Archinect - Features

The Longevity & Legacy of the 'Vanilla Architect': How a Monoculture Yields Cycles of Unconscious Bias, Tokenism, and System Justification

2024-08-20T15:18:00-04:00

This Op-Ed explores how unconscious bias of mentors, tokenism, and resultant patterns of system justification reinforce a status quo that marginalizes women and people of color. These complex and long-lived dynamics are unpacked through personal anecdotes, historical analysis, and contemporary research. By examining repeating organizational behaviors, we can better discuss the barriers that women and people of color face within the industry. I hope that the anecdotes act as a lens to another perspective to those without these experiences and give voice to those with similar.

What To Do If You Hate Your Architecture Job

2024-06-21T13:02:00-04:00

Every architecture worker will, at some point, endure a period of stress or anxiety in the workplace. Sometimes, these feelings can be fleeting, caused by an exceptionally short project deadline, a difficult client, or even a legal dispute. If you find yourself actively hating your architecture job over a prolonged period, however, it may be time to take action. While your first instinct may be to seek a new job in a new firm, this is not always necessary, or even helpful. Rather, there may be steps you can take that can improve your experience and circumstances within your current workplace. Below, we offer our suggestions.

Do you have advice for colleagues stressed or anxious about their jobs beyond those set out below? Let us know in the comments.

Debunking Architecture’s Mythological Work Culture

2022-04-04T14:36:00-04:00

After a recent panel hosted within SCI-Arc, called Basecamp: How to be in an office, sparked protest from students and alumni, a slew of events unfolded within the school that rippled into the architecture community, prompting passionate discourse about ethics within professional practice and academia, especially as it relates to internships and the treatment of students and young professionals. But this isn't an essay about SCI-Arc, or an account of what is going on at SCI-Arc. The events have already been well documented online and in Archinect's latest reporting on April 1.

Instead, I want to explore the deeper historical and philosophical concepts that I believe underlie what we’ll call the conservative view of architecture work culture: that long hours, toil and suffering, and low pay are inevitable realities of pursuing a rigorous design career. I see a disconnect between the traditional professional ethos and the advent of the current zeitgeist that has been born, particular...

'Everyone Has a Design Voice Worth Hearing': ANACAPA Architecture on Teamwork and Design Intention

2022-04-02T09:00:00-04:00

Defining a sustainable and healthy firm culture is essential for any design practice. Besides creating a robust portfolio and showcasing design expertise to execute projects, fostering a collaborative workplace comes down to firm leadership, team expectations, and opportunities for transparent communication. For architect Dan Weber, an important factor when running a design practice is listening to the team and valuing quality over quantity.

Weber is the founder and principal architect of Santa Barbara-based practice ANACAPA. Nestled along the coast of Southern California, the firm's robust portfolio of custom residential, creative offices, and urban infill projects has garnered them notoriety within the industry. So what helps this 19-person team flourish? As Weber explains: "The original and ongoing intention with ANACAPA is to create a lasting company that is firm in its roots and represents something more significant than just its founder."

In this latest edition of Archinect's...

Workplace Dynamics: Dealing With Difficult Personalities in an Architecture Office

2022-01-13T13:44:00-05:00

When hiring new staff, one goal is to assess how a candidate’s personality fits within the office culture. Human resource professionals and hiring teams use various tools, and sometimes personality tests, to help assemble successful teams and office cultures.

Despite the effort firms and businesses make towards fostering encouraging work environments, we are bound to work with people whose personalities do not fit our own. If we could choose, we would decide not to work with these difficult individuals at all. However, if left unaddressed, these personality differences and quirks can result in clashed behavioral patterns and strenuous work situations.

To further explore this topic, we focus on how individuals working together in an office can assess these difficult situations and handle them.

On the Importance of Feedback: How Architects and Designers Can Improve Office Culture

2021-04-09T16:49:00-04:00

Whether you are a new or seasoned professional, being a fast learner is a sought-after characteristic. There are several tools and skills that will help expedite one's career advancement, yet a vital resource is feedback — to have someone share their perspective on your work and give actionable advice on how you can do even better next time.

Many companies have structured performance reviews on a quarterly, semi-annual, or annual basis. These reviews, however, may not always be sufficient in frequency and value for new hires. It becomes easy to get enveloped in daily to-do lists, aggressive project schedules, and office politics. Instead of having a prearranged review meeting, it may be up to an individual to initiate these potentially difficult discussions.

While this may be easy for some, this much-needed mission of soliciting feedback can be daunting for many new team members. Below we deliver insights on how facilitating feedback can be a fruitful and organic conversation.

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Studio Visits: Tonkin Liu

2017-12-19T05:30:00-05:00

Tucked away on a charming residential street just around the corner from Exmouth Market, you will find the award winning architecture practice Tonkin Liu. During the day the founding partners Anna Liu and Mike Tonkin, who started the practice in 2002, share their beautiful Grade II listed Georgian home with their team, utilising the first three floors as studio space.

They also recently renovated the back yard creating Sun Rain Room a manifestation of their design style and principles, recently nominated for the annual 'Don't Move Improve Awards'.

On our latest Studio Visit we had a look around this rather unique studio, had tea and biscuits with the team and found out more about their current projects.

Studio Visits: Schmidt Hammer Lassen

2017-10-30T09:01:00-04:00

Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects was founded over 30 years ago in Aarhus, Denmark by Morten Schmidt, Bjarne Hammer and John F. Lassen. Known for their work within the cultural sector, especially libraries, the firm believes they "make buildings that meet the challenges of our modern society and that make people come together in new ways". Recently it was announced that they will be working with renowned artist James Turrell on a new extension project for ARoS Aarhus Art Museum in Copenhagen a project they previously collaborated on with multi-disciplinary artist Olafur Eliasson.

We spoke to one of the Senior Partners Kristian Lars Ahlmark to find out more about working as part of the Copenhagen team.

Studio Visits: Allford Hall Monaghan Morris

2017-10-13T09:00:00-04:00

Established in 1989 AHMM have offices in London, Bristol and Oklahoma City. They are well known for their renovation projects particularly in London including The Barbican, The Tea Building and Scotland Yard. In 2015 they won the prestigious Stirling Prize for their transformation of Burntwood School, a 1950s modernist school in Wandsworth. We went to have a look around their London office in Clerkenwell.