Empathy-The skill of a great Architect

The role of the Architect is myriad, we mediate the many relationships over the life of our projects whilst balancing brief and social impact and sustainability. One of the most important skills we can hone over our careers is that of empathy; the ability to step into the shoes of another person and understand their point of view.

Architecture is about forming a response to a problem through the manipulation of space or shelter. To do this we need to understand peoples unique circumstances and characteristic requirements and form this into a design proposal. Those designs which dictate a solution are more of vanity piece for the Architect rather than a relevant response that has any benefit to users or the city. Empathy can be seen as the basis for Human centric design, being able to understand the physiological and health based response to architectural spaces.

The empathetic Architect is grown from ones experience in life, university and project specific experiences of working with clients, consultants and contractors

Learning as a Student

?This idea of empathy is planted in university when projects are set that look at specific briefs for a specific person or user group. I have memories of working on a project for a stills photographer in Canterbury, spending time trying to understand the ritual of dark room processing and creating a design that met the needs of that user whilst bring something new. As with many types of brief these projects strive to teach students how to research, understand and appreciate a user and their requirements to be able to design a proposal

Listening to a Client

At the early stages of a project we typically help form the brief by testing the feasibility of multiple ideas. We enter into a dialogue with the client, listening and transposing ourselves in other people’s shoes; future users of the building, local people, planners. One of the best things an Architect can do is listen without bias or resolve, along with clients we need to have an open mind without dictating a pre-designed solution.

When working with inexperienced private clients we need to be able to guide them through the architectural process whilst being able to understand their pain points and how they want to live. When working with professional clients we need to understand their own pressures such as programme targets, sales values, partners and public opinion. It is sometimes easy to put professional clients down as only being interested in profit but this simplistic viewpoint does nothing to understand their complexities or open up a dialogue.

Managing a Design Team

Architects are generalists, our role includes the coordination of many specialists each with their own requirements. We need to be able to understand the priorities of others and balance their requirements producing a design that is coherent and coordinated. This is our role as Lead consultant being tasked with managing and bringing these designers together. Empathy is so important for effective leadership and team management internally and externally. Large teams from multiple disciplines can become stuck within ineffective loops of waiting for each other to complete work or blaming each other for delays or problems. All consultants will have their own focus and pressures on resourcing, programme or fees. The team requires a proactive approach, rather than judging everyone from your own standards we need to promote solutions to the problems rather than chastising those who we deem difficult or not team players

Collaborating with a Contractor

When the project reaches the construction phase the contractor takes over as the main point of responsibility and the Architect may take on a more advisory / reviewing role. We must appreciate that a contractor will have an endless list of pressures which relate to the tripartite of programme, cost and quality. The Architect solves problems on paper but can never fully understand the complexity of physically putting a building together.

Having a strong and understanding relationship with a contractor is key; everything must be done to avoid the traditional adversarial relationship between Architect and Contractor. In a traditional contract where the Architect is the contract manager it is even more important to keep empathy in mind. It is easy to think of a contractor as only interested in programme and not quality but If the contractor is late there are potential LADs, as Architects we need to appreciate that small changes may have a large impact

The Empathetic Architect

It is easy to be self righteous as an Architect and think of ourselves as the champions of design; we are the socially conscious optimist trying to improve people’s lives whilst delivering a beautiful piece of work. Other members of the design and construction team along with the pubic may have very different opinions of the Architect but we need to use our empathy to navigate this terrain.

For us to lead we need to challenge preconceptions and prejudices and create empathetic bonds. We should open up; listen first and provide solutions later. This empathetic approach would be for the better of the project, its users and the wider population and environment.?

Architects Instruction is a mentoring and support platform for Student of Architecture and Young Architects looking to progress their careers. If you have any questions, need some advice or are interested in our mentoring service please contact me on [email protected]