Hey everyone! I have a few questions about working from home as an architect. I’m only a student so my only exposure to professional life has been large commercial offices and one residential firm.
I hope to work from home one day and do some small/medium sized residential projects. I also would love to live in a small home in the mountains but I’m not sure how that would work with work. Is it possible to live an hour or two away from the city (Seattle, Denver, Portland, etc.) and do most of my client stuff over email?
Non Sequitur
May 6, 18 3:53 pm
Possible? Yes. Easy, not so much.
...a 5min face to face meeting will often solve what would normally take 10 emails. Site visits will also be another thing but 1hr is not that big a deal.
OneLostArchitect
May 6, 18 4:35 pm
I admire your aspirations but there is some reality questions to ask. How much does it cost for you to survive? For example if you are not pulling in work how are you going to pay for food or electricity? Also do you have clients lined up? How many years experience do you have? Are you licensed? Do you have reliable transportation to get to the city? There are so many questions to be asked.
Dwhite1017
May 6, 18 4:38 pm
So I’m only a student so I don’t have much experience, clients, etc. I just know that working at a large firm is not for me and that at most I’d want to work at a small residential firm.
Dwhite1017
May 6, 18 4:40 pm
Ops I accidentally hit submit before I finished this comment....
randomised
May 7, 18 1:43 pm
So, what's still missing?
OneLostArchitect
May 6, 18 5:07 pm
Are you well off where you don’t need to worry about money?
OneLostArchitect
May 7, 18 2:34 pm
would love to help you but need some answers
proto
May 7, 18 3:29 pm
tldr: it's really hard to create client relationships remotely
if you just want to be remote & service city folk, you better be fucking awesome...the lack of face-to-face time or the ability to visit sites or the permitting office is a significant burden
if you want to do vacation homes for the well-to-do, living in the resort town or very close by is more important
i'd love to do the mountain town thing, but my clientele is in town
you've got to figure out what is important to you
there are offices in the major resort locales to go learn at the feet of the folks who do the second home work
Hey everyone! I have a few questions about working from home as an architect. I’m only a student so my only exposure to professional life has been large commercial offices and one residential firm.
I hope to work from home one day and do some small/medium sized residential projects. I also would love to live in a small home in the mountains but I’m not sure how that would work with work. Is it possible to live an hour or two away from the city (Seattle, Denver, Portland, etc.) and do most of my client stuff over email?
Possible? Yes. Easy, not so much.
...a 5min face to face meeting will often solve what would normally take 10 emails. Site visits will also be another thing but 1hr is not that big a deal.
I admire your aspirations but there is some reality questions to ask. How much does it cost for you to survive? For example if you are not pulling in work how are you going to pay for food or electricity? Also do you have clients lined up? How many years experience do you have? Are you licensed? Do you have reliable transportation to get to the city? There are so many questions to be asked.
So I’m only a student so I don’t have much experience, clients, etc. I just know that working at a large firm is not for me and that at most I’d want to work at a small residential firm.
Ops I accidentally hit submit before I finished this comment....
So, what's still missing?
Are you well off where you don’t need to worry about money?
would love to help you but need some answers
tldr: it's really hard to create client relationships remotely
if you just want to be remote & service city folk, you better be fucking awesome...the lack of face-to-face time or the ability to visit sites or the permitting office is a significant burden
if you want to do vacation homes for the well-to-do, living in the resort town or very close by is more important
i'd love to do the mountain town thing, but my clientele is in town
you've got to figure out what is important to you
there are offices in the major resort locales to go learn at the feet of the folks who do the second home work