I'm strong with imagination, creativity, ideas, etc, but not so with focus. I'm working on it.
I love architecture (exterior & interior). I love the design and concept stage of it. I think I could develop skills in that area pretty well.
Is it possible to work with clients at the stage where they're working on what it is they want, coming up with something that really resonates with them?
If I learn more and develop my skills, I could be very valuable to the clients, and we could come up with some pretty great plans for what they want.
Then they/we would take a much more sophisticated design plan to the architect, who would still be doing a fantastic job and providing excellent input and working on the formal plans, etc.
I'm absolutely fascinated with learning, creativity, thinking, and stuff... I can absolutely train myself to be very creative and structured and effective in the design stage. And of course, I want to work on supplementing that all with as much relevant formal and required knowledge as possible.
I would likely have to train myself to do all this.
I'm here to ask the professionals and better-versed whether this is a totally stupid idea and practically and technically wouldn't work, or whether this is a good use of my natural strengths and talents.
I appreciate this could be really very unorthodox, so please try to look past that and think about whether it could actually work.
Thank you very much for reading, and I'm eagerly awaiting your advice and responses!
Non Sequitur
Feb 8, 21 12:08 pm
What you're describing is some of the most interesting and challenging aspects of our day to day jobs: Convert a client's ambitions into tangible design ideas.
There are more than a few problems with this without having any sort of academic or professional credentials. The main one being that there is very little value for a client to hire conceptual design services from someone who is unable to fulfill these ideas beyond a basic idea-board when they will need a qualified professional anyways to move forward. That professional will be infinitively more informed and capable of dissecting the client's ideas against budget and construction constraints.
You're proposing to act as an idea consultant between the client and their architect... and that is an unnecessary duplication of services and expensive distraction.
So feed that passion by looking into any of the related design fields if you think straight-up architecture school is too much.
natematt
Feb 8, 21 12:41 pm
Large clients love to have someone on there end pretending to be an architect though....
monosierra
Feb 8, 21 12:43 pm
I remember an article on a homeowner beaming about how his kid is "designing" their house, with the
architect's "assistance". Can't imagine how that went.
natematt
Feb 8, 21 2:54 pm
Hopefully with a T&M phrase in the contract ;D
JLC-1
Feb 8, 21 3:08 pm
I know an interior designer who does this, he is the master designer, and hires architects and consultants - but I think this role came several years after cutting his teeth as an interior designer. Without any formal education or training is very difficult to talk to clients about size, scale, proportions, materials, light, etc.
Unless you have a large client base that would jump into something like this, willing to spend the money twice before arriving to a buildable and priceable product, keep it to your family and close friends.
monosierra
Feb 8, 21 3:15 pm
Sounds like those celebrity housewives who turn Instagram mood boards into their design business. Like you said, their main job is to draw clients and establish a certain kind of branding. The work itself is left to professionals. Kind of see it in fashion design nowadays too, with celebrities lending their brand and style without actually knowing
how to construct clothes.
thisisnotmyname
Feb 8, 21 1:36 pm
With no knowledge of building design, costs, zoning, construction, or applicable regulations, you will have difficulty providing anything of value to your clients. You need to get educated before you start a business in the design industry.
tduds
Feb 8, 21 2:03 pm
Thinking of starting an unorthodox career building carts that go in front of the horse.
randomised
Feb 8, 21 2:44 pm
it’s called concept development, some real estate developers or construction companies have those in-house...and there are specific separate companies that solely develop concepts and might also take care of the participatory aspects of it and those often work in larger consortia together with architects, placemakers, real estate developers, builders, etc. for specific tenders or pitches. It is very common over here in NL, you’ll be working on lots of projects though, all at the same time and very fast paced as it usually doesn’t pay that great per project, so it only works for them in large volumes.
luvu
Feb 9, 21 9:24 pm
The headline is a bit misleading / nothing is unorthodox about this role at all. It's quite common actually in medium/large developers to have in-house architects.
Wood Guy
Feb 8, 21 3:27 pm
An architect friend of mine is retiring this week after a long career doing what it sounds like you're describing: feasibility studies for real estate developers and other commercial clients. It seems like an interesting niche: research constraints, develop programs, create some schematic designs, procure some estimates. If the project seems feasible, wash your hands and let another architect do the dirty work. If you're good, like she is, you get a lot of repeat clients who appreciate and pay well for what you bring to the table. She's in southern Florida and I'm sure her retirement is leaving a noticeable hole in the market there.
citizen
Feb 8, 21 8:56 pm
Nice gig! Probably not self-taught, I'd wager.
