General Architect

This morning, the interesting Instagram Reels passed into my phone. It told a story about the architect with her 5 years of experience running the studio and being an entrepreneur. She summarized the most important thing to learn and understand in the architecture field (and wider).

The link, actually, she explained it in the caption :

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CurOm7Cgoor/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

“Do not force your values to just anyone who come your way and ask for your service. The better way is to find out who they are and what they’re actually looking for.” — Stephanie Larasati, Atelier Larasati.

Interestingly, she got the point of a value that might be subjective, contextual, and relative. She emphasized that understanding clients and their subjectivity is an important thing. As I know, architects are similar to artists in their intuitive practice. In a process, sometimes it’s hard to communicate our value and discussed it with their value. So, I got the communication skills is an important thing in an architecture career.

“Ask the right questions, understand your client better, and decide whether YOU are the right architect for them.”

We can see the difference between an architect and an artist. Logically, an architect’s presence should be the one to solve other people's (named it a client’s) problems as much as possible. Architects learned technology and designed solution to help other people’s life.

This is more effective than forcing them to understand your value and pay for what you think you are worth.

I’ve met a lot of architects and seen how they survive in the architecture world. Sometimes we can see their expertise in a certain architecture typology or field. Some of them are known or branded under a certain ‘name’ to solve a certain problem. Indonesian loves giving ‘julukan’ (or name) to glorify their expertise, such as Arsitek Seniman, Arsitek Tropis, Arsitek Bangunan Hijau, Arsitek Bandara, Arsitek Taman Publik, Arsitek Rumah Tinggal and so on. With those names, clients easily choose which architect was actually suitable to solve their problem.

Behind their name, studio works were actually, growing with various projects, from various clients. From the start (until now), we can’t deny saying that our start as a general architect. We could say it was ironic or as a part of a process, that we accept the project to survive, or for the learning experience. I found that until now, the name (or julukan) is just a brand for business. They show only a certain specialty, then the rest just stayed in a studio. This architecture industry is desperately only for life survival if we take an opportunity just to fulfill our finance. Then, there’s a need to open our mindset to look at this architecture career. It was a repeated phase of work until we found our specific field (or not? We could be forever general architects)

Finding clarity, knowing your value and being selective will help you meet your ideal clients much sooner — the ones who can appreciate you and your work.

Even though it was hard, some stable studios, are still possible to be more selective to accept the project because they understand their specialty. I found it rare in Indonesia because we lived in a diverse environment with a lack of appreciation. Specialty is expensive. For a general client, they also looked at us as a general architect who could draw designs for every type of building. Every building. Sometimes, everything, include other discipline such as landscape design, interior design, structure, and mechanical engineering.

I’m still finding out how but it seems like a polemic and complex issue. But in my opinion, it should be a strict declaration or decision for our limited value if the architect wants to get deeper into a specialty value. To appreciate a specialty, an architect should appreciate another discipline with good teamwork and show that the team can create a good impact by making a design solution. Good design is a form of public education. It won’t be easy to change the public mindset to think about a project with an architect as something exclusive and expensive. In some projects, capable architects choose to work voluntarily, to educate a good design into both team and clients. It would be a wider discussion to talk about both business and social purposes in architecture.