So with all the discussion about how architects don't get paid enough or how we're becoming marginalized it seems that architectural training and education has to be reconsidered. If school does not prepare you for becoming a successful architect then what will? What will be the demands and expectations from clients for the next generation of architects? What do you think are the general knowledge or skills that are NOT being taught in the school or work environment that should be taught?
To start things off: Contracts
Here Joshua Ramus jokingly advises that it's better to spend your time in the business or law school learning contracts rather than the architecture department learning design. --> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPqzmkzpfIk
Additionally
Finances and Cost Estimation (Ways to save the client money)
Programming (Automate the design process)
More emphasis on cost-oriented architecture (maintenance, taxes, repairs) but not so much that you're value engineering and cladding with EIFS.
Revit and BIM and all that jazz... but honestly, SketchUp. BIM is pretty much geared towards a building manager. And someone who is being entrusted with a 4-50 million dollar building better god damned know how to manage it.
For all the pizazz and knowledge of architects, their graphic designs and presentations are extremely subpar! Sorry, it is! Video games and teen magazines are better graphically than OMA. Plus, if you write off presentation skills... you save your client money.
Finances and legal. But that's for lawyers and accountants.
Classical and vernacular design. So, what if it looks like Disney land. So what if it is trite historical pastiche. Ask some loser off the street what kind of architecture is their favorite... and they'll tell you Gehry or Roman.
don't overlook others that might not fit the 'office experience' years... there's a good amount of talent that didn't go the traditional way of working in firms.......but still know what they are good at..... build a diverse team...
I deal with the god damn customers so the engineers don't have to. I have people skills; I am good at dealing with people. Can't you understand that? What the hell is wrong with you people?
AD magazine's "Closing the gap" issue has many interesting articles. It talks about BIM..but not just in the "Revit" way. More comprehensive. Talks about Parametrics not just in the academical(patterns or scripts) perspective but also as a fabrication and construction one.
It was really helpful for me as it sorta presents a way to go.
$300,000/yr Architects. The return of the "Master Builder" articles kinda caught my eye. :)
depends on what you consider "successful"? bim, leed, mba all point towards one form of success, primarily financial. for me success has more to do with a sustained passion for architecture both in practice and in theory. creativity, innovation, design excellence are the skills i believe are the measure of a successful architect, but as stated before, these skills aren't exactly new.
And there is truth to it. No matter the new technological skills we may need, the one skill I still wish I had spent more time perfecting is remembering every person I meet, recognizing every face, and being able to greet someone by name and chat about their interests after only having met them once and not seeing them for a year or more. We get jobs in this profession through talent but ALSO through people skills.
The people skills are huge. You have to remain calm and charming in the face of great adversity. That's most important when dealing with clients, especially when they're a bit off.
yes, too bad architecture schools don't teach people skills, if you are good at communicating and small talk, then you will be more successful then the person with perfect computer skills...
boy, the number one complaint at archinect is job dis-satisfaction, being a cad monkey etc - you all are preaching that's the skills to have - i dont get it!
i think the point, ted, is that you have to move past those skills. it's only once you've been the cad monkey, the shop drawing reviewer, the renderer, the code reviewer, the construction supervision person, etc, that you have a big enough picture on all that we do to be able to make decisions quickly and with experience to back you up.
some of the folks in my office will grind and angst about a decision for hours (and, of course, we let them work through it...) and finally come to us and we can make the call in 5 mins or less. sometimes they admire that, sometimes they're pissed off. it's just because we've been there. our answer may not be 100% right, but we've been able to quickly assess the level of importance of being right, the priority the issue demands, and the best direction to pursue for the moment. (i.e., if you're young and inexperienced enough to think you've always got to be right, you'll get all plugged up.)
but Steven - after 3-5 years of being trained 'this is architecture' how does one expect to bring ideas back into the fold?
I see also the dominate interest in many schools is just this stuff though and somehow students never get to the point of what they are the real underlying issues /ideas which are much more complex than mastering the skills - by the time they reenter grad school or get to a position of some basic autonomy at practice - they are 'programmed' that answers lie in the mastery of these rational systems -
i was at the final stage 2 aa-drl last year -- kipnis who i have mixed feelings about said 'ok this stuff is nice but its been going on for ten years in more or less the same way in architecture schools around the world - so no one ever talks of what the city of the future will be - just mastery of tools ideas of difference
real practice has to step beyond and outside normative business models
there's no map for that yet, ted. have recently seen monica ponce de leon (office da) and dan wood (work ac) talk about similar 'what's next?' questions and they are feeling it out but they don't really know either. seems that will be answered by each firm individually - not what's next for "ARCHITECTURE", but what's next for "US", based on individual firm strengths and preoccupations?
personally, i don't think ideas are lacking in the profession. we're no great shakes, but in our office we talk ideas constantly. they may be different from how ideas were discussed in the past, they may not be what you're interested in, but they're certainly not lacking.
we're involved in a competition now for which our success will depend fully on the extent to which we can give a design response to ideas of identity, renewal, expansion, tradition, social interaction.... it's ideas, but also real stuff with real consequences.
the problem as i see it is everyone thinks his or her office is doing things right, when in fact very few offices are producing good architecture. when we focus too much on "skills," i think we lose sight of what is actually good and what is not. at the end of the day, the quality of end product is really all that matters, and despite our existential angst, we as a profession are merely tinkering with the machine and hardly changing it.