Wood Guy
Feb 9, 21 9:20 am
I don't recall how she got started but I know she was in the thick of fighting stereotypes. She's a get-it-done kind of person but also has a lovely personality, and plenty of talent I'm sure.
Rusty!
Feb 8, 21 4:19 pm
This is neither unorthodox or niche.
It's called planning and strategies, and most large firms offer this. Besides playing with color blobs there are lots of simple spreadsheets at work. Mostly breaking down square footage by use.
End result is a facility master plan that can be further developed into architectural design. Healthcare and institutional clients use these kinds of services a lot. Large offices offer this service in hopes of additional work coming from this.
But yeah. This is nothing new, and you are completely under qualified to compete in this market all on your own.
whistler
Feb 8, 21 7:10 pm
With all seriousness the term for the role is "Imagineers". Walt Disney invented it and was used rather successfully in a franchise of theme parks amongst other things. Oddly enough many large resort developers / or commercial concept developers use similar consultants to develop their "story" for a real estate development play. Initiate the brand and marketing and build the architecture around that. It's rare on smaller projects but on useful on large developments where one needs to find some kind of harmonious thread to tie multiple parcels / buildings / concepts into a central theme.
caramelhighrise
Feb 9, 21 5:24 pm
My department's lead designer knows fuck-all about construction documents or really anything technical, all they know how to do is make things look pretty and it's everyone else's job to actually make it work. I'm not saying I agree with this because it causes the rest of us a ton of unnecessary headache, but in theory, yes it's possible. Will people like you when you try to make cool things happen without proposing a real solution? Probably not.
randomised
Feb 9, 21 5:30 pm
whatever works...you'd have nothing to do if it weren't for the lead designer coming up with the cool ideas that clients actually want to pay for ;-)
caramelhighrise
Feb 9, 21 5:40 pm
No arguing that, it's resulted in some amazing designs, but it's not without its challenges.
randomised
Feb 10, 21 4:13 am
it's the challenges that pay the bills
x-jla
Feb 10, 21 3:12 pm
I think you have an idea that can be a business, but you have the wrong model. You are imagining the homeowner as your client. If you imagine the architect as your client your idea would be a more successful thing imo. Imagine if your business is all about finding potential clients, putting together a “profile/program/mood board/schematic/site” and then matching them with an architecture firm for a commission. Like match.com for architects and clients or something.
x-jla
Feb 10, 21 3:13 pm
Or more like that millionaire match maker lady on tv
Wilma Buttfit
Feb 11, 21 6:23 pm
It's smart. Just sell your time in 5 hour blocks or something and you'll make bank, cut the client off right away so they aren't texting you 10 times a day and Saturdays too, make someone else do all the real work and take responsibility, no one will blame you for anything. It's my dream too.
I'm strong with imagination, creativity, ideas, etc, but not so with focus. I'm working on it.
I love architecture (exterior & interior). I love the design and concept stage of it. I think I could develop skills in that area pretty well.
Is it possible to work with clients at the stage where they're working on what it is they want, coming up with something that really resonates with them?
If I learn more and develop my skills, I could be very valuable to the clients, and we could come up with some pretty great plans for what they want.
Then they/we would take a much more sophisticated design plan to the architect, who would still be doing a fantastic job and providing excellent input and working on the formal plans, etc.
I'm absolutely fascinated with learning, creativity, thinking, and stuff... I can absolutely train myself to be very creative and structured and effective in the design stage. And of course, I want to work on supplementing that all with as much relevant formal and required knowledge as possible.
I would likely have to train myself to do all this.
I'm here to ask the professionals and better-versed whether this is a totally stupid idea and practically and technically wouldn't work, or whether this is a good use of my natural strengths and talents.
I appreciate this could be really very unorthodox, so please try to look past that and think about whether it could actually work.
Thank you very much for reading, and I'm eagerly awaiting your advice and responses!
What you're describing is some of the most interesting and challenging aspects of our day to day jobs: Convert a client's ambitions into tangible design ideas.
There are more than a few problems with this without having any sort of academic or professional credentials. The main one being that there is very little value for a client to hire conceptual design services from someone who is unable to fulfill these ideas beyond a basic idea-board when they will need a qualified professional anyways to move forward. That professional will be infinitively more informed and capable of dissecting the client's ideas against budget and construction constraints.
You're proposing to act as an idea consultant between the client and their architect... and that is an unnecessary duplication of services and expensive distraction.
