Obispo, CA USA (the Planning, Design & Construction Institute, College of Architecture & Environmental Design, California Polytechnic State University) offers integrated studios for architects, architectural engineers and construction managers using an integrated project delivery approach. More here Cal Poly Home .. CAED Home .. PDCI Home
As A+CA explains, the professions of architecture and construction are undergoing significant changes as they respond to multiple demands and opportunities to increase collaborative project work.
They are propelled by changed societal and client expectations to more fully coordinate their formerly separate roles and responsibilities for the social, environmental, and financial performance of projects, while Building Information Models (BIM) and other digital technology provide emerging new vehicles for integration.
These changes – in our built environment professions – need to be reflected in the education of future professionals, with a major emphasis on fostering superior interdisciplinary knowledge, and team based skills that support synergy and innovation in the 21st century professional context.
A unique ability to play a leadership role in the industry
Architecture + Construction Alliance is a consortium of US universities that
1. have both architecture and construction programs within the same college, and
2. are prepared to act together to foster the necessary interdisciplinary and collaborative education needed by our professions.
Such an alliance of these universities has a unique ability to play a leadership role in the development, pilot testing, assessment and dissemination of courses and projects through coordination of the faculty, staff, and financial support for this activity.
Last Spring, CIB proposed a collaboration with A+CA. Read about it here and more about CIB here.
The Fall 2011 A+CA meeting will be held on November 9th, prior to the ACSA Administrator’s Conference in Hollywood, CA
The Spring 2012 A+CA meeting will be held in April, in conjunction with the CIB Board Meeting in Washington, D.C. This marks the first time in the CIB’s history that the Board meeting will be held in the US. A+CA meeting details forthcoming.
Member Founding Schools
Auburn University, California Polytechnic State University, Clemson University, University of Florida, Georgia Tech, Mississippi State University, University of Nebraska, University of Oklahoma, Prairie View A&M University, Southern Polytechnic State University, Texas A&M University, University of Texas – San Antonio, Washington State University, Wentworth Insitute of Technology & Virginia Tech
Oh, and one more.
(A new kid in town.)
The New Chicago School
Freestanding, not part of a preexisting university or college.
Which means it is less encumbered.
And, like architecture itself, a work in progress.
Integrated School of Building Chicago IL USA http://insb.us/
The Mission of the school is to educate and advance the knowledge of students in architecture, engineering, and construction by means of a collaborative and innovative platform.
Featured here recently at ArchDaily
Areas of concentration include Construction Management, Project Management, Real Estate Development, Dynamic Design & Fabrication, BIM & IPD, BIM & Energy Modeling, Landscape Architecture & Public Space Development, Sustainable Design, Building Commissioning, Building Forensics, Post-Disaster Design & Reconstruction, Social Design & Development and Preservation & Historic Resource Management.
Look here for more on the InSB board, the programs and 2012 summer symposium: “The Fabric of the City” June 29th & 30th, Chicago IL USA
Twitter handle @theInSB http://twitter.com/#!/theinsb
“A better AEC education is not about making better architects, or engineers, or builders. It is about all coming together as one.” @tcpg
The Architect’s Missing Manual August 28, 2011
Posted by randydeutsch in architect, architecture industry, BIM, books, change, identity, IPD, marginalization, survival, technology, the economy, transition.Tags: AIA, AIA documents, The Architect's Handbook of Professional Practice
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Do you remember yours?
My first was the twelfth.
That is, the twelfth edition of The Architect’s Handbook of Professional Practice.
That was the last edition to be offered in four separate three ring binders.
White, grey and red.
And crisp, with an off-center AIA logo super graphic emblazoned across the front.
I read the entire contents cover to cover to cover to cover.
Here, I thought, at last was the architect’s missing user’s manual.
After 4 years of undergraduate schooling and 2 years of graduate school, I still didn’t completely understand all that an architect was and could become.
And with the deep blue “backgrounders” ample history of what the architect once was.
For the first time you sensed that you belonged to a long tradition.
One that you were proud to be a part of.
Here, at last, contained in four binders was “the answer.”
There it was, in red ink on the first binder:
“Volume 1: The Tools. The Architect. The Firm.”
It would never again be so simple.
Nor so innocent.
Volume 2 was even simpler.
All it said was: “Volume 2: The Project.”
Could it be laid out any more straightforward?
The last two binders contained facsimiles of the AIA documents.
Here was the be-all-and-end-all D200.
“The checklist” that promised to give you a step-by-step explanation of every move you would make, from initial handshake to final handoff.
That was 1994.
In 2001, the thirteenth edition of the AHPP was issued.
And it was a new world. For the US, and for architects.
The contents were reduced to a single bound book.
With the AIA Documents sequestered to a CD-ROM.
And for the first time, the edition was printed on the binding – henceforth resulting in readers referring to the AHPP by edition.
[The twelfth was known by the three-ring binders.]
If the twelfth edition was for me “Paradise Found,” the thirteenth was “Innocence Lost.”
The table of contents said it all:
“Part 1: CLIENT.”
“Part 2: BUSINESS.”
The first 9 chapters were devoted to markets, marketing, financial operations and HR.
All good. All much-needed.
But the AHPP no longer told us who we were – or who we could become.
Not in our own right, anyway. But instead, we only existed so long as we had clients.
No client, no architect. And while practically we understood this to be true from a business perspective, the architect was clearly no longer front and center.
The off-center logo of the twelfth edition now had been shifted almost completely off the cover, so to speak.
The architect – in the first 250 pages – was almost nowhere to be found.
The center – had there ever truly been one – did not hold.
Each architect had to discover and define who she was for herself.
The fourteenth edition, printed in 2008, returned the architect to their rightful position in the AHPP.
“PART 1: THE PROFESSION.”
“PART 2: THE FIRM.”
And so on. But by the time this last edition was delivered, the world’s economy was in disarray with architect , profession and industry scrambling for survival.
The fourteenth edition, thick as a tombstone, was a memorial to what the architect had been.
What would become of the architect was anyone’s guess.
And while we suspect who the architect is – and will become – will have something to do with BIM, IPD, sustainability and digital fabrication, many architects would sooner be defined by their unique attributes, by their education or experience than by technological or global trends that reside outside themselves.
With the world in flux, the industry and profession in transition, and who or what the architect is or needs to be anyone’s guess,
I do not envy the task the esteemed architects and educators who are undertaking the next – the fifteenth edition – of the AHPP.
There has never been a more important undertaking for our profession than the definition of who the architect is and needs to be in the immediate future.
Here is how you can help bring about the new edition of the AHPP.
What can you do to help?
Help shape its intent and content by taking a short survey.
The deadline is coming up quick (Wednesday, August 31) so take a couple minutes right now to answer a couple questions here.
…
What is your first memory of the AHPP? Has it been of use to you at any time in your career? If so, how? Please let me know by leaving a comment.
Architects 2Zebras 