How about *design / communication* skills? This should include BIM in the fold, and the ability to work well as a unit with consultants and contractors, product fabricators, and end users, facilities types who are also in on the BIM loop...
Basically team coordination, and a more design build way of working through things efficiently? I can see this as being the next challenge as the architect role in CD's gets squeezed out, projects going more lean... You cannot eliminate the architect because we are still the *designers*, but it seems like the model might shift towards a looser less rigid and bureaucratic mode of communicating the design and realizing it... More "by the seat of the pants" design... which possibly means architects being involved in both big picture and construction detail... I think what happens maybe is, it's the contractors who have the new skills in house, BIM etc. and architects need to be able to articulate quickly through model because there might not even be a fully articulated drawing set... Even in permit applications, we may just be submitting a BIM model as our permit document...
The technology will only make the translation of drawing into 3D model and back alot easier, so we will need to be thinking in 3 dimensions, and in elevation and plan at the same time (or translating from one level of articulation to the next more quickly)...?
I also think maybe the role of the project manager needs to evolve... Project managers and designers need to become one and the same... the design, CA, and documentation people all need to bleed their skillsets, all be involved in all of these aspects, so tighter teams (or people with multiple roles)?
I am thinking specifically of smaller projects, although I suppose large projects are the same, it's just that communication within a larger architectural team need to be more seamless (everyone actively working on the same model).
Anything to do with money.
Money=architecture. As in, once you make enough to support yourself, you can then start doing everything you love in architecture.
If you are still in school, you are in luck. Sit in on some finance, management, real estate lectures (for FREE!), no one will know you're not in the class. Every minute you absorb puts you that much ahead of everyone else, who are, unfortunately, often at naught.
So.....if a person wasn't good at small talk, schmoozing if you will, politicking, marketing etc...would you guys advise them to enter another field like medicine where it's more merit based and straightforward?
Old and new skills are needed for a successful architect; "new" is not mutually-exclusive of "old"; I will enumerate below exactly what you need for success with the emergence of newer technologies:
1) Understand how things are built and put together, and have a good design sensibility. This is probably the oldest skill set in the book. About 90% of designers build crap.
2) Connect with potential/future clients. Find a niche or community that believes in your work.
4) Be business savvy to drive-down cost and time.
3) Drive down cost and time by using the latest technologies. Revit eliminates the need for a separate designer and drafter. With Revit, you need fewer staff; at some point offices will only need designers with excellent computer skills. You will find that Revit decreases the time between schematic design and the actual construction of the building. Younger, talented people will increasingly gain more fame.
4) Use CNC milling and the latest laser technologies to bring the practice of architecture closer to the manufacturing process; eliminate any middle man/ consultant/ vendor as much as possible. Think designer to machine production; plop your CAD file and tell the machine what to do. A kit of parts reduces cost by eliminating a highly-skilled contractor.
5) Always remember that NURBS is your friend. Rhino is awesome, so is Maya.
Parkour, shipping container house design, knowing how to fix cars, bartending, urban farm design, creating lots of cool looking graphs and charts, writing flash fiction in Python. You know, the basic stuff of architecture.
Survey: What do you think are the NEW skills needed to be a successful architect?
So with all the discussion about how architects don't get paid enough or how we're becoming marginalized it seems that architectural training and education has to be reconsidered. If school does not prepare you for becoming a successful architect then what will? What will be the demands and expectations from clients for the next generation of architects? What do you think are the general knowledge or skills that are NOT being taught in the school or work environment that should be taught?
To start things off: Contracts
Here Joshua Ramus jokingly advises that it's better to spend your time in the business or law school learning contracts rather than the architecture department learning design. --> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPqzmkzpfIk
Additionally
Finances and Cost Estimation (Ways to save the client money)
Programming (Automate the design process)
What do you wish school taught you but didn't....
Sorry I got the wrong link in the post above.
The link to the video is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVRBFTkvh5o
There's nothing new about this...