So feed that passion by looking into any of the related design fields if you think straight-up architecture school is too much.
Large clients love to have someone on there end pretending to be an architect though....
I remember an article on a homeowner beaming about how his kid is "designing" their house, with the architect's "assistance". Can't imagine how that went.
Hopefully with a T&M phrase in the contract ;D
I know an interior designer who does this, he is the master designer, and hires architects and consultants - but I think this role came several years after cutting his teeth as an interior designer. Without any formal education or training is very difficult to talk to clients about size, scale, proportions, materials, light, etc. Unless you have a large client base that would jump into something like this, willing to spend the money twice before arriving to a buildable and priceable product, keep it to your family and close friends.
Sounds like those celebrity housewives who turn Instagram mood boards into their design business. Like you said, their main job is to draw clients and establish a certain kind of branding. The work itself is left to professionals. Kind of see it in fashion design nowadays too, with celebrities lending their brand and style without actually knowing
how to construct clothes.
With no knowledge of building design, costs, zoning, construction, or applicable regulations, you will have difficulty providing anything of value to your clients. You need to get educated before you start a business in the design industry.
Thinking of starting an unorthodox career building carts that go in front of the horse.
it’s called concept development, some real estate developers or construction companies have those in-house...and there are specific separate companies that solely develop concepts and might also take care of the participatory aspects of it and those often work in larger consortia together with architects, placemakers, real estate developers, builders, etc. for specific tenders or pitches. It is very common over here in NL, you’ll be working on lots of projects though, all at the same time and very fast paced as it usually doesn’t pay that great per project, so it only works for them in large volumes.
The headline is a bit misleading / nothing is unorthodox about this role at all. It's quite common actually in medium/large developers to have in-house architects.
An architect friend of mine is retiring this week after a long career doing what it sounds like you're describing: feasibility studies for real estate developers and other commercial clients. It seems like an interesting niche: research constraints, develop programs, create some schematic designs, procure some estimates. If the project seems feasible, wash your hands and let another architect do the dirty work. If you're good, like she is, you get a lot of repeat clients who appreciate and pay well for what you bring to the table. She's in southern Florida and I'm sure her retirement is leaving a noticeable hole in the market there.
Nice gig! Probably not self-taught, I'd wager.
I don't recall how she got started but I know she was in the thick of fighting stereotypes. She's a get-it-done kind of person but also has a lovely personality, and plenty of talent I'm sure.
This is neither unorthodox or niche.
It's called planning and strategies, and most large firms offer this. Besides playing with color blobs there are lots of simple spreadsheets at work. Mostly breaking down square footage by use.
End result is a facility master plan that can be further developed into architectural design. Healthcare and institutional clients use these kinds of services a lot. Large offices offer this service in hopes of additional work coming from this.
But yeah. This is nothing new, and you are completely under qualified to compete in this market all on your own.
With all seriousness the term for the role is "Imagineers". Walt Disney invented it and was used rather successfully in a franchise of theme parks amongst other things. Oddly enough many large resort developers / or commercial concept developers use similar consultants to develop their "story" for a real estate development play. Initiate the brand and marketing and build the architecture around that. It's rare on smaller projects but on useful on large developments where one needs to find some kind of harmonious thread to tie multiple parcels / buildings / concepts into a central theme.
My department's lead designer knows fuck-all about construction documents or really anything technical, all they know how to do is make things look pretty and it's everyone else's job to actually make it work. I'm not saying I agree with this because it causes the rest of us a ton of unnecessary headache, but in theory, yes it's possible. Will people like you when you try to make cool things happen without proposing a real solution? Probably not.
whatever works...you'd have nothing to do if it weren't for the lead designer coming up with the cool ideas that clients actually want to pay for ;-)
No arguing that, it's resulted in some amazing designs, but it's not without its challenges.
it's the challenges that pay the bills
I think you have an idea that can be a business, but you have the wrong model. You are imagining the homeowner as your client. If you imagine the architect as your client your idea would be a more successful thing imo. Imagine if your business is all about finding potential clients, putting together a “profile/program/mood board/schematic/site” and then matching them with an architecture firm for a commission. Like match.com for architects and clients or something.
Or more like that millionaire match maker lady on tv
It's smart. Just sell your time in 5 hour blocks or something and you'll make bank, cut the client off right away so they aren't texting you 10 times a day and Saturdays too, make someone else do all the real work and take responsibility, no one will blame you for anything. It's my dream too.