Archinect - News

David Chipperfield's former staffers share their experiences working for the newest Pritzker winner

2023-03-10T06:00:00-05:00

Following this week’s announcement of David Chipperfield as the 46th Pritzker Prize laureate, we reached out to several of his former employees that now run their own firms and studios in order to get their thoughts and recollections on working for the architect as younger designers.

Chipperfield himself benefited greatly from his time in the offices of Richard Rogers and Norman Foster shortly after completing his studies at the Architectural Association (AA) in London and in advance of starting his practice later in 1985. Speaking to Guardian architecture critic Oliver Wainwright after the win, Chipperfield said: “In both those offices, they were quite obsessive about doing more than you’re asked to do.”

“My generation has always been about the product,” he added, “but I believe more than anything now that we need to focus on the process.”

Read about his influence shared by his protégés as to if (and how) their experience at DCA influenced their current practice and stylistic sen...

Four-day weeks are working for some businesses. What about architects?

2023-01-31T10:44:00-05:00

The non-profit group 4 Day Week Global has published the findings of their trial into the impacts of a four-day workweek on businesses. The trial began in February 2022, when 33 companies enacted a “meaningful work time reduction” for six months without reducing pay.

The companies, which collectively employed over 900 people, were spread across North America, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand. The largest group of companies was represented by admin, IT & telecoms businesses at 36% of participants, while the second-largest group was professional services companies, at 27%. Almost all companies (88%) enacted a four-day workweek for all staff, with Friday being a common day off, while the remaining 12% gave a four-day week to most employees with a small group taking reduced daily hours instead.

According to the report analyzing the trial’s results, two-thirds of the compan...

Mental Health in Architecture

2022-10-10T16:28:00-04:00

Burnout. Fatigue. Anxiety. Mental health. These words have become integrated into the everyday lives of architects, especially since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, looming economic crises, and socio-political injustices taking place globally the state of mental health among individuals has suffered greatly.

Mental health impacts people in many different ways. While discussions of well-being have become more common among family and friends, workplaces and schools have made it a point to address the issues and struggles employees, teams, students, and faculty face.

It's clear that everyone isn't always "okay" and that the increased awareness of mental health support and resources has grown, for the better. While October 10 is recognized as World Mental Health Day, its observance shouldn't be restricted to a single moment.

In 2020, it was important for the Archinect te...

These are the ‘Best Firms to Work For’ in 2022, according to new AEC industry survey

2022-08-08T12:50:00-04:00

The Zweig Group consultancy has returned with its annual list of 'Best Firms to Work For' in the AEC industry.

Recognized companies were selected based on their “workplace practices, employee benefits, [and] employee retention rates,” among other factors. Zweig says their employees' survey accounted for 80% of the rankings.

Three firms were added to last year's list of 11. The winning firms in the Architecture category are as follows:

The winners will be honored during the 2022 Elevate AEC Conference & Awards Gala in Las Vegas from September 14–16. This year’s full list of winners in each category can be found here.

A public apology gone awry, new faculty appointments, and a postponed 50th-anniversary celebration are among the most recent updates to the SCI-Arc controversy

2022-04-07T20:22:00-04:00

Nearly a week and a half has passed since the March 25 Basecamp panel at SCI-Arc that sent shockwaves across the school's community and the architecture industry. Since my initial reporting on the incidents and controversies happening at the institution, discourse regarding academia and labor practices has sparked further conversations around the systemic issues highlighted at SCI-Arc.

With news rapidly spreading across the internet, a wave of responses and comments from the community has surfaced, indicating that this wasn't an issue found solely within this particular school but across the profession. As I stated previously, "Discussions surrounding work and studio culture within the architecture community are nothing new. It would be foolish to say that those working within the industry at both the professional practice and academic levels are unaware of the highly problematic issues of labor and equitable working conditions."

As our editorial team continued to follow the events ...

Have your return-to-office plans changed in recent months? Let us know.

2021-08-24T08:00:00-04:00

A lot has changed since Archinect released the findings of its initial Return-to-Office survey in March this year. Responses gathered from the architecture community during the first weeks of 2021 displayed an overwhelming commitment by employers to offer an option to work remotely and/or to provide spatial changes to the work environment to protect employees that would soon return to in-person work.

Since then, a large share of the workforce has received vaccine protection against COVID-19 (while a significant share still has not), inspiring a somewhat hopeful, 'return-to-normal' atmosphere during the late Spring months. And then, there was the sudden rise of the Delta Variant since the early Summer, requiring public health officials in many parts of the country to return to stricter safety measures with direct implications on work, school, and public life.