Review the 2007 Practice Analysis of the profession as surveyed by NCARB.
http://www.ncarb.org/News-and-Events/News/2007/11-NCARB-Practice-Analysis-Shaping-the-Future-of-ARE-and-IDP.aspx
LEED AP (even though it's pretty likely you will never have a LEED project)
Fluency in English, Mandarin and either Korean, Spanish or German (depending on the region)
Revit or related BIM Software
Knowledge of every 3D Modeling and Rendering Software (bonus points for animation)
Zoloft
a skill in a pill
How about being a good/ interesting person to be around.
Thats a skill I struggle with this some times.
People prefer to work with people that they enjoy being around.
new skills?
no skill will top having loaded clients that thinks u shit marbles.
seulement parle francais (only speak french).
More emphasis on cost-oriented architecture (maintenance, taxes, repairs) but not so much that you're value engineering and cladding with EIFS.
Revit and BIM and all that jazz... but honestly, SketchUp. BIM is pretty much geared towards a building manager. And someone who is being entrusted with a 4-50 million dollar building better god damned know how to manage it.
For all the pizazz and knowledge of architects, their graphic designs and presentations are extremely subpar! Sorry, it is! Video games and teen magazines are better graphically than OMA. Plus, if you write off presentation skills... you save your client money.
Finances and legal. But that's for lawyers and accountants.
Classical and vernacular design. So, what if it looks like Disney land. So what if it is trite historical pastiche. Ask some loser off the street what kind of architecture is their favorite... and they'll tell you Gehry or Roman.
Business. Let theory (mostly) die and teach people how the business world works. Client's will have more respect, architect's will have more options.
Gotta respect and understand the money to make it.
don't overlook others that might not fit the 'office experience' years... there's a good amount of talent that didn't go the traditional way of working in firms.......but still know what they are good at..... build a diverse team...
for some thing more concrete, read this book even if you haven't thought about starting your own business
http://www.amazon.com/Start-Operate-Your-Design-Second/dp/1581154747/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259970458&sr=1-1
You know, like nunchuck skills, bowhunting skills, computer hacking skills... Firms only want employees who have great skills.
I deal with the god damn customers so the engineers don't have to. I have people skills; I am good at dealing with people. Can't you understand that? What the hell is wrong with you people?
Sorry, couldn't resist.
AD magazine's "Closing the gap" issue has many interesting articles. It talks about BIM..but not just in the "Revit" way. More comprehensive. Talks about Parametrics not just in the academical(patterns or scripts) perspective but also as a fabrication and construction one.
It was really helpful for me as it sorta presents a way to go.
$300,000/yr Architects. The return of the "Master Builder" articles kinda caught my eye. :)
depends on what you consider "successful"? bim, leed, mba all point towards one form of success, primarily financial. for me success has more to do with a sustained passion for architecture both in practice and in theory. creativity, innovation, design excellence are the skills i believe are the measure of a successful architect, but as stated before, these skills aren't exactly new.
Very funny, Milwaukie!
And there is truth to it. No matter the new technological skills we may need, the one skill I still wish I had spent more time perfecting is remembering every person I meet, recognizing every face, and being able to greet someone by name and chat about their interests after only having met them once and not seeing them for a year or more. We get jobs in this profession through talent but ALSO through people skills.
The people skills are huge. You have to remain calm and charming in the face of great adversity. That's most important when dealing with clients, especially when they're a bit off.
yes, too bad architecture schools don't teach people skills, if you are good at communicating and small talk, then you will be more successful then the person with perfect computer skills...
no wonder Rem kicked Ramus off the island -
boy, the number one complaint at archinect is job dis-satisfaction, being a cad monkey etc - you all are preaching that's the skills to have - i dont get it!
i think the point, ted, is that you have to move past those skills. it's only once you've been the cad monkey, the shop drawing reviewer, the renderer, the code reviewer, the construction supervision person, etc, that you have a big enough picture on all that we do to be able to make decisions quickly and with experience to back you up.
some of the folks in my office will grind and angst about a decision for hours (and, of course, we let them work through it...) and finally come to us and we can make the call in 5 mins or less. sometimes they admire that, sometimes they're pissed off. it's just because we've been there. our answer may not be 100% right, but we've been able to quickly assess the level of importance of being right, the priority the issue demands, and the best direction to pursue for the moment. (i.e., if you're young and inexperienced enough to think you've always got to be right, you'll get all plugged up.)
but Steven - after 3-5 years of being trained 'this is architecture' how does one expect to bring ideas back into the fold?
