Architects really need to stop doing THIS

Stop selling yourself short!

Architects! We are not just designer, we are trained problem solvers.

If you feel like "people don't know / understand what architect's do"; well it is because we have made it very difficult for them to understand us.

We tag big words to our profiles like conceptualiser, interdisciplinary designer and so and so forth. The problem with this: we create a gap between the public and design community.

Currently architecture is shrouded in mystery, no-one really knows what we do, and the things we tell them isn't necessarily helping our case. We can take a lesson from the boarder design community that in 2018 and 19 made their work more transparent to the public and bridged their gap.

In the 5 years we study architecture, we never really learn design. Don't sell yourself short by telling this to your client. In these 5 years we are taught the skills to solve problems. Truthfully anyone can design, but it is the problems that those designs solve that really matter.

So what can we do? What is the solution to this?

• Cut down your ego and collaborate. Let go of the designer seat, and sit on the problem solver side; I promise it doesn't make you any less important.

If we cut down our ego and collaborate with all industries we won't need to be in constant competition with builders or CAD drawers; we will be bringing a very different skillset into all projects. We would be working with our clients towards solving their problems (both present and the future ones. By highlighting problems that they might face in the future, you can show your experience in the industry and set yourself apart from others).

When we design and place a window it isn't because of it's symmetry or the local design norms; it is placed there after going through tens of questions about the situation. What is the orientation, light direction, privacy from neighbours, view, and questions like what if the sill height is lower or it's at the corner or maybe it's a bay window? Each design decision is made after evaluating the 'architect unique' questions (this is what I am calling the architecture style of each architect derived from their unique exposure and experiences), and coming up with the optimum solution for each client.

• Remove from your vocabulary - we collaborate with / work /or design for clients.

If that was the truth then how do we plan to differentiate our designs from that of a builder? Builders have the local industry and design experience but we have 5+ years of problem solving experience. This is why we can transcend locality, city, and even country boundaries.

We work WITH client to create the best designs solution. You are not an employee, you are a collaborator. Maybe that should be our word for 2020; Collaborate.

• Explain our design process not just to potential clients but also to the public.

Let's learn from history: The UI, branding and web design professionals saw a huge boom after in the 2000s but slowly dissatisfaction started to rise when small clients misunderstood branding and web design as logo and creating websites.

The big spenders always did their research before hiring and thus knew the worth of these professionals and what they should receive from this transaction. But for the general public, there was just too much ambiguity.

So in the last 5 years, these design professionals have banded together and taken to Youtube, Instagram and all the latest social media sites to actually show what goes into designing a brand and User Interface for websites and mobile applications.

Give information for free, don't hoard it.

Unless we share how it is done, how do we expect the public to know what we do? We spend over 5 years learning WHAT we do, and still some of us are not very sure. So isn't it unfair to put the burden of educating themselves on the public and then also not provide them the materials for learning?

It is massively unfair to criticise the public for their lack of knowledge when we really aren't doing anything except promoting our work and finished products. Clients are given special privy into our design process and the general public is left to figure things out on their own.

STOP SELLING AND START SHARING!

This is my new year's theme; less consumption and more production. I will be sharing as much as possible, not only to the public but also architecture students. So that they know how to learn and if I do my job correctly, hopefully they come out as a better architects than me.