The Archi-pelago of Opportunities
Architecture as a profession is being eroded. It is as an island of rocky bluffs seceded to the swell generated by client bodies and management. Eroded through the fragmentation of professional roles and responsibilities, through technology and the inevitability of change. The island is being shrunk by the diminution of the traditional roles and responsibilities that architects have undertaken. This happens via scope creep (shrinkage) but also through neglect on the part of the profession. The erosion starts with reducing fees, reducing capacity to do work well enough, it flows on from there.
The profession could focus on the reclamation of roles and responsibilities lost through neglect or it could instead focus on choosing to be better, to do the work better. By being better, the profession brings more value and doing so with a view to becoming invaluable. In this practice the profession may find lost shorelines reinstated by the next swell.
The other thing here is that the architectural profession, the island on which it exists, is all made up. The boundaries are self defined. The perception of where architectural practice begins and ends. What if instead these boundaries were to be rethought. Consider the profession as being part of an archipelago of opportunities? Opportunities to claim new land. Opportunities to build bridges and new connections.
Consider the design archipelago. How might the profession choose to connect with other professions and work opportunities? To more broadly use their professional skills and find opportunities elsewhere?
As the construction industry slows and work diminishes, as the architectural shores erode, it is time to rethink where the boundaries of the architectural profession lie. Why can’t architects be Systems Architects, UX Designers, Place Makers, design thinkers and strategists for other organisations and companies, and so on? Work that involves the skills intrinsic to architectural practice, requiring only readily acquired additional specialist knowledge. What else might architects do with the skills that they already have? There’s an archipelago of opportunities.
The profession can “make things better by making better things.”* It must start with that. After that, there’s an Archi-pelago of opportunities.
*Seth Godin
Michael is the founder of unmeasured, supporting architects in their practice through coaching, workshops and community.
Helping architects find their desire lines in practice.
Photo by Mario Cuadros on Pexels
