Are you investing and upskilling in the right areas?
I've been voraciously consuming so much new content lately - from news to podcasts, and talks to reports - in an effort to stay ahead of trends and developments that will likely affect my own business, my clients, and the way we all deliver services.
I've been sharing some of these nuggets with my Review + Reset clients, and it struck me that other architects might find them useful too.
There is plenty to read and chew over here, but a word of warning before I kick off...
... I want you to approach this email as a smorgasbord* rather than a degustation menu: feel free to consume only the topics and ideas that you're interested in or curious to learn more about - you don't have to read everything I'm serving up!
So here goes, in no particular order...
AI and big tech
Amy Webb’s Tech Trends report, delivered at South by South West in Austin, Texas, March 2024.
The first rabbit hole delves deep into AI and two other major technological leaps that are colliding, to create "a technology super cycle", according to strategic futurist Amy Webb (more on her in a minute).
She says that this transformation will profoundly impact all of us, personally and professionally, and while I admit that I've been in denial about AI, I'm becoming conversant with it now.
My belated shift was quite accidental: it happened as I listened to a podcast that Brené Brown did with Amy Webb, which provided an ideal entry point for me to start to engage.
The podcast is part of an 8-part series on big changes in tech (and all of the episodes are worth listening to).
I then watched Amy's presentation from SXSW from March 2024 - which is about one hour long - and is essential viewing.
And then I downloaded her 2024 Technology Trends report, which contains 60-odd pages about the Built Environment, starting on page 517.
You can thank me later.
Architecture and Wellbeing
I didn't attend The Wellbeing of Architects Symposium in Melbourne a few weeks back, but my severe FOMO was slightly dialled down thanks to the amazing live coverage by Sarah Hobday-North.
You can read her summary here, and I encourage you to also snack on her LinkedIn posts about the various sessions to learn more.
Then, download the new Parlour Wellbeing Guides here.
(I'm especially grateful to the team of Guide authors and editors for including two of my articles in the Further reading section of the first guide, Value and Worth. Thank you!)
Affordable Housing
Everybody's Home is running Australia’s first People’s Commission into the Housing Crisis, starting tomorrow, and you can find the program for the hearings here.
This video by Shelter UK puts a human slant on the benefits of social housing, as part of a campaign for more homes.
And this project by Finding Infinity, Housing Choices Australia and Nic Brunsdon examines the pros and cons of demolishing social housing towers versus retrofitting them. This is a conversation we need to amplify, so I’m super excited that A New Normal is expanding into Perth soon…
And that segues nicely into...
Environmental issues
It's great to see ArchitectureAU taking up the retrofitting cause. This was a topic I often covered in The Drill, where most of the source articles emerged from the UK. You can read ArchAu’s series of articles - which is full of potential opportunities for architects - online here.
I just listened to Paul Monaghan’s Hearing Architecture podcast called Building Better Housing. I visited one of AHMM’s early prefab social housing projects - Raines Dairy in Hackney - on my Churchill Fellowship in 2023 and it was fascinating to hear Paul talk about how their approach has evolved in the past two decades. Given that the UK is much more advanced in terms of retrofitting and counting embodied carbon, this episode is a must-listen if you didn’t catch Paul’s opening keynote at the National Architecture conference in Melbourne earlier this month.
Undercover Architect’s episode #314 with Powerhaus Engineering is useful to hear about the Powerhaus app, and to pick up tips to talk to consumers about complex topics in plain language.
Amelia Lee - the Undercover Architect - recently did two podcast episodes with Hannah and Andy from Powerhaus Engineering about their new app. You may have seen them at the National Conference last October, but if you haven’t yet heard of their app, this is a podcast worth listening to for two reasons:
1) it explains how and why they developed “Australia’s first energy efficiency home design app”; and
2) It’s a great example of how you can create compelling messaging about complex problems and issues for your clients and consumers, which all three of these speakers are experts at (and they’ve honed these comms skills over time!).
Federal Budget wins and losses
The Institute published its response to the Federal Budget, which was mostly negative for the built environment and architects. You can read their summary here.
Compare and contrast with the Pharmacy Guild which won excellent concessions for its members, according to this article in the SMH (which may be paywalled - there are others like this one from the Daily Mail if it is).
I've often wondered why the Pharmacy Guild is so powerful and wields so much influence over government - it's a case study in how to run peak-body advocacy for members! This article from the ABC in 2019 unpacks some of the factors that make it so persuasive.
Upskilling for transformation
Jane Cassidy is the new President of the Institute and her intro post on Instagram succinctly laid out the challenges for the profession. Her comments about the current focus on the “iconic architectural image” and the need to communicate the value of architecture beyond aesthetics really rang true for me. You can read her entire post here.
In light of that, if you’re ready to invest and upskill your business and persuasion skills - because architects HAVE to get better at telling different narratives and compelling stories to the-powers-that-be and your future clients - my Architecture Marketing Course is just the ticket. It’s currently offline for a major upgrade, but if you’re quick you can enrol in the updated version at the old price, before it goes up to $1890+GST on 1 July 2024. Find out more and enrol now, here.
Finally, the ACA is taking its wildly successful BoSP format to Brisbane, where two of my favourite architects will present the first SEQ event if you're in the area, I recommend you get your tickets quick smart - like now! - via this booking link.
That's probably enough for the moment….
… and remember - it’s a smorgasbord, not a degustation - there is no need to overindulge on all of these links and resources!
But I would love to hear what tempted you, so - as always - feel free to hit reply and let me know if any of this resonated…
* Did you grow up in Melbourne's outer east in the 1970s and 80s, like I did? Do you remember The Swagman? It was like a precursor to Sizzler, and while I only went there once before it burned down, I thought it was THE HEIGHT of sophisticated dining out... what was yours?
Ready to plug the gaps in your business development and marketing knowledge? We can help!
Sounds Like Design offers three services to architects in Small, Medium and Large sizes, as follows:
Small - the Acupuncture Service is a “book-an-hour” session with me, where architects can seek my input around any business development or marketing topic of their choice. You can book your session online and select an online calendar appointment at a time that suits us both.
Medium - the self-guided, online CPD course Architecture Marketing 360 is a 101-style course about modern marketing. It outlines Sounds Like Design’s proprietary Six Channel System and the processes that we developed to help architects navigate the complexity of the marketing landscape, so you can build a pipeline of clients and projects you love working on. You can work through the course at your own pace, in as little as three weeks and you’ll get an implementation plan to follow at the end.
Large - the one-on-one consulting package Review + Reset takes place over 3 months. It’s a deep-dive into your current business development and marketing activities, where we co-create your new blueprint, enabling you to delegate and automate key tasks, and free up your time for the creative work you really love doing.
If you’d like to get more clarity around which of our services is the best fit for you right now, you can take our quiz here.