You’re considering a career in architectural design. What skills do you need to succeed?

Architectural design is what I do now, but it took me most of my 20s to realize it’s where my head was at. Designing is like playing chess on a board with missing squares, putting together a puzzle with pieces that don’t all quite fit. The end result won’t be perfect - and to get to a place of satisfaction, it’s going to take a collaboration of people and methods. Studying the “lay of the land”, figuratively and physically, zoning bylaws, contacting consultants and outside help to enquire on loopholes to improve floor space ratios, etc. There’s a necessity for multiple sets of eyes, but not too many as to not confuse information and clog up design decision making and documentation. Design thinking isn’t an art. It’s a slow burn.

I say you require 2 things - in traditional way you have the attitude of problem solver - you can take example as simple as visiting and booking a TV from a showroom and see that it gets delivered safe and sound to your house at 2nd floor. Secondly, the use of technology- put your idea on paper as quickly as possible by using emerging new tech tools.

Don’t worry about skills. Anybody can learn a skill. Worry about how to think. Worry about how to solve problems. Worry about understanding where the possibility of architecture might live in a solution. Don’t fall into the trap of people telling you that architecture is about technology, or programs, or being able to draw, or knowing math. It isn’t. Architecture is entirely about understanding and then being able to solve problems. Architecture will try your patience, and your ability to integrate a variety of things simultaneously to come up with one of many possible solutions for any one problem. Pursuing a career in architecture is not for the meek, or the unwilling, or the lazy. Don’t expect a work life balance. The work is a life.

To succeed in architectural design, you'll need a blend of technical skills, creativity, and interpersonal abilities. Technical skills include proficiency in software like AutoCAD, Revit, and SketchUp, as well as knowledge of building codes and construction principles. Creativity is crucial for designing innovative and aesthetically pleasing structures. Strong communication and collaboration skills are essential for working with clients, engineers, and construction teams. Additionally, problem-solving skills, attention to detail, and a passion for architecture are key to thriving in this field.

Design thinking transcends traditional architectural boundaries, offering a holistic approach that is highly relevant to my work as a freelance presentation designer. Just as architects must empathize with users, I tailor PowerPoint presentations to the audience's needs, ensuring the message resonates. Collaboration is key, and as I've worked with diverse clients worldwide, I've learned that iterative feedback is crucial for refining concepts. This mindset of experimentation and adaptation is essential for success in any design-related field, including presentation design.

Design is about enacting change. Analysing the context, site against the brief will surface conflicts to be resolved. Designing well means resolving those conflicts, gaps as efficiently, safely and sustainably as possible. Analysis will require addressing relationships and requirements that are captured in 'technical' terms, language. The bulk of these are codified to address mainstream scenarios. The associated 'techniques' and metrics tend to be simplified and targeted. Essential to realise when first principles are needed as part of a 'risk based' or engineered approach, in lieu of code compliance checking. Designers need to think in terms of a simulated dynamic environment, not just an aesthetic composition of forms.

Architecture is the application of science in an artistic way with a prior study of the surroundings to provide the appropriate environment. Creative imagination and new creative ideas are what achieve the goal and solve real design problems.

In my experience working as an architect, architectural design requires all the same skills of an artist. One thing that is essential is the ability to translate you ideas into drawing. This may take some studying and a lot of practice if you have not been drawing by hand for most of your life already, but it is a skill that can be learned. In my opinion, it is an indispensable skill that used frequently to communicate ideas and details to others.

My experience of improvisation exercises with a drama group years ago stood me in good stead when I turned up to give a presentation (in the role of architect) and left my slideshow at the office. Armed with a blank flipchart, some felt pens and a determination to involve the audience by responding openly to what they had to say made it a memorable evening - and probably better that it would otherwise have been. Every second of your life provides experience that can help you grow, if you treat it with curiosity and imagination.

Everyone has own unique skill that he can make it his own thing , architecture is a big field with a lot of different skills that is allows you to gain a lot of skills but you may master one or two so it’s your smartness how to mange it to bring your best by the way you find it right.

Learning to design well means learning to solve problems well. Too much of architectural training is based on passive learning, learning to appreciate the work of 'masters' under ideal conditions. Too much emphasis on superficial 'creativity' as means to solve problems. Learning is needed to widened and instill the necessary traits and skills... as part of the design process. Problem solving -like designing- is based on an incremental, iterative process where conceptualising, representing the problem/brief involves visual thinking, exploring solution spaces, heuristics, distilling patterns and 'if-then' behaviours. This should be inherent to the tacit, reflexive learning that a designer cultivates when building up his 'body' of work.

Edward Morgan Forster is rarely on the syllabus in a school of architecture. His well-known quotation from "Howard's End": 'Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted, and human love will be seen at its highest. Live in fragments no longer.' sums up what an architect should aspire to. And not ending sentences with a preposition of course. And not starting a sentence with 'And'. Architecture requires the connexion of countless skills and abilities and the realisation that you can't just pick and choose bits that you like or happen to be good at. Oops, done it again. Aspiring architects who fail to connect the prose and the passion will sadly be doomed to live in fragments, a fate none of us deserve.