Previously on Archinect: The Architecture Community on Return-to-Office Plans in 2021

To learn how Archinect's community of ar...

Zweig Group announces list of best firms to work for in 2021

2021-08-20T17:39:00-04:00

AEC management consulting firm Zweig Group recently announced the winners of its 2021 Best Firms To Work For Awards. The program is one of six hosted by the company that together focus on architecture, engineering, planning, and environmental consulting firm achievement.

The Best Firms To Work For Awards recognizes excellent workplaces at AEC firms, evaluating them on culture, workplace practices, employee benefits, employee retention rates, professional development, and other qualities, from both management and staff perspectives. Awards were given in multiple categories based on firm size and discipline.

"This is more than a contest, it is a powerful look at what the employee experience looks like in today’s AEC firm," said Zweig Group CEO Chad Clinehens. "Firms can use this ranking and the data it yields as a powerful tool in the recruitment and retention of staff, which is the number one challenge for many AEC firms." He added: "The 2021 winners have a lot to be proud of, and ...

What are your return-to-office plans?

2021-01-29T13:30:00-05:00

Ever since the transition of many offices to remote work, plans and strategies on returning to the physical office have been developing. Archinect is reaching out to the community to learn about various plans on reopening the office.

Previously on Archinect: Architects share their biggest challenges transitioning to WFH

We've developed a brief survey and plan to share the results with everyone. Perhaps there will be valuable insights for us all in this study, as we prepare to move into a new chapter in our work and practice.

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You can also fill out the survey by clicking here. Alternatively, feel free to share any thoughts or remarks in the comments.

8 things leaders do that make employees quit

2019-09-10T19:37:00-04:00

Employee retention is a big issue in today's job market and many firms have had to deal with the undesirable reality of losing valued team members. While the reasons someone might leave a job are wide and complex, there are some factors that leaders can address themselves to counteract employee departure. In a recent essay, Jon Christiansen, Ph.D., lists 8 mistakes he says leaders do that make employees quit and presents ways to avoid them:

"Mistake 1: Setting inconsistent goals or expectations."

Christiansen explains that "when employees are forced to choose between tasks in order to meet competing expectations, the result is a team of stressed out people without clear priorities." For example, let's say a junior designer has to choose between finishing a set of drawings on time for a project and doing adequate research for a presentation. They know that there's no way they can be late with the drawings, but they also realize that if they don't do the right amount of research they...

How can you deal with working with someone you don't like?

2019-08-16T16:30:00-04:00

In an industry dependent on working with others, it is inevitable that we will come in contact with people we don't like. It might be a contractor, a consultant, or even one of our colleagues in the office. Whatever the case, working with someone we don't like can make work difficult. How do we deal with this? Bregman Partners CEO, Peter Bregman has some ideas.

Bregman says that we can't just "grin and bear it," like we might be tempted to do. "According to research, the more people like you, the easier, more productive, and more profitable, your life will be. Which means that someone you don’t get along with—even if you grin and bear it—poses a risk," he writes.

Instead, according to Bregman, we need to really look at the reason that we don't like someone. Perhaps, they're selfish or dismissive or mean. Ultimately, they tend to have some character traits that bother us. And so, after we identify this, we are supposed to look at ourselves and see if we can detect elements of these ...

Doing creative work when we are obsessed with checking our phones

2019-08-07T21:00:00-04:00

According to author Brian Solis, digital distractions are taking a significant toll on businesses, with 36-percent of Millennials and Gen Z workers reporting to spend two hours or more each workday "looking at their phones for personal activities." And while distractions can negatively influence creativity, they can also help propel forward the creative process.

"...leaky attention may underlie both costs and benefits of creative cognition; noise and other environmental stimuli can serve as distractors for creative people, and lead them to make errors on some tasks. At the same time, leaky attention may help people integrate ideas that are outside the focus of attention into their current information processing, leading to creative thinking,” Solis quotes from a research study on the topic.

He contends is that we should "embrace the desire to check notifications, read various media, or even watch videos." That scheduling short breaks where we allow ourselves to indulge in these imp...

Designers imagine a world of self-driving, mobile offices

2015-04-28T15:12:00-04:00

Self-driving cars will certainly change our habits on the road. But truly autonomous vehicles will also affect how we work, says Tim Brown, chief executive officer and president of design consultancy IDEO...Without having to navigate city streets, people will be more productive during their commute. IDEO also envisions self-driving trucks...delivering everything from new jeans to grilled cheese. Most radical of all: Your workplace could be set on wheels to travel to you, rather than you to it.