I see also the dominate interest in many schools is just this stuff though and somehow students never get to the point of what they are the real underlying issues /ideas which are much more complex than mastering the skills - by the time they reenter grad school or get to a position of some basic autonomy at practice - they are 'programmed' that answers lie in the mastery of these rational systems -
i was at the final stage 2 aa-drl last year -- kipnis who i have mixed feelings about said 'ok this stuff is nice but its been going on for ten years in more or less the same way in architecture schools around the world - so no one ever talks of what the city of the future will be - just mastery of tools ideas of difference
real practice has to step beyond and outside normative business models
there's no map for that yet, ted. have recently seen monica ponce de leon (office da) and dan wood (work ac) talk about similar 'what's next?' questions and they are feeling it out but they don't really know either. seems that will be answered by each firm individually - not what's next for "ARCHITECTURE", but what's next for "US", based on individual firm strengths and preoccupations?
personally, i don't think ideas are lacking in the profession. we're no great shakes, but in our office we talk ideas constantly. they may be different from how ideas were discussed in the past, they may not be what you're interested in, but they're certainly not lacking.
we're involved in a competition now for which our success will depend fully on the extent to which we can give a design response to ideas of identity, renewal, expansion, tradition, social interaction.... it's ideas, but also real stuff with real consequences.
the problem as i see it is everyone thinks his or her office is doing things right, when in fact very few offices are producing good architecture. when we focus too much on "skills," i think we lose sight of what is actually good and what is not. at the end of the day, the quality of end product is really all that matters, and despite our existential angst, we as a profession are merely tinkering with the machine and hardly changing it.
How about *design / communication* skills? This should include BIM in the fold, and the ability to work well as a unit with consultants and contractors, product fabricators, and end users, facilities types who are also in on the BIM loop...
Basically team coordination, and a more design build way of working through things efficiently? I can see this as being the next challenge as the architect role in CD's gets squeezed out, projects going more lean... You cannot eliminate the architect because we are still the *designers*, but it seems like the model might shift towards a looser less rigid and bureaucratic mode of communicating the design and realizing it... More "by the seat of the pants" design... which possibly means architects being involved in both big picture and construction detail... I think what happens maybe is, it's the contractors who have the new skills in house, BIM etc. and architects need to be able to articulate quickly through model because there might not even be a fully articulated drawing set... Even in permit applications, we may just be submitting a BIM model as our permit document...
The technology will only make the translation of drawing into 3D model and back alot easier, so we will need to be thinking in 3 dimensions, and in elevation and plan at the same time (or translating from one level of articulation to the next more quickly)...?
I also think maybe the role of the project manager needs to evolve... Project managers and designers need to become one and the same... the design, CA, and documentation people all need to bleed their skillsets, all be involved in all of these aspects, so tighter teams (or people with multiple roles)?
I am thinking specifically of smaller projects, although I suppose large projects are the same, it's just that communication within a larger architectural team need to be more seamless (everyone actively working on the same model).
Anything to do with money.
Money=architecture. As in, once you make enough to support yourself, you can then start doing everything you love in architecture.
If you are still in school, you are in luck. Sit in on some finance, management, real estate lectures (for FREE!), no one will know you're not in the class. Every minute you absorb puts you that much ahead of everyone else, who are, unfortunately, often at naught.
So.....if a person wasn't good at small talk, schmoozing if you will, politicking, marketing etc...would you guys advise them to enter another field like medicine where it's more merit based and straightforward?
^^^ BUT they had great talent for it (architecture/art that is).
Old and new skills are needed for a successful architect; "new" is not mutually-exclusive of "old"; I will enumerate below exactly what you need for success with the emergence of newer technologies:
1) Understand how things are built and put together, and have a good design sensibility. This is probably the oldest skill set in the book. About 90% of designers build crap.
2) Connect with potential/future clients. Find a niche or community that believes in your work.
4) Be business savvy to drive-down cost and time.
3) Drive down cost and time by using the latest technologies. Revit eliminates the need for a separate designer and drafter. With Revit, you need fewer staff; at some point offices will only need designers with excellent computer skills. You will find that Revit decreases the time between schematic design and the actual construction of the building. Younger, talented people will increasingly gain more fame.
4) Use CNC milling and the latest laser technologies to bring the practice of architecture closer to the manufacturing process; eliminate any middle man/ consultant/ vendor as much as possible. Think designer to machine production; plop your CAD file and tell the machine what to do. A kit of parts reduces cost by eliminating a highly-skilled contractor.
5) Always remember that NURBS is your friend. Rhino is awesome, so is Maya.
6) Be a nice person and get rid of the tie!
MacRoen,
Thanks for that link. I'm going to try to make a diagram for architects with those snazzy graphics. I'll post it up when finished.
Hmm, NURBS, Maya and CNC....sounds strangely like 10+ years ago!
Parkour, shipping container house design, knowing how to fix cars, bartending, urban farm design, creating lots of cool looking graphs and charts, writing flash fiction in Python. You know, the basic stuff of architecture.
I'll took polygons over Nurbs any day.
weezypal: I am working on it as well, just a personal interest of how that works. I don't expect shocking results though :)
I would say....learn to give good Phone....cause your going to spend a heck of alot of time with a phone against your ear while kissing the phone.
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